Renowned Kiwi chef Vaughan Mabee resigns from Amisfield after 15 years in charge

Friday, 1 May 2026

Renowned New Zealand chef Vaughan Mabee has left award-winning restaurant Amisfield after 15 years at the helm of its kitchen.

The Arrowtown restaurant confirmed to Stuff on Friday that Mabee was no longer employed by the business, having resigned in February.

Amisfield chief executive Simon Toneycliffe did not elaborate on why Mabee resigned, saying in a statement that they do not comment on the private affairs of current or former staff to protect their privacy.

Mabee joined Amisfield in 2012 having previously worked at culinary establishments such as Martin Berasategui in Spain and Noma in Copenhagen.

In 2019, Mabee told Stuff he never went to culinary school, something he said he would never change.

'I trained the old-school way. I worked in big hotels under great chefs. I trained in Michelin-starred restaurants and some of the best restaurants in the world.”

After returning to New Zealand, Mabee said he had to rethink who he was as a chef.

“I had to kind of forget what I'd learned and rebuild my style of cooking, and take it from my memories of growing up in beautiful New Zealand,” he said.

During his time at Amisfield, the restaurant gained a reputation for its fresh, locally sourced, and often hunted ingredients.

Focusing on wild food from the Otago region, Mabee’s food has attracted people from all over the world, including Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales, who visited in 2014.

Mabee told Stuff that, on some days, he would even hunt venison for the restaurant himself from his balcony.

“You have to walk across the valley to pick them up. It's a bit of a mission but it's well worth it. It's a lot cheaper and fresher than the meat at a [supermarket],” he said.

For his work at the restaurant, Mabee was named Chef of the Year at the 2019 Cuisine Good Food Awards, while in 2025, Amisfield was named in the world’s 51-100 best restaurants list.

Mabee was also awarded the highest recognition at the World’s Best Chef Awards in 2024, and won the Innovation Award from Cuisine Good Food in 2023 and 2024.

Under his watch, Amisfield was also named Restaurant of the Year by the Cuisine Good Food Awards in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023.

Mabee also found fame on television as a co-host of MasterChef in 2022, and then as co-host of Taste of Art.