Meet the Chef

Mrs. Sippy is a big family, and in the spirit of family we want to introduce you to our head chef, Jonay Armas!

Jonay has had a long history of working with food. Born and raised in the Canary islands, he lives and breathes fine food. “My family is very traditional. My mom, my grandma, love to cook a lot at home. It is part of our culture to be conscious about what we are putting into our bodies, and so I grew up in a house where we grew all our own produce and sourced our meat and seafood locally.”

Being a Spanish island off the coast of Morocco, the Canary’s culinary heritage is very Mediterannean with many European and African influences. “Food and family gatherings are a huge part of our culture, and this is where my passion for cooking began. I went to culinary school and wanted to keep growing and learning as much about food as possible. One of my dreams was to travel the world so I moved to Madrid when it was in the grips of a cultural culinary revival. I set my sights working with as many restaurants that carried a michelin star as I could so that I would be working in creative environments alongside the best chefs in Spain.”

From there Jonay has worked across Asia and Europe, before settling in Bali. “Eventually I had found a job in Hong Kong as a head chef where I could really develop my own unique style of cooking. By my third year there we had managed to receive two Michelin stars in the Hong Kong Michelin Guide. It was a great achievement, something I never dreamed was possible when my career began, but it is also very exhausting and intense.”

Jonay decided to come to Bali where he could better manage professional and personal growth, working across the island as a guest chef, consulting for various high-end restaurants, and taking the opportunity to explore Indonesia. “I came onboard Mrs. Sippy at the end of 2016 just before they opened. This has been such a great experience as I have had the opportunity to work with so many enthusiastic and talented people with a passion and vision to make Mrs. Sippy a great place for locals and visitors alike. This has been such a great opportunity for growth for me. The food culture here is completely different from what I have been doing up to that point, and has been a good opportunity for me to not only develop myself further as a chef, but also to shape and contribute to the food culture and aesthetic at Mrs. Sippy.