Ketut Mahardika

Ketut Mahardika grew up metres from the Jimbaran fish market — the morning auction that supplies some of the freshest seafood in Southeast Asia. From childhood he understood what a good fish looked like, smelled like, and how quickly quality deteriorates in the tropics. That foundation gave him an almost instinctive relationship with raw seafood that no culinary school can replicate.

He trained his knife skills under a Japanese-trained chef he met through the Bali hospitality circuit, spending two intensive years learning classical Japanese fish butchery: the honboshi cut, the sakudori fillet, the kasumi-style thin slice. That technical grounding allowed him to work with sashimi-grade fish in a way that most Balinese chefs had never approached.

Ketut joined myCHEF to build out the Japanese and seafood arm of the menu catalogue — a gap he saw clearly in Bali's villa dining scene, where guests often wanted Japanese-quality fish work outside of a restaurant setting. He now handles all sourcing for large seafood events, negotiates directly with Jimbaran boat captains for specific catches, and can build a sashimi board from species that most Bali diners have never encountered.

For villa guests who love Japanese food or simply want the freshest possible seafood prepared with real technical skill, Ketut is the most natural choice on the myCHEF team.