Gordon Hamersley is the enduring and iconic chef and owner of Hamersley's Bistro.

It is a beautiful summer day. Sunlight streams through the large windows at the front of Hamersley's Bistro on Tremont Street. They look out over a small square of paving, set back from the road, creating an island between the restaurant and the busy street. I am waiting for Gordon Hamersley to arrive. He doesn't come in through the open front door, but arrives through the back entrance, passing through the kitchen on his way. He pauses for a quick discussion about the day's menu, some supplies that are late and a promised wine delivery. Somehow this sums up the man. "This restaurant is my life, it's how I define who I am and what I do," he says. Dressed in chef's whites he makes us a coffee and then settles down to talk about the restaurant and his career.

Gordon is a long term icon of Boston cooking. He has stayed the course for twenty years, sticking with a basic formula, that started in 1987 and then moved across the street to the current location in 1992. The best analogy for Gordon Hamersley would be the Rolling Stones. No, seriously. Mick Jagger and his cohorts started their music when it was so new that it caused controversy and excitement that something so different could emerge from the then turgid music of the late 1950's. They grew in popularity and gathered a huge fan base from near and far. Gradually they became icons, outlasting myriad other groups that came and went, passing through times when their music seemed passé and eventually arriving at a place where they now seem destined to go on forever.

Gordon has a similar tale. He helped launch the then revolutionary French/American cuisine as America took to fine dining with real gusto after a diet of meat loaf and Chicken Parmigiano. He has endured, and now occupies, a comfortable and permanent place among exalted chefs in the New England area.

"To me cooking is a life long road of discovery. I still love to do it everyday," he chuckles. He is very clear about the fact that he loves to cook and that although he is a restaurateur he believes in the importance of being the chef first and foremost.

So how has his restaurant withstood not only the arrival of literally dozens of competitors into the area, but also the fickle nature of Boston diners, who are so easily bored, moving onto the next culinary thrill. "Owning your own restaurant lets you redefine it on a monthly basis if you want to," he says. "Our food has evolved, it has become somewhat more simple and straightforward." That's not to say that the place has lost its direction. "I still have a tremendous love of classic techniques, but I work hard to refine and lighten them," he acknowledges. "The food has become cleaner and leaner as my own tastes change and develop." There's a skill right there. Staying in touch with the restaurant's basic premise - a bistro - and yet evolving and refining. I wonder if that's what stops Gordon or the customers from getting bored with the food. "In the end it's about constant change, constant refinement of what you do," he concludes.

Given that Hamersley's has been such a success, I can't help but ask why there are not twenty of them. "So much of what makes me happy is cooking everyday," he answers. "I defy anyone who owns more than one restaurant to do that." Here's a man then, happy with his lot in life. He works with his wife Fiona at the restaurant. It's successful, he's successful and he's doing what he loves. Clearly, starting a chain of bistros would rock that boat, so why do it?

There's another dimension for Gordon. He has forty employees, talented sous chefs and long term staffers who enjoy the family style management philosophy. He wants to know the people he works with. "I would hate having to ask a manager, who's that?" he says. "I like it here, I like to wander around the neighborhood. The South End is a great place, full of characters and politics, people know each other."

It's not all easy these days."It is getting harder, there are more fees and regulations." Like many other restaurateurs, Gordon is troubled by the increasing levels of legislation that affect his day-to-day operation. It must be especially hard when the extra expense the various regulations create are paired with the increasing levels of competition in the immediate area around the restaurant. This is perhaps the best testament to the enduring nature of Gordon as chef. Regular diners recognize his gastronomic style and panache, readers of his terrific cookbook "Bistro Cooking at Home" can see for themselves the creativity of his approach.

"I don't think of myself as an artist, I am more like a craftsman, perhaps a finger painter," he muses. "I work like an artist though, I see the food as a palette of flavors and colors for me to work with." From almost anyone else this would seem pretentious. But from Gordon Hamersley, with decades of success behind him and no easing up in the enthusiasm for his food, it seems almost modest. Is he satisfied with his career as a chef, is there more to come? "To me, cooking is a life long road of discovery," Gordon describes how he looks everywhere for inspiration. He tells a great tale of enjoying deep fried macaroni down south. Apparently it tasted terrific, despite some very iffy ingredients. Once back home he reinvented the dish as a sophisticated, velvety oven baked pasta and cheese that makes your mouth water as he describes it.

After decades of hard work, isn't he tired of the daily grind? "If I am not working, by day two I need to cook, I am back in the kitchen," he asserts. He does have outside interests. "I train dogs, I hunt ducks and birds, I fish," he reveals. "I tie my own flies. If I want to forget the restaurant for a while I sit down and tie a dozen flies."

In the end I think I get the why and how of Gordon Hamersley. He's a gentleman chef, softly spoken and sincere about his love of cooking. The very fact that he is still in the kitchen two decades after he started the bistro concept proves my point. Could he have his own brand of pans and cooking implements - sure. But for Gordon it seems to be more about quality of life expressed through his art - cooking.