Velskov Hosts Food & Travel Creators for the MICHELIN Guide Launch in New Zealand

30 June: Sakiko Hirano, Shinnosuke Yoshimori and Nobuko Sugawara, Transit Magazine, Ami Nagase, TNZ, Clement Leung @insta.noodls, Tabitha Tao, Vincent Xu Renyu, Gu Yifan, Inna Weyrauch @petitesfeet.envoyage. Georgia Condon, Gourmet Traveller, Ye Jiahao, Lei Hanting, Photographer for Ye Hanting. Hong-Ying Liu (Ella), Ze Wei Chen, Liz Miu. 29 June: Theresa Chu-Bermudezn @getoutcustomtravels, Eleanor Dath‍, Emma Weissmann, Sara Stern, Elyse Palmer @elysetravelmanagers, Abby Pezze |Travel Associates. Velskov Team: Jen, Mamakan, Aneke, Jaqueline, Pita @velskov.forest

When the MICHELIN Guide made its historic arrival in New Zealand this June, the focus turned to the country’s world-class restaurants. Yet, culinary excellence extends beyond the city restaurant; it begins in the landscape itself.

Velskov hosted international visitors and invited them to forage, cook, and eat inside one of our most stunning landscapes, our unique rainforest.

As part of Tourism New Zealand’s Invited for Dinner campaign (a curated selection of 12 food experiences), Velskov was invited to host international media, chefs, trade experts, and industry leaders over two days, culminating in the national launch event in Auckland.

Everyone recognises Mānuka honey, but few have tasted the flower. The silver fern is iconic, but few know how native ferns taste. New Zealand food production is world-renowned, built on clean oceans, native forests, and rich soils.

But for many global visitors, connecting to the actual provenance of native ingredients remains rare. We wanted our guests to experience a deep, tactile connection to the flavour of New Zealand’s native forests through our core philosophy of GastroGeography: the taste of place. Discover the menu here.

The Velskov menu for the Michelin Guide launch. Download PDF.

To start, our Māori host and storyteller, Pita Turei, greeted guests with an intimate, relaxed welcome to the land. Each guest chose a native tree, which was planted to grow as part of the Velskov Food Forest.

Keeping warm around the fires, our morning tea featured Karaka coffee, Karaka tea, and a breakfast showcasing seasonal herbs harvested from the forest.

After foraging herbs and flowers, guests stepped up to the open wood fires to cook together. Combining the foraged native plants with regional produce, such as Bluff salmon and wood-fire grilled organic golden kiwifruit, the community cooking was fun - and yes, authenticity beats perfection. Gastronomical creativity flourished around the fire!

One guest, Theresa Chu-Bermúdez, invented a hit native salsa, featuring pickled Mamaku fern combined with local organic apples, pears, kiwifruit and spicy Horopito. In her own words: “I have never been more proud of anything I have made in a kitchen in my entire life. We shared the meal we had built together around that fire, and it tasted like something more than the sum of its ingredients. It tasted like community + intention.”

Social media has been buzzing, and videos of Velskov shared by influencers after the event have had over 1,000,000+ views (and counting) across social platforms. One video sparked a hilarious conversation surrounding what kind of foods grow in New Zealand’s forests. For the record, we don’t grow kiwi fruit, salmon and blue cheese in our native forests! And no, Velskov is not a restaurant either; we are just a farm.

We extend our warm congratulations to all the New Zealand restaurants recognised by the MICHELIN Guide: congratulations to Chef Henry at Tala, who previously joined us at Velskov to cook over open wood fires in the rain during the WIPC conference and especially Kingi & The Hotel Britomart, our long-standing partners since 2024 who co-created the Nourishing Nature tour. Also, a very warm thank you to the superb TNZ team for including us.

As for the MICHELIN Guide, we hope to see future guides celebrate not just restaurants and hotels, but also experiences in the landscapes, on farms, on the ocean, and in food forests where those flavours belong. As food culture evolves, the future of dining points toward stronger food provenance and a deeper connection to the land.

Pita Turei sharing stories about Maori connections with the land while planting a native tree at Velskov.

Behind the Scenes

Behind every viral moment is the quieter, daily commitment of forest farming and caring for the land. Located in the protected Waitākere Ranges heritage area, Velskov operates completely off-grid. We have no municipal mains or grid power. We rely on rainwater harvesting, composting systems, and continuous biodiversity work from native planting to weed and pest management. We wash dishes by hand using rainwater.

Hosting guests is the cherry on top, but our daily work is hard mahi and stewardship. We love sharing our knowledge and welcome the public every Wednesday to explore and unlock native foraging as part of our Nourishing Nature experience, as well as for private bookings.

Looking forward, our next focus centres on GastroEcology, the connection between healthy, biodiverse ecosystems and human wellbeing. During the busy June, guests experienced dishes like Tumm 30+, crafted with over 30 native botanicals, plants, fruits, seeds, and nuts. Just as a forest requires all physical layers to thrive, our internal microflora thrives on complex, native biodiversity. By nourishing nature through activities such as planting native trees, foraging, and eating wild plants, we nourish ourselves in return.

If you have any questions, please contact us at hebe@velskov.com or call/text +64 0272209107.