Peter Gordon

Peter Gordon is perhaps New Zealand’s most internationally recognised chef. Born in Wanganui Peter started collecting recipes from the age of four and began cooking not long after. After completing a chef’s apprenticeship in Melbourne in 1985 he travelled throughout South East Asia, India and Nepal for a year before setting up the kitchen at The Sugar Club in Wellington in 1986. Peter moved to London in 1989 and worked at various restaurants until he established his name as executive chef at Mayfair’s Green Street Restaurant then at the Notting Hill and Soho branches of The Sugar Club. Peter opened his current restaurant The Providores and Tapa Room with his partners in August 2001.

www.peter-gordon.net
www.theprovidores.co.uk

Slice of Life 2007

By Peter Gordon - October 2007

Hello. I’m at home, really needing to pack my bags urgently, as I’m heading to NZ in a few hours time for a couple of weeks work. I’ll be tweaking and changing the menu at dine by Peter Gordon and Bellota restaurants in Auckland, as well making a wee appearance at Sabato to help promote my chutneys and dressings. I’ll also be on Breakfast TV on TVNZ to discuss the hot topic of food miles.

However as I wrote last month I’ve also been in Paris, cooking at a truly professional Tourism New Zealand initiative – The Big White Rugby Ball – which was situated 200 metres from the Eiffel Tower. The first of this month’s photos shows me, the ball, and the tower! That’s me ‘holding it up’, although, as it’s pumped full of air continuously, it needed no help. The show inside the ball was fantastic – it was the most dynamic ‘audio visual’ experience I’ve ever seen. To label it an AV show is akin to calling Tana Umaga someone who plays with a ball. The show had many NZ’ers choking back emotion, and many non-kiwis gagging to head over and experience it first hand. The show was all the more fabulous as it was projected inside the ball, onto the obviously concave, elliptical skin, using a new technology, mirrors and computer skills that produced a wonderful show, where you forgot you were not looking at a flat surface. Mike Mizrahi and his team, and the NZ Tourism team headed by Annie Dundas, have to be congratulated and thanked.

In the daytime the ball was open to the public (with tens of thousands attending over the weeks) but on 7 nights, 175 guests per event were hosted – eating and drinking the best produce and wine we could source from NZ. My role was to provide food that had a contemporary NZ resonance to those attending and I can happily say I think that we achieved that. There were too many dishes to list, but the definite favourites amongst the crowd were the Clevedon Coast oysters, the NZ lamb loin rolled with cucumber and walnut dukkah, the smoked NZ venison with peanuts, coriander, lime and chilli, and the NZ beef Tatar with crispy buckwheat and yuzu.

For those of you heading to Paris, you might want to check out both a restaurant and a clothing store that we have become fans of. The restaurant, where we ate many lunches, breakfasts and dinners was Les Cocottes de Christian Constant. Not far from the Eiffel Tower, at 135 rue Saint Dominique in the 7th arrondissement, it has tall tables, no bookings, a small menu and wine list, and great tasty food. Christian also owns a café, a fish restaurant, and a slightly more formal restaurant on the same block! Busy man. The clothing store is called Loft, and you’ll find 4 of them in the Marais area, just east of the Pompadour centre. Best to check them out at http://www.loftdesignby.com/ to find the address nearest to you. The shop sells basics like fine cotton tee shirts, linen shirts, cashmere jumpers and over coats, scarves and gloves. And if you’re feeling really excessive you could always buy a cashmere sweater for a 10 month old!

Previous to that I had a great holiday in Turkey. My partner Michael and I joined up with Tarik and Savas who own changa and muzedechanga restaurants in Istanbul, and we headed to the South Coast to sail around on the most beautiful quirky boat, which looked like something Captain Pugwash would have sailed on – see the attached photo. The week was spent eating a lot of tomato and sumac salads, whole baked Sea Bream, fig and grape bread we made for lunch one day, Turkish beef and lamb sausages studded with pistachio nuts, flat breads, Turkish cheese and anything else we could get our hands on. We drank lovely buttery but refreshing chardonnay and a great red-chocolate tasting merlot from the Turkish producer Doluca (pronounced Dol-u’ja) who are making fantastic wines.

Lastly, we received some Firstlight Wagyu beef cheek this week and so I’ve marinated it in chillied miso then slowly poached it in an oven bag for 3 ½ hours. We’re serving it at The Providores with balsamic shiitake mushrooms and pear chutney and it’s flying out the door. I’ll be playing with the same cut at dine by Peter Gordon and should have it on the menu (maybe just as it is in London) by the end of next week. Delicious.

Cheers, Peter