Plabita Florence
Plabita Florence is owner and head chef of Forest. Forest started as a pop up back in 2018, and is now a 30-seater restaurant in Auckland. Having been raised vegetarian, Plabita runs Forest under the same umbrella, but makes it her mission to explore interesting and thoughtful techniques to reference nostalgic flavours, whether they be dishes we used to eat as kids, lollies we got from the dairy, or just a wild flower or herb that was picked and sniffed. Forest was first awarded a hat in Cuisine's Good Food Guide for 2022, since then Plabita was named Evolving Woman in Food & Drink for 2023, and Forest has been included in both Metro and Viva's Top 50 Restaurants lists in 2023.
