Peter Gordon a man for all seasons

Chef Peter Gordon. Picture / Glenn Jeffrey

Chef Peter Gordon is always up with the play and that means keeping pace with the seasons. That's what brought him back from London to mastermind a menu change at his Auckland restaurant, Dine at the Skycity Grand Hotel.

The internationally renowned executive chef will return four times a year to manage each season's menu changes.

For the winter menu he's taken advantage of some very fine food indeed. One of the items is a lightly smoked venison osso bucco stew - comfort food with high-class style. As well, there'll be grilled 300-day grain-fed angus beef fillet.

"The beef supplier is a farm just out of Christchurch and we're the only restaurant in the North Island to serve it," Gordon says.

In the starters line-up are sticky rice and sesame fritters, a recipe from Salads: The New Main Course, Gordon's latest cookbook.

Gordon, 42, comes from Wanganui. But although he is based in London and has lived overseas more than half his life, he is proud of his New Zealand heritage and his respect for our food is reflected in the many of this restaurant's dishes.

And he'll be keeping the favourites such as the seared sashimi, crab and tofu-crusted hapuku and pan-fried scallops.

Changes to the menu have been shaped by customers' remarks to the waiting staff and not from restaurant reviews.

"Some of the constructive criticism has been from my friends, who pop in every couple of weeks unannounced," Gordon says.

"One said the blue-cod plate wasn't hot enough and another said the coffee was too weak one day. Well, the plate was easy to fix and we worked out the coffee too.

"Among the most frequent comments from guests is how much they like the wine list and how fabulous the floor staff are."

Gordon's picks for the new winter menu include a fivespice quail starter. It's cooked Chinese-style - poached, boned-out and then deep-fried.

"Quails seem to be bigger and plumper here than they are in London," he says.

Other dishes include the smoked-coconut laksa starter and a pork-belly main, which is served on roast butternut and lemon-braised silverbeet, with red capsicum, pimento and sherry vinegar chutney.

"Pork belly was on the previous menu but all the garnishes with it have been changed," he said.

Although he's mainly to be found at his co-owned London restaurant the Providores, Gordon travels extensively, acting as an unofficial and unpaid ambassador for New Zealand food.

And with his name on the door at Dine, Gordon has a close involvement and keeps in touch with head chef Cobus Klopper by phone and email.

"Sometimes I'll get the time difference all wrong and ring up at nine on a Friday night. Cobus will say he really can't talk because he has 40 dockets waiting."

Klopper and his team email recipes and photos of daily special ideas, to which Gordon will respond. His attention to detail sometimes extends even to the way the specials menu is worded.

"I have been criticised for having long descriptions, but otherwise the diner doesn't have enough information on hand," Gordon says.

Not that he's a kitchen megalomaniac. When Dine opened in April the dishes were 95 per cent his own creations. The percentage now stands at about 80.

"Ultimately, I think it should be around 60/40 to me," he says. "That's a good mix to keep the kitchen on its toes but also gives Cobus and the others a sense of ownership."

It seemed like there was a touch of serendipity when Gordon hired Klopper, who had emigrated from South Africa.

"When we were planning the restaurant I imagined having a bonsai tree on the waiters' station counter," Gordon says. "It's a real skill to do bonsai properly. When I asked Cobus what he missed most about South Africa, he said it was leaving his 23 bonsai behind."

At the moment the bonsai is at Klopper's home, until he finds the right pot for it.

And yes, Gordon admits the bonsai may well be a metaphor for his perfectionism.