Melisa Gondo Chilimanzi

Melisa came to RCN from Zimbabwe and discovered baking in the most unglamorous setting possible: the student house dayrooms, running to the local shop for brownie mix to celebrate classmates' birthdays. After RCN she earned a business degree from the University of Pennsylvania and built a finance career, first in New York and then in Sydney where she has lived for seven years. Finance is structured, she says. Baking became something else. During COVID she started experimenting seriously and sharing on social media. A friend pushed her to audition for The Great Australian Bake Off. She got in. On the show she brought Viking-themed creations, a direct reference to her time in Norway. The brownie mix in a Norwegian dayroom turned into national television in Australia. That's about as RCN a story as it gets.