In continuing the NZBC’s series of interviews with food legends we thought it was time to redress the salad, as it were, and talk to a Kiwi. Peter Gordon (author of Salads – The New Main Course) was born in Wanganui and moved to Melbourne in 1981, where he cooked for five years before travelling through South-East Asia, which helped to inspire his fusion style. He returned to New Zealand to set up and run the kitchen of The Sugar Club in Wellington for owners Ashley Sumner and Vivienne Hayman, before moving to London in 1989. The Sugar Club in London — in Notting Hill and later in Soho — won prizes, including “Best Modern British Restaurant”; “Best Central Restaurant” in the Time Out Restaurant Awards; and “Best Pacific Rim Restaurant”. In 1999, the New Zealand Society in London named him “New Zealander of the Year”. He left to work on various projects before opening his widely acclaimed restaurant The Providores and Tapa Room in Marylebone High Street, in 2001. In 2005 the Restaurant Association of New Zealand presented him with its Westpac-sponsored Innovator’s Award. Peter joined NZBC for a virtual ristretto on the tail-end of yet another gruelling Auckland to London flight. More...