FEATURE - Daneyl’s dream

When she prepared her much-loved cooking school for possible damage from Cyclone Alfred in March this year, local Nambour businesswoman Daneyl Green had no idea that her lifelong dream was about to go under in the flood that followed.

by Rebecca Mugridge

“It was a complete shock; the cyclone, it had been a bit of a fizzler, there was a bit of rain overnight but when I woke the next morning, there was a photo from my landlord. The building was flooded,” said Nambour businesswoman, Daneyl Green, whose cooking school was lashed by wild weather.

“There were things up high that survived, but there were a lot of things that I wish had been put higher.” 

Daneyl explained how she had been expecting wind damage. “It was more cyclone prep, things away from windows, away from glass doors. Nowhere in my wildest dreams did I think we’d have water coming through the business. We had over a metre of water. It came up to the door handles!”

Thankfully, locals helped Daneyl through the devastating event. “The Nambour Chamber of Commerce and a lot of local businesses were checking in on us. It made the world of difference to me. 

“I teach a lot of people in the homeschooling community and the families came with mops and brooms and gurneys to help me clean the mud off, or donated to Go Fund Me. People popped their heads in and said, ‘What can I do?’ 

“The coming together just made you feel warm and fuzzy, and so, so grateful.

“I’m still looking for things that I realise I no longer have. I was waking up for a week thinking there was mud in my bed; It was really rough and to get through it, for me, I had to move on.”

Daneyl loves Nambour as a home for her business and secured a new location on the main street. “There is really great support in Nambour, a lot of the businesses chat to each other, look out for each other. The community spirit is strong.”

The grit and determination needed to be a small business owner and rebuild are tantamount to her spirit and where the cooking school began. 

At 32 she had decided to go after a dream. “I went back to uni, I have an arts degree, but I always had a dream of opening a cooking school.”

“It was a lot of hard work. I was working two jobs, studying and parenting. Not for the faint hearted. But I also knew this was something I needed to do. I knew that if I gave it a go, and I just knuckled down, I would do it. 

“I didn’t want to get to 65 or 70 and think, I wish I’d done that. And if it doesn’t work, I’m not a tree, I can move, and that’s fine. But if I don’t give it a go…”

Daneyl referred to a Mel Robbins quote that helped her keep going when things got hard. “I had in the back of my head, all the time, ‘No one is coming. No one is coming to get you the job of your dreams. You have to do it for you’.” 

And she did.

Three years ago, Daneyl opened her own cooking school, Mix Taste Eat in Nambour.

“I’d always imagined, if I had my own little place, people could come in and we would cook all day, they’d learn something fun, we’d create something delicious and they’d go home and might remake that for their kids or their family.

“Now, we even get kids coming in to learn how to make dough or teriyaki sauce from scratch.”

Daneyl said meals and a table bring people together. 

“One of my features that I love at the school is our dining table, it has all different chairs around the table representing that we all come from different families, different walks of life and different cultures, but we all sit around the one table.”

While studying she was working at David Jones, when she made a special purchase. “I have these Kitchen Aides I bought on sale, I bought two of them as I just knew one day they would be in my cooking school. 

“When I first opened the cooking school, I put them straight in, and thought; this is where they were meant to be! And I still have them. They didn’t drown in the flood!”

Daneyl’s vision includes local produce and supporting other small businesses. 

“We use local produce. I shop local, and I like to promote to my students that knowing what we are cooking and where food comes from is really important.” 

Through the devastation Daneyl said her students and families have continued to support her, and that one of the best ways people can help any small businesses that go through an ordeal is to stay a customer. 

“The best way for people to support me [for example] is to book a class or share what we do. I am really grateful to all the families who have stuck with me, this term a lot of homeschooling families have come back, a lot of inclusive classes and disability support have come. 

“I’m so immensely grateful for all of the support I’ve had. Knowing that rebuilding has had a purpose; I know that the business works, and I know that people want to come and cook.” 

You can find Daneyl’s Mix Taste Eat at Shop 5, 6-22 Currie Street, Nambour, or visit mixtasteeat.com