About me...

Hello, thank you so much for visiting my website, I'm so excited to have you here.  I have been a passionate chef, foodie and cooking school teacher for over 30 years,  I'm proud to share my tricks, tips and passion with you.  I genuinely care about your kitchen confidence and success.

 

Here's what my students and the media say about me.

 

A regular on local TV Shows and radio shows as a specialist in her field.

"Chef Mel, Dubbed “Queen of Culinary Bling”or the "Happy Chef"  by her students, Mel’s clever cooking approach focuses on simple, versatile recipes with time spent on an excellent presentation. The enthusiastic, entertaining, African-Australian chef and cooking school owner say with a little knowledge how anyone can plate up spectacular spreads similar to what you’d expect to see in restaurants. Mel is brilliant at making dazzling everyday dishes. She promises that after one of her classes, you will live happily ever after. She ardently believes that even boring mince and chicken breasts can be absolutely sexy.

Learn more about Chef Mel's culinary secrets in her cookbook "Culinary Quickies' or book her for an event or media appearance via the website's "Book Chef Mel" button. 

With a smile that can light up a room, Chef Mel Alafaci has become a globally chef and personality.  Her recent success in the USA means she's Australia's hottest rising culinary personality.

She is the proud founder of the very popular Vanilla Zulu Cooking School in Brisbane.  With an entirely new and fresh approach to cooking and a culinary lingo all of her own, she makes cooking fabulous fun.

With the release of her new cookbook "Culinary " Mel helps you discover a chef's secrets on how to be faster, happier and more confident in the kitchen...and get a round of applause every time you cook a meal...you can live happily ever after in your kitchen! Culinary Quickies is a must for every foodie or want-to-be foodie.

Mel has travelled the world in search of new delights to share with her ever-growing audience. From her first cooking school in Durban South Africa to foodie tours and writing in Switzerland, Zurich, Mexico, Amsterdam New York. Mel has done it all and has loved calling Australia home. It's here she has grown Vanilla Zulu Culinary Adventures and become one of Australia's best loved chefs. As a self-proclaimed Cultural Gastronomist, Mel loves to unearth how food is enjoyed in other cultures.  She blames her passion for food and travel on her backpacking chef days, where she 'cooked' herself around the world, eagerly learning every cultural secret she could and then sharing all of her newfound recipes with anyone that would listen.  Her passion and enthusiasm for food is unwavering."

This enthusiastic, entertaining, award-winning African-Australian chef and cooking school owner says anyone can plate up spectacular spreads similar to what you’d expect to see in five-star restaurants with a little know-how. Mel is brilliant at making everyday dishes dazzling. She promises that after one of her classes, you will live happily ever after. She ardently believes that even boring mince and chicken breasts can be absolutely sexy.

Chef Mel loves being on the stage and hosting and presenting cooking shows. Her passion is teaching and imparting happiness in kitchens all around the globe.

She's blonde, African-Australian, bubbly, and a talented chef. Chef Mel is the proud founder of Vanilla Zulu, Brisbane, one of Australia's most successful cooking schools. Vanilla Zulu has been operating for over 13 years, and in that time, Chef Mel has really found her calling.

Chef Mel's happy smile is one of the reasons she's become a regular on lifestyle and cooking segments on Australian radio and television shows over the years. Chef Mel (Vanilla Zulu Executive Chef) believes in using the freshest local ingredients and having a repertoire of reliable recipes that you can rehash and refresh by using different sides and accompaniments. Just as you would wear the same little black dress time and again and dress it up with new earrings, a new handbag and new shoes...it's all about culinary bling and accessories! If you shop cleverly, you can cook cleverly, too. It doesn't have to be expensive, but you can achieve a round of applause if you know some valuable 'cheffy' tricks. Armed with a sassy sense of humour, Mel is willing to share everything she knows about her passion...which is cooking! Her students LOVE how she makes cooking fun through clever analogies; they even say she "speaks Mel," a language all of her own that explains her culinary procedures in a quick and clear way.

Zimbabwean-born chef Melanie Alafaci (nee Townsend) is the proud founder of the Vanilla Zulu cooking school in Teneriffe, Brisbane. Here, she creates a fun and relaxed atmosphere, inviting foodies and newbies alike to 'go wild' with food.  Vanilla Zulu is Melanie’s second cooking school, a testament to her passion and dedication to culinary arts, and a place where everyone is welcomed with open arms.

 

"Vivacious Melanie Townsend holds court with aplomb. An interactive class that flourishes with lots of wine and laughter. Even shy students will be coaxed into the cooking action!"  Tracy Gielink for Food and Home Magazine, South Africa

"Having a chat to vivacious blonde bombshell Mel Alafaci, it doesn't take long to figure out behind the huge personality is a seriously good chef who emerged from humble beginnings" Valerie Ferdinands for My Village News, Brisbane

"Townsend, a bubbly, intelligent woman who’s classes are fun and relaxed...." Omeshnie Naidoo The Mercury Newspaper, South Africa

And this little article about me, before I became a professional chef!

Her love of food was born during her childhood, long before her career as a chef.

Born to a mother and father who lived in the Zambezi Valley bush in tented camps, Melanie’s father was one of the last great white ‘bushmen’ employed to control the spread of Tsetse flies in the early 70’s.  Melanie’s family fled the Rhodesian Bush War for rural South Africa in the early 1980s after two family members were shot and killed by terrorists in the worst of it in 1979. Melanie remembers walking over the border with nothing but two suitcases, her father’s hunting rifles, and the clothes on their backs.

Cooking quickly became a comfort for Melanie, who grew up on remote farms where entertainment was sparse.

Melanie’s parents intuitively gave her a cookbook at age five, and her brother would read the recipes aloud while she concocted her food masterpieces.

Melanie completed her formal chef training in Durban in 1994, where she went on to start her first cooking school. First, though, she took her career abroad, backpacking her way around the UK and working at various hotels and restaurants. Always quick to make friends, locals would bring Melanie all kinds of local fare on which to work her culinary magic, such as exotic berries and pheasants with the feathers still intact! Her fondest memory during this time was cooking for Dusty Springfield at the Cregg Castle in Galway.

Heading back to a dismal job scene in Durban in the late 1990s, Mel quickly became disgruntled with long hours and feeble pay in the kitchens and started her first cooking school venture, Gecko Culinary Adventures. Established in 2001 and run humbly from a granny flat attached to her home, hers was the first school in the area to offer team building through cooking, winning Mel four business innovation awards. Her bubbly personality gave her local celebrity status and scored her frequent guest spots on local food shows and magazine articles.

When she bid farewell to South Africa sixteen years ago in search of a safer life for her and her two young sons, Mel had a burning desire to ensure the spirit of her cooking school lived on here in Australia. Her latest venture, Vanilla Zulu debuted on the Brisbane food scene midway through 2011.

Melanie is now a published author with eleven very exciting recipe books under her belt and is currently working on her twelfth.  Melanie is proud to have been ambassador chef for Stork Cremendous, Gourmet Garden, Crystal Bay prawns, Movenpick Ice Cream, ChefWorks,  NEFF appliances, Bosch appliances, Sunny Queen farms and more.  She is also an avid blogger, which allows her to express her excitement about her latest food find! As a global traveller and cultural gastronomer, she loves to explore and make delicious discoveries along the way.

Behind the scenes, Melanie consults for some of Australia’s leading food producers, so her gourmet flair is unwrapped and enjoyed by many on a daily basis! She loves working as a New Product Development Chef.

She is proud to share all of her foodie travel experiences to her loyal fans, sharing her favourite foodie picks along the way and then creating recipes from the inspiration.  A proud African, she loves to share her African roots with her Aussie and global fans.