Chef Jane Pepito
Paris, France
Hello! I’m Jane Pepito
I’m a chef, culinary strategist, and storyteller at the intersection of flavor, culture, and creativity. Always in constant motion.
My life has been shaped by oceans, kitchens, and conversations that stretch across cultures. From megayachts to spice markets, I’ve spent years chasing the question that drives me most: how does food connect us to who we are, and to each other?
I build systems for dynamic kitchens, craft wellness-driven menus for modern living, and explore the anthropology of flavor, the way ingredients, rituals, and ideas travel across borders and shape identity.
You could say I live at the crossroads of curiosity and discipline, where creativity meets precision, and adventure meets purpose. I’m driven by the belief that mastery is a moving target, and that reinvention is a lifelong craft. Driven by curiosity and an appetite for adventure, I explore how food, design, and storytelling connect people across borders.
Whether I’m designing a culinary framework, writing about spice heritage, or trekking to the next island, my work is about distilling meaning from experience, and turning it into something others can taste, learn from, or be inspired by.
Welcome to my world — where flavor tells stories, culture sparks innovation, and the journey is always evolving.
about the island chef kitchen
Island Chef Kitchen did not begin with a grand plan. It started with a restless curiosity, a notebook, and a dream too stubborn to stay quiet.
This space is my personal atlas of flavor, a living journal of cuisines, cultures, sea passages, and stories gathered over years of cooking across continents and oceans. It traces my journey from my island roots in Cebu, Philippines, to the far reaches of the ancient Spice Route, where trade winds once carried more than goods; they carried ideas, rituals, and tastes that shaped civilizations.
Here, I document my ongoing legacy project, a cookbook inspired by the Spice Route, woven with recipes, memories, and reflections from my travels.
People often ask: Why spices? Why the Spice Route?
My answer is simple. It is where history, culture, and the human palate converge. Spices tell stories of exchange, discovery, and resilience. They connect fishermen to merchants, explorers to dreamers, and kitchens across centuries.
As a child, I was fascinated by maps, ancient ruins, and stories of adventurers. Indiana Jones, Aladdin, and Amelia Earhart all lived vividly in my imagination. That same spirit still fuels me today. I am driven to explore how food travels, how flavors evolve, and how cultures intertwine through something as elemental as taste.
I am not here to write history. I am here to tell stories. I want to make the past edible, the present curious, and the act of cooking a journey worth savoring.
Island Chef Kitchen is a place for the curious and the passionate, for those who find wonder in the scent of spice, the warmth of a shared meal, and the adventure of learning something new.
It is for dreamers, home cooks, and travelers who believe, as I do, that knowing the story behind our food makes every bite richer.
So, welcome aboard. Let us follow the winds, taste the world, and keep discovering how flavor connects us all.
recipes
This site is about discovering a casual attitude toward cooking, making a new and informal approach to island flavours and “Spice Route” cuisines. Most recipes highlight herbs and spices, produce endemic to a place, that are weaved through stories of adventures.
meet jane
Jane Pepito is a true city girl with love for island life, a culinary globetrotter with an appetite for discovery and a passion for fresh, flavourful cuisine. Her career spans commercial and private cheffing, restaurant consulting, and food writing, and today she travels the world as Head Chef aboard private luxury superyachts.
Raised in Manila, Jane’s love for food began at home. Her mother and grandmother passed down Filipino-Spanish and Indian dishes rich in tradition, while her father, an international airline pilot, introduced her to global flavours from his travels. That early immersion in diverse cuisines ignited a lifelong fascination with how food connects cultures.
After a successful corporate marketing career in Manila, Jane traded the city skyline for island life in Cebu. In 2007, she founded Midori Bento Catering, a venture that marked the beginning of her culinary path. Her curiosity about wellness and sustainable food systems led her to study Integrative Nutrition at IIN, as well as Culinary Arts at both the International School for Culinary Arts and Hotel Management (ISCAHM) and Culinary Solutions Australia International, graduating with high honors.
Her career took her to Los Angeles, where she worked as a freelance private chef for VIP clients across Southern California. Travels throughout Europe, the UAE, Morocco, Tanzania, and Southeast Asia expanded her culinary knowledge and deepened her respect for local ingredients and global techniques.
In 2015, Jane returned to the Philippines as Executive Chef of The Clove on the Quay at the Cebu Yacht Club and later as Corporate Chef for La Vie Parisienne and La Vie in the Sky.
Her superyacht career began in 2019 aboard the world’s largest private luxury trimaran, an 86-meter motor yacht, where she quickly rose through the ranks. By 2022, she became Head Chef of the Research Vessel OceanXplorer, the world’s most advanced ocean research vessel, and in 2023, she took command as Head Chef of a 95-meter private motor yacht. Her achievements made her the first Filipina chef to helm the galley of 80-meter+ private superyachts, a milestone that represents both mastery and pioneering spirit.
Today, Jane continues to navigate the world’s oceans, crafting dishes that celebrate heritage, innovation, and the artistry of ingredient-driven cuisine. Each voyage adds to her evolving narrative — one where food is not just sustenance, but story, memory, and connection.