Amisfield x Marmelo

Vaughan Mabee is not your average Kiwi chef. In fact, he’s not really your average anything. He was born and raised in New Zealand, but instead of cutting his teeth in the kitchens of Auckland or Melbourne or London, he decamped for his mother’s home state of California, where he developed a taste for fine wine, and then to San Sebastián, where working at Martín Berasategui honed his cooking, taught him Spanish and absolutely did not cure him of his taste for fine wine. He worked at Noma in its late-oughts heyday before returning, almost by accident, to New Zealand, to run the restaurant at Amisfield in Queenstown.

And it’s here, in a winery set high in the mountains, that he has not-so-quietly set about opening what is without question the most extraordinary fine diner New Zealand has ever seen. A place where the cooking is informed by Mabee’s global experience and world-stage ambitions, but made magical by a connection to the local wilderness that challenges even his old Copenhagen alma mater in its intensity. And the world is taking notice.

Writing in the Australian Financial Review, doyenne of Australian restaurant critics Jill Dupleix described Mabee as “the huntin’, shootin’, fishin’ chef” who has bagged as many awards as he has pheasant and wild boar: “you’ll remember the food at Amisfield for life”. Forbes, meanwhile, labelled him a “mad genius” (they meant it as a compliment), and sui generis, “unlike any other chef in the world”, and the author of one of the most spectacular food experiences in the world.

Now he’s back at the Festival, collaborating with one of Australia’s most respected chefs, Ross Lusted, at his beautiful new restaurant Marmelo in the heart of the Melbourne CBD, in an intimate exploration of the best ingredients Australia and New Zealand have to offer, complemented with fine wines, including some direct from Amisfield itself. Catch a rising star as he dazzles the world – there’s nothing else quite like it.