Gourmet putting dog in eastern dish (7)
I believe the answer is:
epicure
'gourmet' is the definition.
(I know that gourmet can be written as epicure)
'dog in eastern dish' is the wordplay.
'dog' becomes 'cur' (a cur is an aggressive or scruffy dog).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'eastern' becomes 'e'.
'dish' becomes 'pie' (I've seen this before).
'e'+'pie'='epie'
'cur' put into 'epie' is 'EPICURE'.
'putting' is the link.
(Other definitions for epicure that I've seen before include "Gourmet" , "Gourmand" , "anything but a John the Baptist type?" , "An individual of some discrimination" , "One enjoying good food and drink" .)