Avontuur Estate Restaurant

Chef Profile Melanie Paltoglou and Zunia Boucher-Myers

Zunia is a fine artist and photographer with a passion for people and desserts! With 18 years in the hospitality industry she worked as the pastry chef at the Peninsula Bay hotel as well as the pastry chef at Erinvale golf course and hotel, managed the Rose Terrace at Vergelegen and worked as a chef in the film industry catering for 300 people a day in Namibia.

Her passion for people, technology and information sees her sourcing the best speakers for the restaurants Business Breakfast Club which runs monthly and has been running for thirteen years. Heading up the restaurants social media platforms, her love of photography comes to the play with the delectable images that can be found on Facebook, Twitter and their webpages.

Melanie's career spans 30 years in the hospitality industry. She started the restaurant at Willowbrook and was the sous chef at Erinvale hotel. She also opened the restaurant at Straightway Head. Managed the Burgundy restaurant in Hermanus and Co owned her own restaurant In Observatory for 7 years. Her passion for food and business are the reasons she took a different path from her chosen one of having a medical career as a nurse and midwife. She is passionate about young people who enter this challenging industry with often no skills and little command of the English language. Avontuur Estate Restaurant is a testimony to patience and training as most of the kitchen staff started out as dishwashers and are today accomplished chefs and mothers, who provide for their families.

November sees the 15th anniversary at Avontuur.

Their journey began in 1999 when they met and became friends and soon after started working together. Melanie as the executive chef at Erinvale golf club and Zunia as the pastry chef.

Not long after the late Tony Taberer approached Melanie to come and look at Avontuur to see if it was possible to create a restaurant on the estate. And as they say in the movies, the rest is history. With a 20K loan from Melanie’s Mother the two started out with a skeleton staff and a great deal of grit and determination. Failure has never been an option.

With dedicated staff, some of whom have been with them from day one and a loyal patronage they will celebrate fifteen years of partnership in November, with many happy memories, many tears and many friends along the way.