Junior "Juna" John Rorimpandey (born 20 July 1975) better known as Chef Juna is a professional cook from Indonesia he is widely known for being a judge in the cooking show MasterChef Indonesia. He has resigned from his position of Executive Chef at Jack Rabbit Restaurant, Jakarta at the end of July 2011 and is currently still a judge for MasterChef Indonesia.
For 12 years he went abroad, as a chef specializing in Japanese cuisine and French cuisine and in October 2016, Juna Rorimpandey opened his first restaurant named "Correla" located on the lobby floor of the Rajawali building Kuningan, South Jakarta.
Early life and career
When he was young, Juna Rorimpandey was a delinquent. After graduating from high school, he went on to study in petroleum engineering at Trisakti University for 3.5 years, but didn't finish his studies because of disciplinary issues. He briefly got into drugs and after Failing to graduate from college in Indonesia, Juna moved to Brownsville, Texas, USA in 1997, and sold his motorbike to pay for schooling there. In America, Juna Rorimpandey entered flight school and successfully graduated to get a pilot's license.
While he was studying to get his commercial license, his flight school went bankrupt so he moved to Houston to continue his training. However, due to the 1997 Asian financial crisis, Juna Rorimpandey's parents experienced economic difficulties, forcing Juna Rorimpandey to find his own money for living expenses.
Juna Rorimpandey got into cooking after doing odd jobs to make money, he got a job as a waiter in a traditional Japanese restaurant. After a while, the sushi master at his restaurant offered Juna Rorimpandey to be his student. Juna Rorimpandey accepted the offer and was willing to be trained from scratch. Afterwards the restaurant owner promoted Juna Rorimpandey to get Permanent Residency in the United States.
In 2002, Juna Rorimpandey took over as head chef at the restaurant because the sushi master who trained Juna Rorimpandey moved to another restaurant. Then, in 2003, Juna Rorimpandey moved to another sushi restaurant in Houston called Uptown Sushi and became Executive Chef there.
After getting bored of Japanese cuisine he moved to a French restaurant, The French Laundry which is known as a restaurant that applies high standards. He also had to learn again from scratch. There he was educated very harshly.
After returning home to Indonesia he served as Executive Chef at Jack Rabbit Jakarta restaurant until 2011. He is also active as a judge on MasterChef Indonesia.
Filmography Film YearTitleRoleProduction201813: The HauntedChef PapangRA Pictures2019Kembalinya Anak Iblis
TV Show MasterChef Indonesia ( Season 1 - 10) (RCTI) MasterChef MasterClass Ramadan (RCTI) Arjuna (Global TV) Hell's Kitchen Indonesia (SCTV) MasterChef Asia (Lifetime) Chef's Table (NET.) Dahsyatnya MasterChef Indonesia (RCTI) DCODE: The Progressive Project (NET.) OK Chef (RCTI)
Commercial
Year Product2013 Klop (with Chef Aiko) Nutrijell Pudding Susu SunCo 2015 Nutrijell Pudding Lapis2017 Pharmaton Nutrijell Pudding2019 KoshihikariNutriCake2020 WINCheez BNSP: Sertifikasi Kompetensi Profesi
References