CHEF OF THE MONTH
Matt Lambert, doing what he does best
W
America’s Rising Star Award recipient brings his talent home.
hen internationally celebrated, Michelin star Kiwi chef Matt Lambert gets an urge to follow his passion pretty much nothing can stand in his way. Freshly returned to New Zealand in October last year after 15 years in the United States, seven of them owning his own Maori-inspired, award winning Michelin star restaurant in New York, Matt has always been a man on a mission. From the early age of 11 as a West Auckland kid, Matt began making moves to achieve his dream. “I’d always cooked at home with my mother and grandmother and I always 22 MARCH 2022 - HOSPITALITY BUSINESS
wanted to be a chef so when I was 11 I chased down an apprenticeship in Henderson restaurant, Michael’s. Here he started out washing dishes before leaving school in the fifth form (Year 11) to get some cookery qualifications at AUT. Unfortunately, Matt’s grandfather died before he finished his course and the family moved to Wellington where he eventually got to complete his studies at Whitireia Polytech, aged around 17. Already a driven and ambitious young chef, Matt spent three or four years running a café-style kitchen on his own. “I had an attitude of not wanting to be told what to do and I liked the freedom,” he says. “Luckily I
had a boss who let me have it.” Matt was regularly serving 30 to 50 covers by himself off the boss’s menu back then. “You learn a lot doing things badly,” he says. His ambition was to own his own restaurant by the time he was 21. A stint owning a cafe in Wellington with his mum saw him learning a lot of lessons the hard way. “I realised I had a lot to learn so I headed to Auckland where I met my American wife, Barbara.” By Matt’s mid-20s they were off to the States where he worked at John’s Café in Barbara’s home patch of Connecticut initially where they saved for their wedding before heading to the big time in Manhattan.
