EXCELLENT WOMEN

Cooking up community and understanding

NORNIE BERO was growing produce, weeding and cooking for her household from a young age. “My earliest memories are of Dad teaching me how to make damper (an Australian soda bread) when I was barely able to see over the stovetop,” says the chef.

Nornie is a Torres Strait Islander, from Mer – an island at the most northern point of Australia, between Papua New Guinea and the tip of Cape York. She’s from the Komet people, one of Australia’s First Nations, and is using the food of her childhood to educate the residents of Melbourne about the rich and varied foods she was raised with.

“People don’t realise how big and diverse Australia really is,” she says. When she moved off the islands to Melbourne she would often get asked where she was from.

“When I would tell them I was from the Torres Strait, I would get a blank look. I found one of the best ways to teach people about my home was through the food I was raised with.”

She earned her stripes working in the male-dominated kitchens of the

city’s restaurants, and began making and selling sauces, spices and curry pastes at South Melbourne Market. She named her business Mabu Mabu, which means ‘help yourself’ and worked late nights in her mother-in-law’s kitchen whipping up condiments. People began to ask her to cater events for them, and when a shopfront became available, Mabu Mabu evolved into a café.

“Looking around Melbourne, I realised there was little understanding of Australian Indigenous food, and definitely not of Torres Strait Islander food,” she says. “I knew it was time to change that.”

Now she’s opening her third restaurant, has appeared on MasterChef Australia, and has a book (also called Mabu Mabu). But Mabu Mabu is more than these – it’s an act of reconciliation, sharing understanding not just about Torres Strait Island food, but the culture of her ancestors, and of native Australian ingredients.“Great food is the key to conversation,” she explains. “It helps open people’s minds to new cultures.” Even those of their native land.