Image: Peter Gordon's Roast fennel with olive and orange stuffing

Peter Gordon on vegetables

'Fusion food' master Peter Gordon discusses the issues of buying organic, sourcing produce and how the ethics of 'food miles' affects the cooking of a dedicated follower of fusion. You can also try some of Peter's new recipes.

About Peter Gordon

New Zealand-born Peter Gordon, co-owner and head chef of London's Providores and Tapa Room, is renowned as a leading light of the Antipodean 'fusion' style of cookery. Although he's not a vegetarian himself, Peter's latest cookery book, Vegetables: The New Food Heroes, is a collection of mainly vegetarian recipes celebrating the flavours and adaptability of vegetables as more than a mere side dish to meat.

Peter's recipes are exciting, exotic and eclectic in their approach and use a range of vegetables and flavours both local and further-flung. BBC Food met up with Peter to ask about his motivations in championing the humble vegetable and the issues surrounding sourcing produce, organic considerations and the not-so-small matter of ethics and food miles for a chef specialising in globally influenced cuisine.

You're not a vegetarian, so what inspired you to dedicate a book to (mostly) vegetarian recipes?

Peter Gordon's Kohlrabi, cavolo nero, pine nut and tomato stew on sweet potato miso mash

Mainly because a lot of chefs seem to hate vegetarians. It's a general 'cheffy' feeling that veggies are the scum of the earth - and of course that's just not the case! I go through periods of vegetarianism myself (but always end up eating meat again).

I wrote a previous book on salads and that went down really well, so I decided that a serious take on vegetables was the next step. I wrote the chapters, considering the subjects I wanted to cover, then went out shopping for ingredients to inspire the recipes that are in the book. It was a lot of fun finding veg and working out the recipes. My one regret is that I forgot about asparagus and there's so much you can do with that!

What are your thoughts on organic vegetables vs non-organic?

Peter Gordon's Roast sweet potato, pineapple and bean pastries with tahini, chilli and lemongrass dressing

Well, when we were kids growing up in New Zealand we always had a garden, but it wasn't organic. We made our own compost and didn't douse the veggies with pesticides or chemicals, but it wasn't 'organic' growing, and those vegetables were fantastic.

If you go looking around a local farmers' market you'll find some superior, fabulous produce that, while not organic, most likely it's not been doused in pesticides and pumped full of chemicals, and it will be great food.

The bottom line, though, is that it's better to eat any vegetables than to not eat vegetables at all, and if the choice is only non-organic then I'd eat the non-organic. There's an elitism promoted in the food media, that only organic is tasty and good for you, but it ignores the cost implications for people on lower incomes. Yes, if you try an organic avocado next to a chemically reared, watery avocado, then you know there's a difference, but there are also plenty of non-organic vegetables that are fine to eat.

Are there any vegetables that you absolutely insist on being organic before buying them, or any that you really don't mind being non-organic?

Peter Gordon's Savoy cabbage, mushroom and blue cheese polenta bake

Vegetables-wise, I'm not precious about organic, but I think that root vegetables are a worry, as they tend to absorb the chemicals put into the soil. You should always peel your carrots if they're non-organic, as the skin absorbs a lot of what's put into the soil. In the restaurant we always use organic flour, eggs, bread, flour and I'm picky about the meats we use - certainly always organic chicken. I'd never buy non-organic milk or soya products (and I avoid anything genetically modified in soya products too).

You use some 'exotic', well-travelled ingredients in your cooking; what are your feelings on the distance your food might have travelled to make it to the plate?

I find this attitude to food imports strange - especially when it's coming from chefs. For the Soil Association to talk about declassifying anything that has travelled air miles and deny it organic status is a step too far.

Peter Gordon's Roast fennel with olive and orange stuffing

I mean, if we're going to ban such organic imports, then I'd like to see similar UK exports banned and declassified; for example, no more Duchy Originals should be exported as they will not be certifiable as organic. I find it a bit hilarious - where does it all end? Are we going to ban imports of Champagne and Chianti? French cheese? Do we stop all flights eventually?

I think that it is important to support local producers and to source ingredients locally wherever possible, but if I were to take that to the extremes suggested by some voices, I could never use New Zealand lamb or New Zealand Manuka honey. I couldn't cook with star anise or pomegranate molasses if I refused anything with a 'food mile' attached to it. I like variety and like to cook fusion food, often using exotic ingredients, and for that, inevitably, I require ingredients from further afield. I'm not going to give up cooking the way I love to cook.

It seems to suit chefs at the moment to bad-mouth anything non-local and non-organic, but then they cook a local product with coconut. It might be organic coconut, but it certainly came from abroad, and to ignore that is ridiculous.

Does the same apply to the issue of seasonality?

Peter Gordon's Butternut, pecan, ricotta and sage pasties

Seasonality is a large part of this debate, and again, while I love to cook seasonally and think people should try to cook within the seasons, as that's when the local produce is best, there are some limits. If I were in a vegetable box delivery scheme in the UK that was organic, seasonal and exclusively local, in the winter I'd be pulling my hair out. There's only so much turnip and swede a man can take!