Slice of Life

By Peter Gordon - July 2008

Matariki and the Firstlight team in London, and my New Book

For the first time ever, we celebrated Maori ‘New Year’ at our restaurant in London. Matariki is a celebration that’s been gaining increasing awareness in New Zealand, celebrating as it does the start of the planting season, the passing away of family members, the remembrance of ancestors and the start of a new year. The future harvest is celebrated, abundance is hoped for hopefully the year ahead will be good for everyone, in all manner of ways. In New Zealand the renewed interest in this indigenous celebration is now gaining momentum and we were asked by Tourism New Zealand to help celebrate it in London. For the month of June we highlighted dishes on our menu utilising indigenous New Zealand produce, and then we catered to a large group of UK-based journalists at an event in the penthouse of New Zealand House at the bottom of Haymarket – which I have to say has the best view of London – see this month’s photo.

We first had to source as much indigenous food as we could, and so we called in the help of New Zealand-based company Little Karoo – owned and operated by John Millward. Through John we were able to source freeze-dried kina and paua, horopito and kawakawa, harakeke (flax seeds), manuka smoked salt, smoked kelp, karengo and Manuka honey powder. These ingredients were fantastic, and they really allowed us to celebrate Matariki properly. In the UK we can source kumara, several NZ honeys, and the more contemporary produce such as NZ lamb, venison, beef and the likes.

The freeze-dried kina ended up in a delicious panna cotta topped with dashi jelly (inspired by my previous month’s visit to Japan), the harakeke and horopito was mixed into hazelnut dukkah, the kawakawa was added to kumara tortilla and also mixed into vanilla meringues that we served with kiwifruit and Manuka honey cream, and the Manuka smoked salt – which is absolutely delicious, was sprinkled over anything we could think of. Many of our kiwi staff had never heard of Matariki so all in it was a very worthwhile celebration, and one in which the public, over a course of a month, were very interested in. The kina panna cotta was so popular that it’s still on the menu – served with seared tuna and seaweed puree, and I’ll be demonstrating it at The Auckland Food Show in late July.

Also in June I met up with several of the Firstlight team who were in London meeting with customers, talking through new projects and generally keeping an eye on the European markets. They’d been in Spain and were headed next to Italy, but their time in London was invaluable. There are a lot of very exciting projects on the boil at Firstlight, which you’ll no doubt be able to read about on this site in the coming months.

However, the thing that took up most of my energy in June was shooting the first photos for my new cookbook – a book that takes a close look at what Fusion Cuisine is all about. This is the cuisine that I find myself closely (and happily) associated with, and one in which I’m often called the ‘Father of’ in the UK and NZ. The term itself was coined, as far as I know, by an American chef called Norman Van Aken, back in the early ‘90s. Norman (who I had the pleasure of sharing a cooking demonstration with in Baltimore a few years ago) was combining many of the new Latino flavours emerging in the USA with more familiar American ingredients. I’d read about him, and the term he coined, and decided to use it to describe what I do myself.

Unlike Italian, Japanese, French or Turkish cuisines, Fusion is a relatively new concept – although one whose historical precedents go way back to the time that migrants or traders first began introducing ‘alien’ ingredients to foreign lands. Try to imagine Italian food without tomatoes or polenta – two ingredients that originated in the New World – Central America. That’s Fusion at work, yet the Italian kitchen is considered a classic… You’ll have to wait until late 2009 to buy my book but it’ll be worth it I promise.

The photo is the view from NZ House – where we celebrated Matariki to a group of UK based journalists.