‘The angels have gained an incredible chef’

A line of chefs in their whites followed the wooden coffin held high on pallbearers’ shoulders into St Mary Redcliffe Church for the memorial of Jonray Sanchez-Iglesias.

Among the family and friends shuffling in from the cold, the bright overalls caught the November light which fell on the doorway as the organ inside shook the stained glass.

About 200 people took seats inside the 15th century church at a public memorial service for the Michelin-starred Casamia chef who was rising to national fame before his young life was cruelly cut short.

“A very special person that will be missed by so many,” said a note from the family in the order of service. “The angels have gained an incredible chef.”

Jonray, 32, who co-owned Casamia with his younger brother Peter, died after four years with skin cancer on November 6, three days after his birthday and two days before his Westbury-on-Trym restaurant was named fourth best in the UK by the Sunday Times.

“I always wanted to be just like you, brother,” Peter said, addressing mourners in a moving tribute which followed the opening hymn of All Things Bright and Beautiful. “I will carry the dream on for you,” he added.

Moments earlier, Jonray’s wife Kirsty, the mother of his two young children Bella and Olive, stood strong delivering a powerful tribute of her own to her late husband.

“We were in a school play together when were ten years old, I didn’t know that when he kissed me that we would be destined to be together,” she said.

She said she and Jonray had decided to have a family together after he was diagnosed with cancer.

“To you Jonray I want to say thank you for telling me every day that you loved me and that I was beautiful,” she added.

“I will love you and miss you always and will live to make you proud.”

Lucy Black read a poem on behalf of Jonray’s children, before soul singer Beverly Knight performed No One Ever Loves in Vain from her 2014 album Affirmation.

Reverend Philip Auden delivered a reading and then another poem was read out by Georgina Goodhind on behalf of Jonray’s parents Paco and Susan.

The congregation then joined together for the Lord’s Prayer, before singing a second and final hymn, Love Devine, All Loves Excelling.

The coffin was led back out of the church’s south entrance where a crowd formed in the crisp air as the hearse left with close family and friends before a wake at Leigh Court, Abbots Leigh.

Jonray’s death at the beginning of this month shocked the restaurant and catering industries in Bristol and across the UK. Among the first to leave the church on Monday morning was Josh Eggleton of the Pony & Trap, a fellow Michelin-starred chef and one of Jonray’s closest friends from the days when they were both students together at Chew Valley School.

At the start of the memorial service, the Rev. Auden had read a tribute from the editor of a food magazine who said Jonray was “on course to becoming one of the best chefs in the country”.

“With his broad Bristol accent he had the ability to talk the hind legs off a donkey,” she had added.

Jonray was preparing to move Casamia with his brother from its original home to the new General Hospital development by Bathurst Basin when he died. It is still due to open in January next year.

The Sanchez-Iglesias family request that donations in memory of Jonray go to Cancer Research UK at www.justgiving.com/jonraysanchez. Online donations stood at just under £5,000 after the memorial.