When he was young, Juna Rorimpandey was a delinquent.[3] 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[4] 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.[5]
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's parents experienced economic difficulties, forcing Juna to find his own money for living expenses.[6]
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 to be his student. Juna 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.[6]
In 2002, Juna Rorimpandey took over as head chef at the restaurant because the sushi master who trained Juna moved to another restaurant. Then, in 2003, Juna moved to another sushi restaurant in Houston called Uptown Sushi and became Executive Chef there.[6]
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.[7]
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.[8]
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