�Men have no egos, But I understand that around the world, if a woman has to be bossed over by another woman, there is some clash of ego. That�s sad, because I quite like what I am doing, and while I may be a nag and be after my kitchen staff over matters of cleanliness and things like that, they always come back to me with their problems.�

JULIA Carmen de Sa of the Taj Exotica in Goa, is India�s only woman executive chef. It is a distinction that rides easy with her. �For 15 years I have been working with men in the kitchen. And the reason I can work with them is that they understand me. I have an excellent, straightforward relationship with them. I couldn�t have asked for a better way to work. Especially on the shop level. They know my inputs in the kitchen and they know I can handle everything, so they don�t challenge my authority,� she says with a �make-my-day� glint in her eye.

She pulls her weight, so that the men find it easier to work with her. And she doesn�t function on a 9 to 5 shift, but is there in the Taj�s kitchen all the time, leading from the front, standing besides her chefs at the range and cooking with them instead of just barking out orders. �Men have no egos,� Julia says simply. �But I understand that around the world, if a woman has to be bossed over by another woman, there is some clash of ego. That�s sad, because I quite like what I am doing, and while I may be a nag and be after my kitchen staff over matters of cleanliness and things like that, they always come back to me with their problems. Which I know they wouldn�t do if I was being unnecessarily harsh with them.�

In the Taj Exotica, Julia strides around with gigantic footsteps, though she is a petite almost dimunitive woman, wearing her hair in a boy�s crop and with ear-rings and nose rings giving her get-up the feminine touch. �People call me the Punk Chef,� she says, �because when I am out of uniform and in civvies, nobody recognises me as the executive chef!� In the kitchen, she says she is an experimental chef. She�ll try any and everything. �Give me a tomato and coriander, and I�ll give you something edible and tasty,� she says. �My talent lies in experimenting, in fusion cooking, in mix and match cooking. I like to do Indian food with a Continental background. Like I�ll take spaghetti and cook it with coriander, a white sauce and turmeric. I cook for the guest�s palate using Indian, western and fusion cooking, what a fantastic platform that is!�

She studied in the catering college of Goa and then did a post-graduate�s course under the legendary Miss Thangam Phillips in Bombay, after which the Taj absorbed her and sent her back to Goa to work at the Fort Aguada and the Taj Holiday Village. Being a Goan and being based in Goa, Julia lost no time in mastering the local cuisine and is today the leading expert of it next only to Executive Chef Urbano de Rego of the Taj in Goa. She�s represented the Taj abroad at Goan food festivals in the Far East and Europe. And in 1992, she gave up India and Goan food to go to Hilton International as a sous chef. What she picked up there was nouvelle cuisine, what she gave the Hilton was Goan cuisine. The homesick, she came back, got married to her friend Preet Inder Singh also of the Taj, and joined the Cidade de Goa as a teacher in the hotel�s academy for chefs.

Taj asked her to come back and Julia, who was longing to get back to the action of the kitchen, and to cooking for guests, to experimenting with cuisines, returned and was posted at the Taj Exotica as an assistant to the executive chef. Now for a year and half, she is running the hotel as its executive chef. �I�m exploiting cuisines, trying to revolutionise them,� she says. �It�s not easy being a woman chef, life is difficult, especially if you are ambitious and have much to achieve. But I love the job. It gives me a flow of energy. Thankfully I don�t have to juggle my work with the responsibilities of a family. I tell girls who come to this industry, �Be prepared for commitment to the job. There�s no Christmas, no New Year, no birthdays and no anniversaries when you come into the kitchen area. You don�t know when you�ll go home each night. Are you ready for this?�,� says Julia.

In her swanky office in the Taj Exotica�s main kitchen, is a saying printed on a notice board. It says: I know God will not give me anything I can�t handle. Ijust wish he didn�t trudt me so much. It is a saying Julia Carmen de Sa believes in and which she says she lives by. �I have to achieve a lot for myself and I know I can do it,� she admits.

�It�s not going to be easy. But given my life to live all over again, I�d do the same thing. I�d like to be a chef only.