Pungent root artist rejected as food (4)
I believe the answer is:
dish
'food' is the definition.
(dish is a kind of food)
'pungent root artist rejected' is the wordplay.
'pungent root' becomes 'radish' (I've seen this before).
'artist' becomes 'ra' (Royal Academician, member of Royal Academy of Arts).
'rejected' suggests deleting specific letters.
'radish' with 'ra' removed is 'DISH'.
'as' is the link.
(Other definitions for dish that I've seen before include "Peach" , "receiver to >screw up" , "Satellite aerial" , "(Food for) serving plate" , "Menu item - plate" .)