Chef Peter Gordon creates a sandwich for Eat My Lunch which provides school kids with a lunch every time a customer buys from them. Video / Bethany Reitsma
Peter Gordon loves a sandwich, and he's about to show a bunch of Aucklanders how it's done at the Eat My Lunch kitchen.
On a Friday morning, the kitchen in an industrial building off K Rd is buzzing with activity.
The Kiwi chef has teamed up with Eat My Lunch to design both a buy and a give lunch. For every lunch ordered and bought, a lunch is given to a Kiwi kid in need.
So far, Eat My Lunch has given out over a million lunches and delivered to 79 schools in Auckland and Wellington. There are currently 90 schools on the waiting list for the give lunch delivery.
General manager Kellie Burbidge tells how some school-aged kids are so deprived of healthy food, they don't recognise simple vegetables like a baby carrot when it arrives in their lunch delivery.
Chef Peter Gordon loves a good sandwich. Photo / Supplied
"They'll have one of our lunches and then they'll go home and have two minute noodles for dinner. So it's just a good way to make sure kids are getting fed and that they're learning about nutrition and about cooking as well."
They're making little explainer cards to send out with some of the foods so that kids can learn more about nutrition while they're filling their tummies.
You can get a one-off meal or a subscription and the lunches are all delivered, meaning healthy and tasty packed lunches will arrive on your doorstep or at your workplace.
There's "simple", "hungry", and "salad" options, with low-carb, vegetarian and vegan choices.
Gordon first heard about Eat My Lunch through chef and friend Michael Meredith, who's a shareholder in the business.
"I thought it sounded amazing, it makes a big change," he said.
"In August Lisa [King, CEO] and I were both speaking at an event, and I thought, this is just fantastic. She compared what you see in different schools, how some kids get organic lunches and some kids go hungry. I hadn't realised this before and I thought, this is really important.
"We had a conversation about me coming out to the kitchen and creating a sandwich - one for the kids and one for selling. So I came out and visited the kitchen in November."
He created a kids' sandwich featuring pumpkin hummus, cooked green peas, ready salted potato chips, and chicken.
The adult's sandwich is where Peter's penchant for fusion food really shines. It's sushi in a sandwich - there's pickled ginger, cucumber ribbons, chicken, and a delicious mayo with miso and wasabi.
Gordon grew up eating some pretty good school lunches himself.
"We didn't have a lot of money, but I'd say we had meat every day unless we ate fish that we'd caught ourselves.
The adults' sandwich was sushi inspired. Photo / Supplied
"I would go to school with leftover roast meat and veggies packed onto a sandwich. Some of the kids would turn up with luncheon meat and tomato sauce on white bread and they'd want to swap their sandwiches with me.
"My go-to meal is a sandwich," he says.
His mum actually owned a sandwich business herself and he's got some favourite spots in London where you can get a good meal between two slices of bread.
So what inspired these particular sandwiches?
"I thought it would be nice to get crisps into a sandwich for the crunch. And get some green veg in there, so nutrient-wise it's probably pretty good along with the vegetable hummus. I wanted colour and crunch.
"For the adults, it was really sushi inspired. The wasabi, ginger and miso add freshness and I wanted to keep the same protein we'd used in the kids' meal," he says.
As always, this isn't the only thing on his plate at the moment. Gordon is currently filming a series for Māori Television about Māori heritage chefs. He's also moving back to Auckland soon after 31 years living in London.
On March 2 he's taking part in the 21st Leukaemia UK Who's Cooking Dinner event in London, along with over 20 other prominent chefs.
The annual event has raised over £8 million (around $16m) over the years since it was created by Gordon and restaurateur Chris Corbin.
"My grandmother instilled charity in us," the chef explains. All of the charities he's involved with are personal. He donated his bone marrow to his sister Tracey in the early nineties when she was diagnosed with leukaemia.
But although part of the appeal is in the fact that Eat My Lunch gives back, Gordon recognises that it's a business model.
"It's so simple and has a big impact. It's a really cool concept. And you get something for your donation as well."
