How Asia’s Best Female Chef 2023 winner Johanne Siy carved her own path, and keeps things ‘very simple’ to fly the flag for Filipino cuisine
- Johanne Siy, the Philippines-born head chef of Singapore restaurant Lolla, won Asia’s Best Female Chef 2023, but her path to culinary greatness wasn’t typical
- She talks about the challenges of making her way in the industry, inspirations and using ‘exceptional produce simply prepared’ to champion her native cuisine
Johanne Siy, head chef of Lolla, in Singapore, didn’t take a typical path towards a career in the kitchen.
Born and raised in the Philippines, she graduated with a double degree in business management and accountancy before taking a role as regional brand manager for multinational consumer goods corporation Procter & Gamble, in Singapore, where she spent eight years.
Then came a turning point in her life, when she moved to New York to train at The Culinary Institute of America, regarded as one of the most prestigious culinary schools in the United States.
“I was in a good place, I’d done what I wanted to do, but I wanted a bit more meaning, to engage myself in something that I was really passionate about,” Siy says. “I didn’t jump out of bed in the morning, so I was missing that.”
Financially independent and fuelled by a desire to do something for herself, she went all in – a decision that was vindicated when, soon after graduating, she landed a position as chef de partie under Eric Ripert at the three-Michelin-star Le Bernardin, in New York. She went on to work for Daniel Boulud at Café Boulud.
This huge change wasn’t without its challenges.
