New Zealand food doesn't really have a strong individualistic style, except in the sense of the old English meat and two veg. We use ingredients that are grown here, but the influences come from a lot of the other cultures that we have here."Meredith and I wander down to Auckland harbour, which was completely redeveloped for the America's Cup in 2003 (which New Zealand lost to Switzerland). Meredith, a Pacific Islander, applies what he describes as a "modern New Zealand approach". "New Zealand culture is so 'multi' - European, Asian, Middle Eastern, Polynesian and Pacific - that we draw on different eating experiences That is what I think the modern style is. Peter's has green tea soba noodles with a quail egg and an authentic laksa smoked-chicken broth, into which are tossed Malaysian ingredients such as galangal, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, ginger, garlic and chilli This is a dish that Peter has created It's bloody good I've had a number of authentic laksas. Peter's is better."Another torchbearer of new New Zealand cuisine is Michael Meredith of The Grove restaurant.
"Peter has such a good understanding of the ingredients he uses. Take the laksa: a seafood, coconut and noodle soup that's basically an Asian bisque You don't need to go to Asia to find out how to make one. After roast Cambridge duck with cranberry galangal compote, the finale was vanilla meringue with tamarind mascarpone, vanilla roast pineapple, banana sorbet and feijoa syrup."It's about putting flavours from Polynesia together in a harmonious way," Gordon's right-hand chef Cobus Klopper tells me. After that came a Xany Zeus haloumi salad with water chestnut, then a coconut laksa followed by an intercourse guava and something sorbet served with a shot of iced sake. Dinner began with an amuse-bouche of seared sashimi of line-caught yellow fin with truffled yuzu, hijiki and umeboshi dressing - crisp, clean and clear, clearly aimed at people with diminished attention spans who crave an instant hit.
Dishes include Spronkled wattleseed prosciutto with yuma-yuma coulis with seared tataki mushroom and bok choy salsa. When I first ate his food at the Sugar Club in London, he hit a number of genuine highs, but some dishes were just experimental Frankenstein concoctions to see if they would work Gordon is now cooking in a different league. His food seems to have taken on gravitas, while losing none of the innovative edge, and it has the feel of a substantial cuisine, rather than just the effusions of a chef trying to re-invent the carrot.The menu at dine by Peter Gordon reads like his spell-check has got indigestion. The food on offer matches this magnificent setting.Gordon has always enthusiastically embraced kitchen multi-culturalism while staying on the sane side of the loony-eclecticism boundary. There are faintly oriental wood panels, leather banquettes and dark wood chairs. It's a serious-looking joint, which oozes substance * * and class. From the ceiling hang two great ring-shaped modern-glass sculpture chandeliers, which resemble rings of fire.