Rachael (r) and her boss Norka, head chef at Mangapapa, make a great team

A few years back, Rachael Mako was living in Australia and doing a “million things” she says, singing, DJ’ing, working in retail and helping out in kitchens. Three years ago, she moved back to Hawke’s Bay and applied for a job at Mangapapa Hotel. “I would have done anything. I just wanted to work there and nowhere else.” It took some more years however, to eventually be offered a job.

Initially she considered to study Wine and Viticulture at EIT and then opening a café in Rarotonga, a meeting with EIT’s career counsellor Eddie Carson changed her mind. Eddie suggested to learn all the kitchen basics first, that was why Rachael enrolled into the Cookery Certificate (level 4). “I loved it, Grant McHenry along with Amanda Libeau lay the foundations of my level 4 cookery, Mark Caves was the level 5 tutor. They made such a difference to our learning experience.”

In the year that followed, the 37-year-old became a full-time diploma student. At the end of level 4 she was already given Top Te Ara o Tākitimu Scholarship Student Award and at the end of level 5 she won the Top Chef Student Award.

 And then the day came when she was told that there was a commis chef’s job available at Mangapapa Hotel. Rachael applied for it and for her first day, she recalls, “I was so daunted and intimidated that I was really afraid to go there,” remembers Rachael. On the day, she helped assemble beautiful sandwich creations for the hotel’s famous high tea and instantly knew that it would be the best job ever.

From the first moment, Rachael and her head chef, 42-year-old Norka Mella Munoz, were like “peanut butter and jelly”. Norka, a trained chef, had moved to New Zealand in 2003 without speaking a word of English. She worked in several kitchens, studied English and became a cookery teacher in the Hotel & Chef’s Training school in Auckland before she moved to Hawke’s Bay to work at Mangapapa. “The kitchen language is universal,” she smiles. “Peeling potatoes and cutting onions is the same everywhere in the world.”

Equally universal is the fact that being a chef is not the most family friendly career. Norka and Rachael are both mothers – Norka has two children, Rachael three – but they are well supported by family and husbands. “We are lucky to get paid for doing what we love,” says Norka.

The chefs at Mangapapa Hotel are a tight-knit bunch, international and 75 percent female. Rachael is the only New Zealander and creating recipes, spices and ideas from all over the world makes it a very inspirational and experimental place to work, both women say.

Next year Rachael will move to her new house which is built on family land at Ocean Beach. “I can’t wait to live there, grow my own vegetables, learn more about traditional gathering and dive for seafood like my husband does.”

 “Since I’ve started to study and then work I lost a lot of weight and saw how much impact food makes on our health. I totally think that we can heal ourselves with food,” says Rachael, “I’ve never been happier in my life.”