With Guns Blazing Manhattan Establishment Opens
Auckland-born chef Matt Lambert has opened The Musket Room, a 65-seat establishment in Manhattan’s Nolita, New York. “Named for the Musket Wars of the early 19th century … the menu has Asian…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Sending the Right Message About Age
“Karen Walker Eyewear is worn by the style conscious and coveted by a youthful market, yet their latest campaign showcases women aged between 80 and 93 from Cohen’s
So Good and So Vegetarian
“You’ll find Kokako in a 1940s post office in Auckland’s Grey Lynn, a rapidly gentrifying inner-city liberal stronghold,” Monocle reports. “The café opened a year ago – a welcome addition to a…
Viennese Fashion Line Intrigues
New Zealand-born model and designer Mark Stephen Baigent’s line, Mark & Julia, created with Austrian Julia Rupertsberger, is stocked at Vienna retail fashion collective Faux Fox in the historic Naschmarkt area. The “intriguing”
Nature-led and Outstandingly Good
According to the World’s 50 Best Restaurants website, Attica is New Zealand chef “Ben Shewry’s innovative but nature-led Melbourne masterpiece”. Shewry “often rises before dawn to forage on the shore near…
Shrewd Choice for Poland Cook It Raw
New Zealand chef Ben Shewry is one of a selection of the “world’s finest chefs” to recall their experience of a Cook it Raw event for a recent Observer article. Shewry, who owns…
Olivia Lefebre’s Modeling Career Takes Off
From being discovered while shopping, at St Luke’s mall in Auckland, New Zealand, to strutting on the Paris catwalk– Cook Islander Olivia Lefebre is making a name for herself in the tough world of…
Mayfair Salon Opening for Designer
A brief internship with the jewellery department of Sotheby’s in London at the age of 25, has brought New Zealand fine jeweller Jessica McCormack to opening a 465-square-metre salon – The House –…
New Zealand Winemaker Leads in California Chardonnay Revival
‘California chardonnay is back- yet again’ says Lettie Teague, of The Wall Street Journal. ‘Lighter, brighter varieties untouched by oak,’ are leading the revival according to Teague. New Zealand’s Fintan du Fresne, winemaker for…
Isabel Estate Shows off Its Wines in America
‘With a population of just 46,000 Hattiesburg, Mississippi, is not the place you might expect to find a major wine festival featuring a huge array of world class vintners,’ says Forbes writer Larry Olmsted….
Marlborough’s Top Dog
“Never a country to flood markets with bargain swill, New Zealand today boasts the world’s highest average selling price for exported table wine,” Globe and Mail life columnist Beppi Crosariol writes. “I think that…
Sharing Plates in Melbourne
New Zealand chefs continue to make their mark in Melbourne with recent arrivals including Daniel Wilson and Dante Ruaine at Huxtable and Alric Hansen with Small Victories. Christian McCabe…
Palate Changer
East London restaurant St John, where New Zealand chef Margot Henderson (pictured) once worked with husband, owner Fergus, is British sculptor Rachel Whiteread’s favourite eatery. “St John has been a part of my life…
Harking back to Harlow
New Zealand-born bridal designer Johanna Johnson owns a storeroom in SoHo, New York, where she has built a following for her glamorous old Hollywood styles, part bohemian flapper, part Jean Harlow. Johnson’s designs will…
Hope the shoe fits
New Zealand designer Kathryn Wilson, with the help of Sarah Hutchings of Auckland’s Orsini Fine Jewellery, has created the most expensive shoe in the world. The fairy tale classic court-heeled shoe features more than…
Top Chef in Washington
This year’s Embassy Chef Challenge held in Washington D.C. went to the Embassy of New Zealand’s chef Nathan Bates, who won all of three award categories in this two-part contest, making the trifecta win…
Rising Star of Artisan Dressmakers
New Zealand fashion designer Emilia Wickstead – “already one of the best-kept secrets in the upper echelons of London society” – has been recruited by Selfridges as a bespoke tailor for the department…
Backing Pies in NY
Nine years ago, New Zealand entrepreneur Gareth Hughes started Down Under Bakery (DUB) Pies in Brooklyn, New York. With his shop now selling 5000 items a week, Hughes is looking to expand and he’s…
Ned Going Gangbusters
“Brent Marris’ The Ned Waihopai River, made in Marlborough, has become the wine equivalent of Fifty Shades of Grey, a word-of-mouth bestseller, its name passed from school gate to dinner table to book group,…
Effortless Chic
Since the launch of her ultra-feminine, eponymous line in 1996, Rebecca Taylor has become, without a doubt, one of the most prominent New Zealand-born fashion designers in the business, according to ELLE correspondent Kelsey…
NZ Home to World’s Largest Waterslide
New Zealanders Jimi Hunt and Dan Drupstee have built the world’s longest waterslide, writes The Daily Mail. Their slide, at 650 meters long, beat the previous record by nearly 440 meters! Two thousand people…
Chef Peter Gordon Talks NZ Lamb
New Zealand lamb took center-stage in The Independent’s ‘food and drink’ section recently. Kiwi chef Peter Gordon featured, with a video on cooking lamb fajitas. ‘Since the first delivery in 1882, New Zealand Lamb…
Exotic Hops Lure Americans
New Zealand’s “bold, fruity” flavoured hops have been increasingly used by American craft brewers who prize their unique flavours, according to Los Angeles Times correspondent John Verive. “Some of the most popular new hop…
Rachel Hunter Belle Donne
Rachel Hunter, New Zealand former supermodel and TV presenter, ‘stole the show’ at the Italia Film, Fashion and Art Festival, in Los Angeles, according to The Daily Mail. ‘Rachel Hunter certainly isn’t about to…
Walker’s Youthful Sophistication
‘Karen Walker pits arty school girls against working women for a youthful but ultra-sophisticated new fall collection,’ writes Olivia Fleming in The Daily Mail. Walker’s fall 2013 collection is called New Rose. The inspiration…
Architectural Designs
Feminine beaded tops over boy shirts were paired with punky skinny pants adorned with zippers on the New York Fashion Week runway of New Zealand fashion designer Rebecca Taylor as she…
Challenging Perceptions of Beauty
This week, designer Karen Walker will show her 14th season at New York Fashion Week. And then there’s her jewellery collection, homeware, a range of paints for Resene and the diffusion label Hi There…
That Maybe So, But
Sauvignon blanc from New Zealand’s Marlborough region is now Australia’s top-selling white wine. A “savalanche” has left chardonnay and other whites for dust, and that gets right up the noses of Australian winemakers, who…
Pinot Noir Our New Obsession
“They don’t call is the only grape that generates such enthusiasm,” actor and winemaker Sam Neill said at the Pinot Noir…
London Kiwi Chef Brings ‘Balm to the Soul’
Kiwi chef Tyler Martin hails from New Plymouth. His Fulham restaurant is called Manuka Kitchen. The name is entirely apt, according to Independent food writer John Walsh. Martin and his partner Joseph Antippa’s food…
Letting in the Light
New Zealander, Huxley Somerville, 52, a managing director at Fitch Ratings in New York, bought a run-down Upper West Side brownstone apartment in 1994 and set about converting the space into “four separate living…
Sauvignon Impossible To Overlook
“In New Zealand’s case, the elephant in the room is Marlborough sauvignon blanc,” Bill Zacharkiw writes for The Montreal Gazette. “While most emerging regions struggle to communicate who they are, few have been as…
Dishing Up Comfort Food
Peter Gordon’s 2012-published Peter Gordon Everyday is one of Catherine Phipp’s ‘Best Food Books of the Year’. “Flashes of trademark fusion sit with more personal dishes from New Zealand childhood,” Phipps…
What Could Be Better
The New Zealand specialty bacon and egg pie features in The New York Times’ ‘Diner’s Journal’ weekly column and video. “I got the inspiration to make a bacon and egg pie from an article…
Not Just Any Caravan
New Zealand architectural and interior design firm W2 have designed a fold-out luxury caravan “unlike anything we’ve come across before,” Gizmag’s Loz Blain writes. “The Romotow looks a bit like a high-tech…
Get Out The Velvet
Fashion blogger New Zealander Laura Allard-Fleischl’s take on velvet makes her one of MTV Style’s ‘Bloggers of the Week’. “, is getting back to velvet’s roots in her dark…
Made From Milk Honey
Broken Shed vodka, which is distilled from whey, is “vodka for the vodka haters”, according to one of the Huffington Post’s editors. “When we caught wind of a vodka being made from…
Hong Kong’s Fashion Heroine
New Zealand-born fashion writer Jasmine Webster, 29, who is based in Hong Kong and is the face of Dress Me blog, talks to the South China Morning Post about her obsession with dressing up…
Everyday Finery
Designer Karen Walker caught up with Vogue Australia to talk about her new Diamond jewellery collection. “The inspiration behind all our jewellery designs is jewellery for modern occasions,” Walker said. “Karen Walker Jewellery…
Inspired by Home
Senior sous chef at Le Gavroche restaurant in London, New Zealander Monica Galetti recently answered questions from Guardian readers about, amongst other culinary things, cooking seafood and gender barriers in professional kitchens. “I went…
Stylish Thrift in the Village
New Zealand couple, freelance art director Miranda Dempster, 41, and Gus McKay, 45, a tailor for the fashion label Tocca, spent no more than US$3000 on renovating their 155-year-old West Village apartment. On a…
This Country is Why
Bill Foley, American businessman and owner of Marlborough vineyards Clifford Bay and Vavasour, visited New Zealand more than 10 years ago and fell in love with the landscape. Foley also found some good…
Sunshine Helps the Zing
Head winemaker at Cloudy Bay winery Tim Heath, 36, explains how New Zealand’s viticultural environment has created its signature “vivid tastes”. The key to understanding the creation of these zingy, tropical and fruity aromas…
Decades of Aisle Style
With Air New Zealand celebrating its 30th anniversary of flights between London and Los Angeles, British lifestyle magazine Female First looks at the fashion of the airline over the decades. “Air New Zealand’s heritage can be…
Entrepreneurs in the Making
“Many third world countries have incubators, often to try and utilize and preserve local skills” like weaving, dying and sewing, says Tracy Kennedy, (right) manager of the Dunedin Fashion Incubator, started in 2001. Like…
Made in New Zealand
“Visiting New Zealand with my 1-year-old daughter, and with nephews at home in America, I became obsessed with finding them something actually made in the country,” Meg Nesterov writes for Gadling. “I was impressed…
Walker Goes Dotty in NY
New Zealand fashion designer Karen Walker “gets next summer spot-on with a fun polka dot-filled collection at New York Fashion Week,” the Daily Mail’s Olivia Fleming reported from the runway. “Walker went completely spotty for spring/summer…
Fruitcake Finish Wins US Gold
Two rare whiskies from the New Zealand Whisky Collection have won gold medals at the Mid West Whisky Olympics in Michigan, outperforming some of the world’s most revered from Scotland, Ireland and Canada. The…
Miss Nasty a Total Professional
Wellington-raised chef Monica Galleti, 36, who is a judge on BBC2 cooking show MasterChef: The Professionals, will also appear alongside British chefs Marcus Wareing and Fred Sireix at the London Rumble in the Jungle…
Back to the Eighties
New Zealand fashion label Zambesi’s Autumn/Winter 2013 collection, which previewed at New Zealand Fashion Week “harkened back to the 1980s … focus on a colour palette of black, grey, silver … with a touch…
Koreans Take to Sauvignon
Members of the New Zealand community in Seoul, including Trade Commissioner Graeme Solloway (left) recently celebrated a New Zealand vintage winning the best white wine trophy at this year’s Korea Wine Challenge. The Woven…
We’re All Invited
The first recipe New Zealander Margot Henderson tried was the ginger crunch from the Edmonds Cookery Book, the New Zealand household bible, The Guardian’s Rachel Cooke writes. And then there were the snails. “I…
Boutique More Popular
The New Zealand Brewers Guild says there has been an “explosion” of beer flavours offered by the country’s 68 breweries, with the number of small craft breweries increasing by 50 per cent. New Zealand…
Tasting of the Future
British wine expert Robert Joseph describes his first adventure to Marlborough’s Brancott Estate in the Telegraph, charting the vineyard’s journey from the beginning to the present day. “By 2011, when Brancott Estate had become…
Shameless Self-Promoter
New Zealand fashion journalist Isaac Hindin-Miller is currently blogging for The New York Times. Hindin-Miller says trends move much faster in New York than New Zealand. “Fashion stores will bring jumpsuits out…
Wines Making the Cut
Cinema celebrities New Zealanders Michael Seresin and Sam Neill are two of a growing number of filmmakers turning their knowledge of a good drop into winemaking. The Australian’s Michael Bodey brings his “critical faculties…
