Norka Mella Munoz

Norka Mella Munoz grew up in Santiago, Chile, where she has fond memories of her mum’s delicious cooking. Rarely dining out at restaurants, they instead spent evenings cooking together as a family.

Before moving to New Zealand, Norka worked at restaurants all over the world, starting with six years of work for five-star hotels in Chile; where she won various gold culinary awards working for hotels such as the Intercontinental, the fabulous Explora Las Torres, and the Explora Patagonia.

Following her arrival in New Zealand, Chef Norka continued working for hotels but her main passion was her work as a tutor in Auckland sharing her knowledge with new talented chefs. Then came a move to Hawke’s Bay, where Chef Norka again was tutoring new chefs until she came across a role at Mangapapa that was perfect for her. Norka Mella Munoz started a fantastic revolution with the Mangapapa Restaurant, becoming the first female Head Chef in Mangapapa history. Her latest role saw her take up the Head Chef role at the prestigious Kinloch Manor & Villas.

Chef Norka calls herself ‘Chiwi’ and her cuisine reflects that, with a fusion of ‘kiwi’ local produce and her Chilean flair on the new restaurant menus. She brings the female touch to Kinloch food with extreme care and attention to the detail of each plate. In 2020 & 2021, Norka was named as a Beef + Lamb Ambassador Chef.