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 Clubin Notting Hill and west Soho. 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 M ori 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.