Award-winning Ben Bayly is leaving The Grove, the country’s top fine-dining restaurant, and making way for his mate and successor, Scott Denning.

After more than eight years at The Grove - and more recently sister restaurant Baduzzi - Bayly says he is ready for a change, taking time off to regroup, travel and spend time with family.

With big shoes to fill, his replacement Scott Denning is Auckland born and raised, but like Bayly, cut his teeth at revered Michelin star restaurants in London, including Le Gavroche, The Square and Pied à Terre.

Running his own restaurant Saison in Epsom for three years, Denning’s background also includes time on superyachts in the Caribbean and Mediterranean and in Russia where he helped set up and run various Western and Asian style restaurants in St Petersburg and Moscow.

It is this international influence, exposure to different cultures and experience in top European kitchens that Denning will bring to The Grove when he takes over the kitchen today (Sat 10 Feb).

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