“‘Kitchen’ is a universal language,” says Norka Mella Muñoz, explaining that when she first arrived in New Zealand she spoke no English. “I came to New Zealand just knowing how to cook and I did it without speaking because I know how to use an apple, I know how to clean fish. If you want to be a chef you just need to put your head down and work.”

And work she did, rushing straight from night shifts in a factory to English classes and grabbing sleep where she could. Soon she was working as a kitchen hand – a step on the journey that has led from Santiago in Chile via luxury lodges in Patagonia and teaching culinary students in Auckland to winning the Cuisine award for Luxury Lodge Chef of the Year 2024 at Wharekauhau Country Estate. “I never thought to be the luxury lodge chef of the year. This was a dream that couldn’t even be a dream,” she says. Although the accolades poured in at Wharekauhau, Norka recently made the move to be executive chef at Palliser Estate, the Wairarapa winery known for its commitment to organics and biodynamic practices.

“I want Palliser to be recognised as one of the best wineries with the best food in the Wairarapa,” she says. “We are really small: a small team, a small kitchen, a small restaurant, but I want to be different from the others with the quality of the service and the food and the wine, of course. My goal now is really to do my roots: I try to do a little bit of Chile, where I come from, and introduce my dishes, my style.”

The Martinborough location allows her to have a more personal connection to suppliers and opens up a network of opportunities, such as the chance to source pāua from Claire Edwards and Troy Bramley of Tora Collective. Norka uses this in her chupe de pāua (see recipe).

It’s one of many dishes that showcase Norka’s signature style that blends Chilean flavours and New Zealand’s top-quality produce, although it wasn’t always easy. She tells of her early days in New Zealand when some of her favourite ingredients weren’t as available. “I came to Hawke’s Bay and I ate in Pacifica with Jeremy [Rameka]. And it was the first time, after five years of being in New Zealand, that I could try kina again. I went to the kitchen and I say, ‘Thank you very much because you make my soul happy.’” When it comes to taste, there’s no translator required: good food is good food. TRACY WHITMEY