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Illustration by Trevor Flynn

Events

2011

November 26 bullet Elections in NZ
Get out and vote!

November 16 bullet Hanz Herzog wine dinner at dine by Peter Gordon (Auckland)
Contact dine for details.

November 14 bullet The Providores Winemaker's Dinner with Forrest (London)
Beth from Forrest in Marlborough joins the team at The Providores for another in our series of Winemakers Dinners.
More about wine dinners and other events at The Providores.

November 12 bullet Air New Zealand Wine Awards (Auckland)
I'll be attending the Air NZ Wine Awards. This is the premier wine competition in New Zealand recognising excellence in winemaking, and has been running for over 30 years.

October 24 bullet UK-NZ Culinary Fellowship Competition (London)
The UK-NZ Culinary Challenge was set up to promote an interchange between young UK and New Zealand chefs whereby one winner from each country would be offered the opportunity to experience the culinary delights of each country with stints working in some of the top restaurant kitchens.
The 2011 competition, sponsored by The Craft Guild of Chefs, takes place at Westminster Kingsway College, London, on Monday 24 October.
More details, including how to apply, on the UK-NZ Culinary Challenge website.
View a clip from the 2010 Challenge.

October 18 bullet Matilda The Musical opens (London)
The Cambridge Theatre is just yards away from Kopapa, my restaurant in Seven Dials, London. We're getting excited about the opening of Matilda The Musical, which opens at The Cambridge on 18th October. This is an RSC production with words and music by Tim Minchin, based on the Roald Dahl book.
More about the show here, including a trailer.

October 14 bullet Cacao dinner at The Providores with Paul a. Young (London)
This is the second of two cacao-themed dinners that I'll be hosting at The Providores with award-winning chocolatier Paul a. Young. We'll be serving a 6 course menu, devised by Paul and myself, with matching wines.
Paul and I will be introducing the dishes and talking about the chocolate, flavour profiles and the matching of ingredients. We'll also be joined by chocolate makers Philipp Kauffman of Original Beans and Bertil Akesson of Akessons, who will introduce their chocolate and be on hand to answer questions.
To book or for more info, please email Mel Ellis: mel@theprovidores.co.uk
View the menu
More about Paul a. Young

October 11 bullet The Providores Winemaker's Dinner with Seresin (London)
The Providores team host a wine dinner featuring favourites and new releases from the Seresin vineyard.
More about wine dinners and other events at The Providores.

October 10 bullet Cacao dinner at The Providores with Paul a. Young (London)
This is the first of two cacao-themed dinners that I'll be hosting at The Providores with famed chocolatier Paul a. Young. We'll be serving a 6 course menu, devised by Paul and myself, with matching wines, to celebrate Chocolate Week.
The second dinner, on Friday 14 October, will also feature appearances from selected chocolate producers.

To book or for more info, please email Mel Ellis: mel@theprovidores.co.uk
View the menu
More about Paul a. Young

October 6 bullet French Laundry pop-up at Harrods (London)
Thomas Keller's French Laundry pop-up is in town. I'll be helping out my good friend, Claire Clark and her team on desserts. Claire is now freelance but was previously Head Pastry Chef at The French Laundry. Her dessert for the pop-up is her take on the classic American S'more: caramel chocolate cake, peanut butter mousse, candy corn, marshmellow sauce, candied peanuts, Graham cracker crumbs and popcorn sherbet. Wow!
See photos on Kopapa's Facebook page (6th October entries).

October 3-17 bullet London Restaurant Festival
Kopapa, my restaurant in Seven Dials, London, is taking part in the London Restaurant Festival for the first time. Head Chef Leigh Hartnett and I have created some lovely dishes for our menu, and the whole team and I are looking forward to showcasing what we do during the festival fortnight.
View menu
More about London Restaurant Festival

Make a reservation
(Please quote 'London Restaurant Festival menu' in the COMMENT box.)

September 13 bullet The Providores Winemaker's Dinner with Astrolabe (London)
Simon Waghorn from Astrolabe vineyard in Marlborough joins my Head Chef Cristian Hossack and the Providores team for the September wine dinner.
More about wine dinners and other events at The Providores.

September 10 bullet Cooking demo at Farro Fresh (Auckland))
I'll be giving a demo at Farro Fresh, Lunn Street, Auckland at 10am.

Farro Fresh website

September 8 bullet Vogue's 'Fashion's Night Out' (London)
'Fashion's Night Out' is coming to Covent Garden for the first time, and Kopapa is one of the local restaurants taking part. Our suitably-minimalist special for the night is a glass of Taittinger Champagne with a pan fried scallop, chilli sauce and creme fraiche.
(p.s. Other, more substantial dishes are also available!)

September 9 - October 23 bullet Rugby World Cup, hosted by New Zealand
I'll be in NZ for the start of the tournament. Good luck to NZ, and all the Home Nations too!
Official Rugby World Cup website

September 7 - October 23 bullet The Best of London Auckland: dishes from The Providores to feature on menus at my New Zealand restaurants
I'm really happy that both my restaurants at SKYCITY in Auckland are going to be showcasing dishes from menus at one of my London restaurants, The Providores and Tapa Room. During my last visit to Auckland, I sat down with the Executive Chefs of the SKYCITY restaurants to think of a way to bring a special service to the customers of dine and Bellota. The half London, half Auckland menu was born. This is our way of joining in on the international flavour that New Zealand will be experiencing during the Rugby World Cup, and I'm excited about seeing the reaction from our guests.
The menu at dine by Peter Gordon will be half a la carte and half prie fixe while Bellota will host six tapas from the Tapa Room and six from Bellota.

View dine menus
To contact any of my restaurants, please follow the links from the Restaurants page.

August 31 bullet The Providores Winemaker's Dinner with Framingham (London)
Join my team at The Providores for a dinner featuring Framingham Vineyard with winemaker Andrew Hedley.
SOLD OUT!
Check the News & Events section of The Providores website for more Winemakers Dinners.

August 30 bullet Presenting at the SPCA Good Egg Awards (Auckland)
I'm proud to be presenting at SPCA Blue Tick's first Compassion in World Farming Good Egg Awards. The Good Egg Awards reward companies for sourcing cage-free eggs in the course of their operations.
Follow SPCA Blue Tick on Twitter

August 23 - September 14 bullet At my New Zealand restaurants
I'll be working with my chefs and managers at dine by Peter Gordon and Bellota in Auckland.

August 15 bullet The Providores turns 10!
This month we're celebrating ten years of The Providores and Tapa Room. On behalf of Michael McGrath, myself and the team, thanks to all our fantastic customers, many of whom have been coming in since we opened. The team love serving and cooking for you all, and we hope we will be fortunate enough to enjoy your support over the next 10 years. (Yes, we did celebrate the birthday with a party, and a few photos will be appearing on Kopapa's Facebook page soon!)

July 22nd-23rd bullet Port Eliot Festival, Cornwall (UK)
View some of my photos from the festival in this Facebook album:
Port Eliot album

July 23rd bullet Port Eliot Festival, Cornwall (UK)
Day 3 of the festival, and I'll be doing a demo at 2pm in The Big Kitchen.
More about Port Eliot Festival

July 22nd bullet Port Eliot Festival, Cornwall (UK)
I'll be appearing at the wonderful Port Eliot Festival, doing a barbecue demo which will include banana leaf wrapped salmon with seaweed sauce and cucumber salad on The Bowling Green at 5.30pm.

July 1st - 3rd bullet The Big Feastival (London)
The Big Feastival is the first UK festival of its kind. Described as "the first boutique festival of first-class food and top-notch live music", it's on London's Clapham Common from Friday 1st July until Sunday 3rd July. Several chefs and restaurants, including The Providores and yours truly, will be running pop-ups, and all the festival's profits go to two charities, The Jamie Oliver Foundation and The Prince's Trust. The Providores' featured dish, specially created for the festival, is 'The NZ Lamb Sam: grilled ciabatta filled with roast spiced New Zealand lamb, minted yoghurt, tomato tamarind gooseberry chutney and salad'.
I'm also going to be giving two food demos. Meanwhile, take a look, and buy tickets!
View our Facebook albums for this event:
Album 1
Album 2

June 25th bullet Soho Food Feast (London)
Kopapa, my newest London restaurant, will be participating in Soho Food Feast, at St Anne's Church garden, Wardour Street.
View details and buy tickets
View our Facebook album for this event

June 9th and 10th bullet Singapore Takeout on the South Bank (London)
Singapore launches its latest global initiative today as they send a shipping container that becomes a kitchen for demos and food service. In each city they visit they have chosen 1 local chef to work with a Singaporean based chef to showcase some of the most innovative and tasty food around. And guess who's the local British chef they've picked? Me! Come along and taste what I'm cooking alongside the fabulous Janice Wong from 2am:dessertbar. I'll be serving an oyster, crab and mango omelette, a sweet and tangy pork dish with peanuts and roast pineapple chutney, and a dessert of pandan tapioca, almond coconut cream, berries and sherry jelly. For more information on the event, click here to read my friend Aun Koh's blog

May 6th and 7th bullet The Christchurch Food and Wine Festival, Dorset (UK)
I'll be cooking and demonstrating at this wonderful annual Dorset food festival. I'll also be creating and cooking at a gala dinner at the wonderful Captain's Club Hotel too.
View website

March 15th bullet Leith's cooking class (London)
I'll be teaching a hands-on one day cooking class at Leith's School of Food and Wine
www.leiths.com/enthusiasts-courses/cooking-with-peter-gordon/

March 7th bullet Who's Cooking Dinner? at the Four Seasons Hotel (London)
Our annual pop-up dinner-party fundraiser for Leuka: please see my charities page for more details on the charity and the event. As for the dinner, this will be our 12th - I conceived the idea for this unique fundraiser back in 1999. Our 2011 line-up of 20 chefs, cooking side by side in the kitchen of The Four Seasons Hotel to raise money to fight leukaemia, are: Tom Aikens, Rainer Becker, Claude Bosi, Sally Clarke, Richard Corrigan, Mark Edwards, Chris and Jeff Galvin, Brett Graham, Mark Hix, Phil Howard, Tim Hughes, Pierre Koffman, Michele Lombardi, Bruno Loubet, Francesco Mazzei, Nuno Mendes, Julian O'Neill, Tong Chee Hwee, Marcus Wareing, and my head-chef from the Providores Cristian Hossack
www.whoscookingdinner.com/thefounderswho%27s.html