Wellington’s Top Chefs

Laura Greenfield

Laura Greenfield - Theatrical style

Field & Green

For Jewish-raised Laura, a love of cooking is in the blood, passed down from her grandma to her late mum.

“I always helped in the kitchen. It was a happy time,” she says. “Food is a huge part of Jewish festivals and I always enjoyed it.

“I was a bit naughty and didn’t listen at school. I only knew what I was doing in domestic cooking class,” says British-born Laura, who flourished into a top chef, nailing jobs like head chef at Sotheby’s Auction House restaurant café in London. She even wrote a cookbook while working there.

Not bad for a girl who wanted to be an actress but ended up as a chef. “I went to drama school - London International School of Acting, to train and had an agent but couldn’t get any jobs,” says Laura.

“My parents had insisted that I had a back-up career to acting when I left school at 18, so I did a three-month Cordon Bleu Cookery Course,” she says. “There’s a huge amount of similarity between cooking and acting. It’s a performance and you have all the build-up of rehearsals before that.”

Just over five years ago Laura was ready for a change from London. “I never saw the light of day during winter and wanted to be above ground and see people.”

Her Kiwi partner, Raechal Ferguson, convinced her to open Field & Green in Wellington. It was a far cry from some of the places her almost 30-year London career had taken her, such as Delfina Art Gallery; private chef work in the South of France and for private shooting parties in Scotland.

This time however, Laura cooks above ground and interacts directly with her guests and does a bit of acting too in Field & Green’s fun and vibrant open theatrestyle restaurant.

Lockdown didn’t pose any major challenges, once she and Raechal knew their staff were looked after. “I absolutely loved it. The sun shone and we got a new pup called Soufflé. I cooked dinner from a different cookbook every night.”

Isaac Chamerlain

Isaac Chamberlain – Scandinavian skills

Atlas

At just 29, Isaac has clocked an impressive 10-year kitchen career, including a stint in Scandinavia. There he worked for the owners of two-Michelin-star restaurant Noma, at its sister restaurant 108. Isaac started his career working front of house at Wellington’s Mojo and ended up in the kitchen where he discovered his passion to learn new things.

He’s always sought jobs that will offer new skills that help him progress.

From Gypsy Kitchen and a catering company, to The Spruce Goose and then Matterhorn, to 108 in Copenhagen, and back to Wellington to work in the now closed Whitebait, Isaac has achieved much in 10 years. He was invited into his latest role as head chef at the newly opened Atlas in Wellington by Yu Group executive chef, James Pask, his former Whitebait boss.

“I love the challenges in the kitchen and always trying to do things better than I have in the past,” he says. “Mostly though it’s about being part of and working with a team,” he says. There’s always a good team bond in hospitality.” He sure knows about teams. During his three months’ working at Nordic restaurant 108 he was one of a brigade of 25 chefs on any given day.

While Isaac didn’t really grow up among serious foodies at home, there sure are some top ones in his family right now. As head chef he now oversees younger brother Ben Chamberlain, also a chef in the Atlas kitchen.

Matt Hawkes

Matt Hawkes - Flexible & resilient

Bar Mason

Matt didn’t dream of ending up as a chef. His first exposure to kitchen life was as a dishwasher at a busy Wellington restaurant. “I liked the job, the fast pace of the kitchen and camaraderie of the staff,” he says. “I admired the guy with the tattoos and the 30 steaks on the grill at once, and liked how the beer tasted after a shift.”

It was a few years after this that he found himself back in a kitchen, albeit, quite a different one. This was a kitchen run by seasoned professionals who took food and hospitality seriously and were really good at what they did, says Matt.

He credits most of his good habits and the way he thinks about food and hospitality to Kelda Haines and Paul Schrader. Starting out in the bottom ranks and working his way up through different positions under the guidance of Kelda, Matt was exposed to new ingredients, techniques, and the importance of cooking seasonally.

When offered a chance to be a partner in their new offering, a 30-seat set menu restaurant, housed in an old workers’ cottage in Aro Valley, Matt jumped at the chance.

“My time at Rita was invaluable,” he says. Here, he learned the intricacies of writing and executing a three-course menu, being flexible with constantly changing dishes, and working in a small and open intimate space where you interact directly with guests.

Matt says he had been thinking about opening his own place for a few years — he wanted something a little rowdier than Rita, something he could call his own. And in 2019, the timing felt right so he set out to open Bar Mason.

While he’s loved learning from other people, Matt says building, opening and running Bar Mason has taught him a lot too — how to be flexible and resilient, rolling with the punches and always trying to take something out of successes and failures are all at the top of the list.

“I recognise it’s not an easy career, but I’ve never been interested in doing things the easy way,” says Matt.

Shepherd Elliot – High quality yet casual dining

Shepherd

Shepherd has been working in kitchens for 25 years, starting out as an after school job at high school in his hometown of Nelson. Working his way up from the ground floor ranks of kitchen hand, hospitality was initially a great way to travel and see the world. However, his passion for cooking and all things food ultimately grew and cooking became a wonderful means of expressing his creativity and personality.

After a stint working in Australia, Shepherd scored his first fine dining job in 1996 working for Al Brown and Steve Logan when they opened Logan Brown in Wellington. From there he headed to London to work in Cecconi’s Italian restaurant, where head chef Giorgio Locatelli taught him the importance of fresh produce.

Shepherd also worked under the expert guise of Sydney-based Japanese chef Tetsuya Wakuda in London when Tetsuya was flown over as consultant to open Mju, the fine dining restaurant at the Millennium Hotel London Knightsbridge.

The former owner of Ti Kouka Café in Wellington, Shepherd later opened Leeds Street Bakery where he became friends with Sean Golding of the next-door Golding’s Free Dive. The pair saw an opportunity to open their own restaurant, called Shepherd, when another neighbourhood building became free, spending six months renovating it themselves.

That was only four years ago and since then Shepherd, his progressive, contemporary New Zealand food, restaurant and staff have cleaned up numerous awards.

Shepherd’s focus is on casual but high quality food with the venison tataki with walnuts, honey truffle dressing, tamarillo, sorrel and cheese always a firm favourite.