Nancye Pirini: My teacher told me I’d amount to nothing. Now I’m one of NZ’s top chefs

At age 47, Nancye is grandmother to eight children and a celebrated chef. She talks to Varsha Anjali about her full-speed life, and about slowing down. Nancye Pirini tells it herself. At age 15, she was kicked out of school for being a “naughty little s***”. More than three decades There’s a matriarchal air to Pirini’s (Te Whānau ā Apanui) Manurewa home. It’s tender without fuss but what matters is heard. A taiaha hangs on the main wall in the living room. It draws a line, like a foundation for the family portraits that hang above it. In the middle, large lettering reads: “Whanau” - followed by smaller font – “where life begins and aroha never ends”. On the sofa sits its owner: hair in bun, left arm in tā moko, 47 years old, mother of five, grandmother of eight, slippers on her feet. She’s