In our new four-part series, we ask well-known New Zealanders to write a letter to their younger selves, offering advice, guidance and reflection on where their life has taken them. First, chef and restaurateur href="https://www.nzherald.
co.nz/author/peter-gordon/" target="_blank"> Peter Gordon , who has owned restaurants in Auckland , Wellington, London, New York and Istanbul When people ask, I tell them that I had a really cool and fun childhood, but looking back on it, there were a lot of things that could have derailed me. Apart from my three older sisters, I was the only person I knew with divorced parents.
My mum Timmy and dad Bruce both remarried and soon I had two half brothers, one step-brother and step-sister. I went from being the youngest of four siblings to being the fourth of eight, albeit living in two different cities – Whanganui and Auckland. I’ve always had an interest in cooking and would help Dad prepare dinner each night.
Mum tells me I made a cooking scrapbook at age 4 but it was lost as the whānau split up. One of the most pivotal moments in my life was when, aged 7, I was alone in the kitchen cooking fish and chips. I had set up a (wobbly) stool so I could reach the pot, but inevitably I fell from it, and in the process, I managed to pull the pot of boiling oil over my head.
I remember the moment vividly. I remember the American sitcom Julia , starring Diahann Carroll, was playing on the TV. I remember watching Dad skid past me on his knees on th.