Meet the boss
Jude and Tiffany Messenger are the owners and operators of The Bistro in Taupo. Jude has spent the past 30 years in demanding kitchens both here in New Zealand and abroad, taking his opportunities and focusing on growth and development every step of the way. That attitude has not changed to the present day, where he sets his own high standard and lofty goals and is continuously looking for improvement.
A cooking scholarship over 24 years ago was to springboard Jude’s overseas work experience. This took him to the USA where he met Tiffany, and from there they set off for the UK. Since returning to New Zealand, the couple have six children together, and they believe there is something very special about having a restaurant to build with their young family.
Over the past 16 years Jude has received multiple accolades, including winning a category at the HANZ awards for excellence in 2009, and in 2010 he was a finalist in the Kapiti Chef Collection. Jude won the Monteiths Beer and Wild Food Challenge TV series in 2011 and he has achieved the New Zealand Beef and Lamb Hall Mark award on multiple occasions.
Since opening The Bistro in 2012, the restaurant has been consistently recognised in the Cuisine Good Food guide and made the Restaurant of the year final every year from 2016 until now, receiving a one Hat rating 2018/19 and 2023/24, and two Hats in 2025.
Keeping it simple but nice …
A family-owned restaurant
There is something very rewarding about building a family-owned restaurant to share with our beautiful children. The three eldest have grown up and left home now to continue their studies. The two little ones, (well not so little anymore!) love nothing more than coming down in their Bistro uniforms to push a few loads through the dish washer or peel a bag of garlic. The middle one (number four) can jump on the cold larder / dessert section when need be, or he can run a section in the dining room on a Saturday night. They all understand that this is our family business, and it takes all of us working together both at The Bistro and at home to make it all happen.
We passionately believe in what we are trying to achieve, and are so excited about raising our children with food and healthy living in their hearts and caring for and serving people at the core of their being.
Jude Messenger
Tiffany has shaped our home
When I first met my wonderful wife Tiffany Joy she was in the middle of an Environmental Science Degree at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon USA. The year was 2001, and It would be fair to say that I somewhat interrupted her progress. But she did get there in the end, albeit seven or so years later.
Through her studies, Tiffany became very passionate about sustainability and preserving the environment, and she beautifully introduced this into our home by making all our cleaning products, from surface cleaners and shampoo to laundry detergent and toothpaste. With a brand-new Restaurant, six children including baby twins, ten chickens, a worm farm, a vegetable garden and a dog this was no easy feat. But we soon saw very clearly that it was well worth the effort, for it is the way in which our children are raised, knowing about the simplest things in life and caring about making them available for the next generation. This is what we call success.
Jude Messenger
My Dad’s garden
When I was a kid, growing up in Foxton Beach with my two brothers and our dad, I have wonderful vivid memories of our enormous vegetable garden. Dads’ amazing vege patch was half of our full quarter-acre section, and it was lush, perfectly cared for. Our house backed onto Foxton Beach primary school, so in the summer time we would come home for lunch via the garden, pick a couple of tomatoes, a lettuce, a cucumber and a handful of sweet peas and make our sammie’s on fresh wholemeal Molenberg bread.
Back in the mid 80’s Dad used to pay us ten cents for every white butterfly that we were able to disarm with our badminton rackets, to protect our precious veggies. We had a fig tree, globe artichokes, aubergine, watermelon, garlic, multiple varieties of beans and tomatoes, radishes, apple cucumbers and much more. As the seasons changed, Dad’s garden evolved, from bright sunny colours to cold weather greens and golds. A fluorescent orange Marigold hedge bordered this beautiful landscape, and Dad taught us to appreciate the intimate relationship we have with our food. Now I have my own organic, regenerative garden that converts the restaurants vegetable waste into beautiful compost, and my children enjoy the passion for growing food that my dad passed onto me.
We love you Dad, and we miss you …