Award-winning international chef joins team at Heritage Queenstown

From catering to the stately home guests of an English Duke to winning multiple culinary awards in Australia, the new Executive Chef at a leading Queenstown hotel has racked up close to 30 years’ of international experience.

And now Executive Chef Wayne Booth is bringing his creative approach and style to the kitchen at the Heritage Queenstown, introducing fresh, clean, crisp and exceptional cuisine across the board.

“We cater for visitors from all around the world but we should also be enticing locals to visit this stunning property,” he said.

“Now that summer’s here, it’s the perfect time for ‘al fresco’ lunches, dining or sundowners on the balcony. It has one of the most amazing views in town, looking over Lake Wakatipu towards The Remarkables mountain range.”

Chef Booth, originally from the UK, has worked in numerous kitchens across Europe, Australia and the Caribbean. He was most recently head of the 32-strong culinary team at Sheraton Perth Hotel, and prior to that was Head Chef at the prestigious Xanadu Winery in Margaret River in Western Australia where the restaurant received multiple awards over a four-year period.

Growing up in a small village in the north of England, he knew he wanted to be a chef from an early age, and that he wanted to travel.

As an apprentice chef at the age of 15, his first job was at a small country house hotel,  receiving classical training with a French influence over a number of years until working for the Duke of Rutland at his country hotel and stately home, Haddon Hall.

“There I worked in the larder section preparing all the trout from his farms, the venison and pheasants from his seasonal shoots, using a large amount of game and local produce grown and grazed on the Derbyshire dales,” he said.

After working for a protégé of the Roux brothers in a Michelin-starred restaurant, he was inspired to travel to Australia where he reveled in creating dishes inspired by fresh seafood and local produce.

Now in Queenstown, he says he is looking forward to sourcing amazing fresh local produce, keeping his new menus for Mackenzies Restaurant, weddings and conferences creative and seasonal.

“We’ll be introducing quality lunches, brunches and dinner menus that combine the freshness and quirkiness of Japanese food with a classical French influence, and there’ll be daily specials and weekly rotations on the menu,” he said.

“I’m working with a good young crew in the kitchen, and very much looking forward to my first summer in Queenstown.”