It was her first cookbook and it had a red cover. It was given to her by her parents when she was five. To this day, My First Show Me How Cookbook remains Mel Alafaci’s most prized possession.
Little did she know it then, but the book ignited a love of cooking that would see Mel become a powerhouse culinary personality in South Africa, Australia and the United States, open three cooking schools and write nine cookery books.
Now, Mel, known as The Happy Chef, has arrived on the Sunshine Coast to teach food lovers how to be happy and confident in the kitchen through her new venture, The Studio Cooking School at Venu in Coolum. We meet there at the beautifully appointed kitchen, which has an amazing restaurant space upstairs for privately catered dinners. She’s dressed in a long, flowing, colourful dress and I instantly understand why she has been dubbed ‘Queen of Culinary Bling’.
But back to that fateful day when she received her treasured book. “I couldn’t read yet, so my older brother, Graeme, read the recipes to me,” recalls Mel. “I would follow the recipe religiously, so if it said golden brown, I would make sure it was golden brown. The first thing I made was brown bread, but I didn’t put the salt in. I love making bread to this day – it’s one of my specialities – and I always remember the salt.”
When she was seven, Mel and her family fled from their remote farm in Zimbabwe to South Africa, where her father got a job as a farm manager in Marquard. “I was sent to an Afrikaans boarding school even though I did not know how to speak Afrikaans. That’s when my fascination with food really occurred, as they used to steal all my food, so I became obsessed with it,” says Mel.
“When I went home on weekends, I spent all my time looking through magazines for recipes and I baked my own biscuits and rusks to take back to boarding school. I am actually grateful for that time because it helped me to become a chef who can literally make something out of nothing. Being thrifty became my superpower.”
Years later, after qualifying as a commercial chef at the ML Sultan Hotel School, working as an area manager for the Compass Group and opening a cooking school in Durban, she wrote recipes for the same magazines that she pored over when she was in primary school.
Starting her first cookery school, Gecko Culinary Adventures, was a light bulb moment and Mel discovered she loved teaching. “I’m passionate about teaching people how to be happy and confident in the kitchen and show them how simple something can be even though it sounds very intimidating. “I can take something really complicated, like a croquembouche, and make it easy,” she says.
After eight years, she sold the school to emigrate to Brisbane with her first husband and two sons, aged three and 11 months. She is proud that Gecko Culinary Adventures is still operating today.
Her first job in Australia was as a product development chef for Eagle Boys Pizza. “That soft landing with Eagle Boys, an Australian company with a global outreach at the time, was very valuable. It made me a better chef, especially working in product development,” she says.
She stayed with Eagle Boys for three years, making valuable connections with producers, suppliers and other chefs. The yearning to open her second cookery school was too irresistible to ignore and she opened Vanilla Zulu in April 2011, initially at Wilston Village before moving to a space in Teneriffe.
Her huge smile, infectious enthusiasm and passion for cooking soon caught the attention of the media and she was featured on multiple TV programs, radio segments and magazines.
She was invited to present at food shows and hosted MasterChef and My Kitchen Rules finalists at her cookery school. She helped to raise funds for charities such as Ronald McDonald House and worked with the YMCA to teach children how to cook.
Mel also worked in new product development for several companies, including Subway, The Coffee Club, Sunny Queen and Gourmet Garden, writing three cookbooks for them in collaboration with Woolworths.
After 14 years at Vanilla Zulu, where she had 16 staff members and taught 350 people per week, Mel was burnt out.
“I decided to sell it, write cookery books, move to the Sunshine Coast and have a quieter life. Well, that lasted three or four months. My husband, Mike, said to me, ‘You’re actually miserable’ because he knows that what I have always loved is the people, the food and the teaching – that’s my passion,” she says.
Mel opened The Studio Cooking School in April and is already receiving great feedback. “The three classes I teach are Authentic Italian Masterclass – my husband is Italian, so the recipes are authentic; then because I love keeping fit, EatFit Delicious and Nutritious, glam healthy meals for those wanting to eat themselves into shape; and Asian Street Food, which is selling out fast.”
She also offers a Cheffy Skills course every Monday night for six weeks. “The Cheffy Skills course, together with my book, is for those who want to get all the base fundamentals and covers everything from stocks, sauces and food from around the world to patisserie, cooking techniques, presentation and how to rectify mistakes. It’s perfect for those leaving school and considering a career as a chef, or those who want to upskill,” she adds.
In addition to being happy in the kitchen, Mel is loving life on the Sunshine Coast. “What has really blown me away is how authentic, friendly and welcoming everyone is. It’s more of a community. I walk to the beach at Yaroomba every morning with my two dogs, a pug and a German shepherd. I have a coffee down there and watch the sunrise. Then I go to the gym.”
Mel’s mission is to teach Sunshine Coast food lovers some fabulous new recipes and level up their cooking skills. “As a chef, mother, athlete and a businesswoman, I show them how to take every shortcut without sacrificing flavour or presentation. I call it the happy way.”