Jo Bates and Photos by Jerome WarburtonJun 10, 2026 – 5.00amIt’s a good yarn – a New Zealand dishy turned chef takes his bold ambitions to New York, opens his own restaurant with the help of a Kickstarter fund and earns a Michelin star within months.Matt Lambert, then in his 30s, opened The Musket Room in NoLita, Lower Manhattan, with his American wife, Barbara, and restaurateur-business partner Jennifer Vitagliano in 2013. Lambert retained the star for the restaurant until he left in 2019, and after COVID-19 he and his wife returned to Aotearoa New Zealand with their eyes fixed on a solo venture.Subscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber? Fetching latest articles
Auckland restaurants worthy of the Michelin Guide’s first NZ edition
As the world’s yardstick of culinary excellence, the Michelin Guide, prepares to publish its first New Zealand edition, we meet the North Island city’s star-worthy chefs.
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