In our new four-part series, we ask well-known New Zealanders to write a letter to their younger selves, offering advice, guidance and reflection on where their life has taken them. First, chef and restaurateur Peter Gordon, who has owned restaurants in Auckland, Wellington, London, New York and Istanbul
When people ask, I tell them that I had a really cool and fun childhood, but looking back on it, there were a lot of things that could have derailed me.
Apart from my three older sisters, I was the only person I knew with divorced parents. My mum Timmy and dad Bruce both remarried and soon I had two half brothers, one step-brother and step-sister. I went from being the youngest of four siblings to being the fourth of eight, albeit living in two different cities – Whanganui and Auckland.
I’ve always had an interest in cooking and would help Dad prepare dinner each night. Mum tells me I made a cooking scrapbook at age 4 but it was lost as the whānau split up. One of the most pivotal moments in my life was when, aged 7, I was alone in the kitchen cooking fish and chips. I had set up a (wobbly) stool so I could reach the pot, but inevitably I fell from it, and in the process, I managed to pull the pot of boiling oil over my head.
I remember the moment vividly. I remember the American sitcom Julia, starring Diahann Carroll, was playing on the TV. I remember watching Dad skid past me on his knees on the fat-covered kitchen lino, waiting for the ambulance to arrive – it didn’t. I remember Dad and my step-mum Rose putting me in their V8 Chevy Impala and rushing to get help, nearly hitting the ambulance as it left the hospital gate on its way to collect me. I had three long stays in Whanganui, Palmerston North, and Lower Hutt hospitals where I had a skin graft. I’ll sometimes say to people “Kiss my butt” as the skin from there is on my neck.