A chef’s downfall: Vaughan Mabee quits Amisfield, apologises, after alleged assault

Sunday, 3 May 2026

Celebrated chef Vaughan Mabee says he has “fallen short” in his behaviour and let “my team, myself and my family down” after an alleged assault of a colleague at a Queenstown nightclub prompted an investigation and his resignation.

Mabee, who had led Arrowtown restaurant Amisfield’s kitchen since 2012, said he is stepping down to “focus on my personal health issues and being a present and loving father to my family”. He had been on a final warning following two historical complaints about his conduct and quit as executive chef in February.

The Press has spoken to half a dozen former Amisfield employees and other Queenstown hospitality sources, including the complainant in the alleged assault, who claim he presided over a toxic kitchen culture where verbal abuse was commonplace, frequently leaving staff in tears.

Other allegations include alcohol abuse, lewd comments to colleagues and, at times, physical aggression.

In a candid statement, Mabee, whose departure was only revealed on Friday, “unreservedly apologised” to former staff and colleagues for “my inappropriate behaviour to them or any inconsiderate comments made…I am truly sorry for any harm or offence [caused]”.

“This industry I gave my heart and soul to has changed dramatically over the past 20 years ‒ for the better ‒ and many of us older chefs have had long roads adjusting.”

Mabee had earlier told media he was leaving to spend more time with his family and pursue opportunities overseas.

In his latest statement, he said he was inebriated when the nightclub incident happened. “While [it] was terrible for many reasons, it led me down a road of introspection and growth. This road has taken me to a place where I now realise how unfair and unacceptable some of my behaviour was, and now I want only to strive to become that better person I know I once was and will be again.”

Mabee had risen to the very top of New Zealand cuisine. Since 2024, he has held three knives – the highest recognition by The Best Chef Awards ‒ and last year Amisfield was named the 99th best restaurant in the World’s 50 Best Restaurants 51-100 list, the first New Zealand restaurant to do so. He was once named Chef of the Year at Cuisine magazine’s Good Food Awards and Amisfield was Restaurant of the Year in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023. It was widely considered a contender for Michelin stars when it was announced last year that the guide was expanding to New Zealand. Mabee was a judge on MasterChef NZ in 2022 and co-hosted Taste of Art, which streamed on TVNZ+ this year.

But behind the scenes, Mabee’s alleged misconduct was an open secret. “I don’t think I’ve been to a Cuisine Awards where he hasn’t actually got in a full-on fistfight with someone after a few drinks,” said one hospitality source who knew Mabee.

Amisfield owner John Darby confirmed the company dealt with complaints about the star chef in 2016 and 2022. “[They] resulted in formal written warnings. We clearly outlined that any further breach would result in dismissal.”

Darby said Amisfield received at least two fresh complaints about Mabee’s conduct more recently. “[Following that] he was immediately removed from the workplace while an independent investigation was conducted. Following the conclusion of that investigation, Amisfield accepted Vaughan’s resignation in February, ending our professional relationship with him.

“We do not tolerate inappropriate behaviour of any kind, and all matters raised by staff are always fully investigated and followed up with appropriate action. While we operate in a high-pressure environment, we categorically reject outdated ideas that justify a toxic culture.”

Darby added that he was grateful to the staff who had come forward, saying “their courage is essential to the positive transformation of our workplace”.

Staff function goes awry

Things came to a head for Mabee late last year. A former Amisfield employee, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Press about a staff function held at Mabee’s home in mid-2025. Afterwards, the group headed into Queenstown where the source claimed Mabee was so drunk, he was refused entry to one bar.

At another, he was allowed in, though the former employee said he still seemed impaired. She said he smashed a champagne bottle in the bar’s fire and later sat at a table alone. “He was, like, gagging,” the source said. “Convulsing, but his eyes were closed and he was unresponsive but sat up, grinding his teeth really bad.

“I thought he was going to throw up on the table, and so I ran inside and grabbed an ice bucket from the bar and had my arm kind of around him, stood next to him on the right side of him, kind of hitting his back, trying to get him to wake up. And his eyes shot open and he looked at me and grabbed my breast and then down to my arse.”

The source moved on from the incident but months later, discussing it with colleagues, learned that someone had filmed it.

“And I was like, ‘What video?’ Anyway, I obtained the video…unbeknownst to me because there was a lot going on, he had his hand placed on my butt with two fingers kind of disappearing into the centre of my jeans.”

The former employee said she went straight to management. “They took immediate action. There were lawyers involved, a private investigator, everything.”

The Press has seen documents confirming the nature of the investigation, conducted by a prominent barrister in November. During this time, Mabee himself was supposed to stay away from the restaurant, the former employee said, but he didn’t.

“He would come in for dinner service while the investigation was happening sometimes,” she said. “He would just show up.

“He started showing up more for lunch service, which is the shifts that I worked. And I would have to leave…it just got to a point where I was so uncomfortable, I would think I would hear his voice, somebody would sound like him in the restaurant and I’d panic.”

She resigned soon after. She only learned of Mabee’s departure last week, but learned from some former colleagues he had been largely absent from Amisfield since December.

“The staff who work there now, most of them are new, have never met him and they’ve been there for months.

“How he treats people is gross. The fact that he thinks he’s invincible and he can do that and nothing will happen.”

Another former employee, who did not make a formal complaint, recalled one incident when, towards the end of a lunch service, the restaurant was quiet and there was an excess of a shared menu item. She said Mabee told the staffer to sell it to the one table still to order. “I said, ‘It's three guys, they're not going to order three [dishes] that serve five people each’. And he said '[You've] got big tits; you can do it’.”

On another occasion a server made a small mistake on a dish for some food judges, the staffer said. “Vaughan got really angry at him and the second [the server] walked out… I just remember him saying, ‘Better make sure that c… doesn’t f… this up for me'. He screamed it to about 25 people in the kitchen all sweating away.”

It was common for Mabee to be verbally abusive when judges were dining at the restaurant, they claimed. “He’d put on this ostentatious display when he went out to the tables and the second he came back into the kitchen the mask would come off and he'd scream at everyone and tell them they're not being fast enough or they're not doing a good enough job.”

The former staff member said Mabee didn’t learn new, or junior colleagues’ names.

“He was very 'You, you over there', you know, clicks his fingers…I've worked in hospitality for a long time but I've never met someone with such an inflated sense of self-esteem in my life. I think 'God complex' would be the only way to describe it.”

People frequently quit as a result, the staffer said. “I've never come across staff turnover like that [at Amisfield] in my life…There was someone in tears almost every shift. It really wasn't uncommon to have about three people crying throughout the day. And not just girls…it was men too.”

Mabee concluded his statement to The Press saying that he had made “a concerted effort to change along with the times”, despite falling short.

“I would just hope that anyone who reads these articles will understand that I am a human. And take into account that those of us who strive for outrageous goals, sometimes have difficult journeys because of the stress and pressure that accompany those goals. I just hope that my redemption, in the long run, will be as compelling as my foibles.”

Born in London to a Kiwi father and American mother, Mabee worked in the US and Europe as a young chef, most notably at Noma, the fine-dining disruptor in Copenhagen with three Michelin stars and five ‘best restaurant in the world’ titles between 2010-21.

In March, Noma’s founding chef René Redzepi stood down after a New York Times story exposed years of physical and psychological abuse in his kitchens.

Last year, Mabee told Sunday magazine working at Noma under Redzepi was inspiring but incredibly stressful.

He described Redzepi as a “psychopath – and I love that about him… the way that he just never calms down … I loved the way he infected everyone around him into thinking the same way that he thought.”⁠

In the July story, Mabee said he still saw Redzepi as “an amazing inspiration” and revealed the pair recently spent time together.