Pinky Maruping

Pinky Maruping: Regional Customer Chef -Johannesburg

Pinky graduated from the Johannesburg University of Technology Hotel School with a National Diploma in Food Service Management. She then went on to study at the Prue Leith College of Food and Wine in Pretoria where she completed her National Diploma in Food and Wine.

Pinky has since worked in numerous establishments and gained a vast amount of industry experience. Starting out as chef de partie at Irene Country Lodge, she moved to Glenshiel Country Lodge in Limpopo where she held the position of sous chef, and then onto a head chef position at the Blue Bay Café in Plettenberg Bay before returning to Johannesburg where she took up residence as sous chef at The Michelangelo Hotel in Sandton. Here she was responsible for service at Piccolo Mondo Restaurant.

A stint overseas followed where Pinky thoroughly enjoyed the adventure of working for the Royal Caribbean Cruise Liners in the Caribbean Islands for two and a half years. Returning to South Africa, Pinky was appointed as executive sous chef at OR Tambo Intercontinental Airport Sun hotel, where she worked for a short while before moving over to Tigerbrands Out of Home Solutions as a research and development chef. Here she was responsible for new innovations, development of new product bench top prototypes, continuous product improvement, and drafting of recipe specifications, and notes a highlight of this time being when she would see products that she had worked on being sold in retail outlets.

Pinky has recently been appointed Regional Customer Manager for Unilever Food Solutions, and with her desire to succeed in everything that she does, as well as her determination and commitment to delivering excellence, she is a welcome addition to the Unilever team. 

Pinky has a very adventurous palate and enjoys visiting towns or cities and enjoys eating in establishments that give her an authentic experience of tastes and flavours, whether in South Africa or overseas. As a chef, Pinky prides herself in her ability to fuse together ingredients to create unique dishes or products.

“It’s a good feeling to be able to use quality fresh produce, but convenience food is out there whether we like it or not”, says Pinky. “For this reason, and due to ever changing trends and needs within industry, it is very important to produce quality convenience products that provide the consumer with a product that is as close to the traditional dish as possible, while at the same time providing vitality.”