Executive chef Matthew Bentley will oversee four food and beverage venues at the new Andaz Gold Coast, alongside Rafael Dias, who will lead the kitchen at Mediterranean restaurant Nove
Matthew Bentley has been appointed executive chef at Andaz Gold Coast, where he will oversee four food and beverage venues as Australia's first Andaz hotel prepares to open in Broadbeach.
The British-Australian chef will lead the food operation across Nove Restaurant and Bar, Vista Lounge, Verde Bar and the Andaz Pool Club, with each offering a different menu and style of service.
Joining him is Brazilian-born Rafael Dias, who has been appointed chef de cuisine at Nove, the hotel's Mediterranean restaurant.
The appointments bring together Matthew's experience in European fine dining and Australian hotel kitchens with Rafael's background in Gold Coast hospitality.
The culinary team is developing menus focused on Australian produce, with fire playing a central role in the cooking at Nove and the pool club.
From European kitchens to hotel leadership
Matthew's career has taken him through restaurants in the UK, Netherlands and Norway, including The Old Vicarage, Restaurant Vermeer, De Moerbei and London's ROKA Restaurants.
He also spent time working in Svalbard, the Norwegian Arctic archipelago, where the climate and limited availability of fresh ingredients influenced the way kitchens approached food.
In a 2020 interview with Conversation with a Chef, Matthew described spending a year in Svalbard cooking Nordic food, using local ingredients and preservation techniques.
After relocating to Australia in 2018, he worked at Hotel Lindrum in Melbourne before joining Ovolo Hotels.
In 2021, Matthew was appointed executive chef at Ovolo Nishi in Canberra, overseeing Monster Kitchen and Bar, where the menu focused on vegetables, fermentation and preservation.
He later joined W Sydney as executive sous chef, gaining experience as part of the hotel's opening team.
At Andaz Gold Coast, Matthew will again be involved in establishing a new hotel kitchen operation, this time with responsibility for four food and beverage concepts.
Rafael Dias brings fire-led cooking to Nove
While Matthew oversees the wider operation, Rafael will lead the kitchen at Nove.
Born in Brazil to a family with Italian, Spanish and Portuguese heritage, Rafael grew up around cooking traditions that included preparing food over open fires.
He has spent more than a decade working in Gold Coast kitchens, including The Star Gold Coast, the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre and The Valley Estate in Currumbin Valley.
At Nove, the menu will draw on culinary traditions from Catalonia, the Basque Country, southern France and Italy.
A stone-hearth oven will be central to the cooking, with planned dishes including Sommerlad heritage chicken, slow-roasted in a clay pot before being finished over intense heat to develop caramelised skin. It will be served with a mushroom and brandy sauce.
Another dish features koji-glazed Moreton Bay bugs with Spanish Bomba rice, squid ink and piquillo aioli.
The menu will also include a tiramisu finished tableside.
The dishes bring together Mediterranean techniques and Australian ingredients, with Rafael responsible for delivering the restaurant's day-to-day kitchen operation.
Four venues and a focus on Australian produce
Beyond Nove, Matthew will oversee the food offering at three additional venues.
Vista Lounge will focus on breakfast and all-day café service, including ricotta hotcakes, pastries and a layered crêpe cake.
The Andaz Pool Club will take a different approach, with Levantine-inspired sharing dishes, freshly baked flatbreads and meats cooked over natural wood charcoal on an Asado Parrilla grill.
Verde Bar will offer a smaller selection of snacks alongside its drinks menu.
Across the operation, Matthew is targeting almost 70 per cent Australian produce, with particular emphasis on suppliers from Queensland and the Northern Rivers.
Producers identified in the hotel's sourcing plans include Miami Fish Market, Australian Bay Lobster, Bread Social Bakery and Nimbin Valley Cheese.
The different menus will see the culinary team working across breakfast, casual dining, open-fire cooking and restaurant service.
For Matthew, whose previous hotel roles have included overseeing both restaurant and wider food operations, the appointment builds on his experience managing different kitchen requirements within a single property.
Andaz Gold Coast is preparing to open in Broadbeach later in 2026, with Matthew and Rafael leading the culinary programme at the 202-room hotel.
