FROM MOP TO MASTERCHEF: Nonny Vellem’s rise to the top
By Sitha Maliwa:
In the heart of Cape Town, where luxury kitchens hum with precision, one woman’s story sizzles hotter than any stove. Nonkosi “Nonny” Vellem didn’t start with a chef’s knife in hand - she began as a cleaner, sweeping the floors of The Table Bay Hotel. Yet, amid the clatter of pots and the aroma of high tea, she discovered her true calling: pastry.
“I fell in love with pastry from the first moment I saw it,” Vellem recalls, her eyes lighting up. “I had no experience, just passion and curiosity.” Six months of cross-training later, she moved to the kitchen permanently, her talent impossible to ignore. The hotel sent her to the South African Chefs Academy, where she earned her diploma and set her sights on bigger dreams.
Today, Vellem is the execu...