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Issue no. 46 / October 2021
Nornie Bero, outside her all-day bar and kitchen, Big Esso. Photo: supplied
MEET NORNIE BERO, FOUNDER OF MABU MABU
When did you first start cooking and what does it mean to you? I started cooking from a young age. I’m born and bred on the Islands, so as soon as you can reach over the stove top, it’s a part of life to be cooking and it’s everybody doing their bit. We cook as a family, hunt as a family, we plant, we fish. As a child you don’t go home for lunch, you just have a snack down the beach, eating what the island offers you. For me, culture is everything. My dad was a very cultural man and he made sure I knew who I was, speaking English as a second language and Meriam first, knowing those cultural ways of life. What is Mabu Mabu and how did it come about?
Nornie Bero is the head chef and business owner of Mabu Mabu. Originally from Mer Island in the Torres Strait, Nornie has been a professional chef for over 20 years, and is on a mission to put First Nations ingredients in kitchens across Australia. We sat down with her to chat about cooking, damper, and whether or not you should put your knives in the dishwasher.
I’ve been a chef for over 20 years, mostly here in Melbourne and Europe, but I’m still always an Island girl. Mabu Mabu is an extension of who I am. I started off as a condiment business, now I have a big catering arm to my business and I have a café and now a restaurant and bar. I wanted to put Island people – my awesome culture – on the map and [show people] how amazing our cuisine is. I’ve always had this dream that we have our own street. Why don’t we have our own hub? I want it to be normal that you come to Lygon Street that’s all Italian and maybe one day we’ll have our own Lygon Street. I’m ambitious, I’m a dreamer, I get that from my dad. My father was a dreamer but he was sick so young and he never got to achieve the things he wanted to in life. I think I do so much because I am achieving it for both of us.