Chef's Twitter prayers answered

New Zealand chef Matt Lambert of New York's Musket Room meets with UNDP chief and former PM Helen Clark.

Kiwi chef Matt Lambert has had his Twitter prayers answered: Helen Clark entered his building ... and ate.

The owner and chef at the New York-based restaurant The Musket Room had been lamenting the fact on Twitter that it was "getting harder to sleep every night. The most distinguished Kiwi in NYC @HelenClarkUNDP hasn't eaten @MusketRoom yet".

On Monday she came, she ate, she left and she tweeted. "Great to meet NZ chef @MusketMatt @MusketRoom last night: putting best of Kiwi innovation in cuisine on the plate!"

The meal was so impressive she tweeted a second time to point out that he already had a Michelin star.

He tweeted back "@MusketRoom will have a great sleep tonight. Thanks so much for coming in!"

A true honor! This evening we lucky enough to cook for none other than @HelenClarkUNDP thanks for joining us. pic.twitter.com/shtTHCXFmx

— MusketRoom (@MusketRoom) July 28, 2015

I know all this because I was there. But I don't think it was the power of social media that got her there.

When I interviewed Helen Clark in Wellington last month, I asked her if she would come to a dinner in New York with senior NZ journalists when we were in town for New Zealand's presidency of the Security Council.

I said we would take her to a restaurant run by an amazing young Kiwi chef who won a Michelin star six months after opening and who remains true to his Henderson roots.

I had written about him twice but never tasted his food. I had certainly never seen his tweets imploring her to visit.

I sent Matt a note two days before the booking asking whether he could pop up from the kitchen to say hello. He said he hadn't been working that night but he would be now. That's how the most distinguished Kiwi in New York met one of the hottest chefs in New York.