celebrating the place of grass-fed New Zealand beef and lamb as part of our national cuisine with the voices of our Ambassador Chefs leading the way


 
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2026-2027

AMBASSADOR CHEFS

 
 
APPLY HERE
 
 

The role of a Beef + Lamb Ambassador Chef offers a unique opportunity to elevate your career, deepen your understanding of New Zealand’s beef and lamb industry, and gain firsthand insight into the people, passion, and provenance behind the product. For the 2026/27 Ambassador Chef programme, two outstanding chefs will be selected to represent Beef + Lamb New Zealand.

The refined programme puts a strong focus on connecting chefs with New Zealanders through engaging digital content on the Beef + Lamb New Zealand platforms, while offering opportunities to collaborate on special dining events, represent Beef + Lamb New Zealand at industry functions, and feature as culinary thought leaders. In return, Beef + Lamb New Zealand will actively promote the Ambassador Chefs and their restaurants across its consumer channels.

APPLICATION TIMELINE

Applications open - Wednesday 14th January 2026
Applications close - midnight on Monday 23rd February 2026
Restaurant assessing period - 2nd to 21st March 2026
Onboarding and content creation days in Auckland & Waikato - 20th & 21st April 2026
The 2026-2027 new Ambassador Chefs announced - May 2026

 
 

NATIONAL LAMB DAY 2026

 

National Lamb Day is an opportunity to celebrate our New Zealand lamb producers, no matter the conditions they ensure we have the best quality kai available for our tables. New Zealand lambs are grass-fed and pasture-raised, ensuring New Zealand lamb is some of the tastiest in the world. New Zealand chefs are at the forefront of serving up the most delicious lamb dishes on their menus to showcase the hard work done by our farmers.

We’d love to showcase your lamb dish during the month of February - find out more on the official National Lamb Day website - click the button below.

National Lamb Day webiste
 

 

about beef + lamb nz

Beef + Lamb New Zealand is a not-for-profit organisation responsible for the domestic marketing of beef and lamb in New Zealand. We are funded by levies from farmers, meat processors and retailers. 

The Beef and Lamb New Zealand foodservice portfolio has been around for a long time.  Back in the 1980’s they ran the Lamb Cuisine Awards which helped put New Zealand lamb on restaurant menus around the country. In 1997 the Awards became the Hallmark of Excellence Awards which was developed by a group of chefs to include both beef and lamb dishes and to establish what was to go on to be New Zealand’s longest running culinary award. The Beef and Lamb Excellence Awards ran for 23 years and during that time awarded the prestigious gold plate to over 3000 restaurants around the country. 

The Ambassador Chef Programme evolved from the Beef + Lamb Excellence Awards and for almost three decades has seen some of our best loved chefs join the beef and lamb family as Ambassador Chefs. Some of these chefs have gone on to become Platinum which is a lifetime status granted to chefs for their longevity as ambassadors for Beef + Lamb New Zealand. In 2021 Beef + Lamb launched their inaugural search for a Beef + Lamb Young Ambassador Chef which is a competition held bi-annually for chefs under the age of 26.

Beef + Lamb New Zealand’s vision is for kiwi chefs to value and celebrate the place of grass-fed New Zealand beef and lamb as part of our national cuisine and for the voices of our Ambassador Chefs to lead the way. 

The role of the Ambassador Chefs is to help shine a light on the New Zealand food story with inspiration, innovation, and elevation of New Zealand beef and lamb at the heart. They will help to celebrate New Zealand producers and their produce by telling the paddock to plate story through their menus.

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