Savour

What defines a salad? Is it merely a few ingredients tossed together in a bowl with a dressing, or is it more complex than that? Acclaimed chef Peter Gordon shows us that salads are versatile and fun dishes that harmoniously combine a mixture of individually prepared ingredients, that when coming together, can either be very similar in texture and colour, or ones that oppose each other--such as crunch supporting smooth.

Peter demonstrates how salads can be made to suit your mood; some salads are perfectly crafted assemblages, whilst others are quickly put together. By adding a contrasting flavor or texture to a mix, it can often highlight other ingredients in the same dish. Throughout the recipes within Savour, you'll discover that it is the shock of a sweet roast grape that highlights sharp citrus notes, or a spicy chilli being used to add excitement to a sweet mango.

Peter's salads are wide-ranging and the recipes within Savour reflect this; from vegetarian dishes such as aubergine with gem, quinoa and pistachio, to red meat based salads such as poached veal with anchovy mayonnaise and potatoes. Whatever your mood, the occasion or season, there will always be a saladto complement it.

About the Author

Peter Gordon was born in the New Zealand coastal town of Whanganui. After moving to Melbourne in 1981, completing a four-year cookery course and working for five years as a chef in various restaurants, his spirit of adventure and culinary curiosity led him to travel through Asia for a year. This life-changing experience was to become a major influence on his culinary style. In 1986, he moved back to Wellington to become the Head Chef at the original Sugar Club restaurant, a role that would make his name as a chef.

His entrepreneurial spirit combined with his curiosity about food triggered his move to London in 1989. There he gradually introduced his eclectic cooking style, now called fusion, and won wide acclaim for his cooking at the two London branches of The Sugar Club in Notting Hill and west Soho. These days, Peter has restaurants in London (The Providores and Tapa Room in Marylebone, and Kopapa in Seven Dials, Covent Garden) and Auckland (Bellota and The Sugar Club - the fourth iteration of the iconic restaurant brand). He is also involved with artisan doughnut company Crosstown Doughnuts, which launched in London in April 2014. Peter has written seven books and contributed to a dozen others. He has appeared on British television, in programmes such as Saturday Kitchen and Nigel Slater and Jamie Oliver's Channel 4 food series, as well as being a guest judge on MasterChef New Zealand.

Most recently, he presented and was the executive producer of Native Kitchen (TV3 and Maori Television in NZ), a 10-part TV series in which he mentored a group of aspiring, young Maori chefs through a 10-day culinary boot camp. In 1999, Peter was the first to receive the New Zealander Of The Year award from The New Zealand Society in London. He is widely recognised as an ardent promoter of the food industry, and in 2009, he was awarded an ONZM (Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit - the NZ equivalent of an OBE) by The Queen for his services to the food industry.