Going Gluten Free....

 

Looks like an ordinary loaf of Bread.....

I can't believe that is have been over a year since I last posted.  Time flies when you are busy enjoying life and making pastries.  Lots has happened in the past year. I've been told I have progressed in my French speaking skills, I've slowly adjusted to Parisian life, I moved to a new (bigger) apartment, Got a real oven, traveled to Italy and Ireland, and I even got married again (but thankfully to the same wonderful man)!  Oh yes, and I changed jobs.....

After spending close to a year working at Kooka Boora and teaching classes at La Cuisine, I need to cut back a bit and relax.  So I said farewell to KB and continued to teach at La Cuisine, keeping my eyes open for my next kitchen job.  I was looking for something challenging and new, something to push me forward and keep me learning....and that is exactly what I found.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present you NOGLU, a 100% Gluten Free Restaurant in Paris, and now my second home.  While thankfully I can still eat as many delicious, crusty, chewy French baguettes as I want, I have friends and family members who run the gamut of gluten intolerant to Celiac.  Ever since taking a few course in Gluten free baking during my time at Cambridge Culinary, I've been interested in Gluten free.  When the opportunity to work for one the first 100% Gluten Free restaurants in Paris was presented to me, I couldn't say no.

Noglu has turned out to be the challenge I was looking for.  Gluten is so essential in so many of our baked goods and not being able to use regular, good old wheat flour, has turned my world upside down (but in a good way of course).  Of course there are pastries that easily adapt to being Gluten Free (ie Macarons are naturally without Flour, therefore Gluten Free) and others may never appear in my line up at Noglu (sorry Croissants, I'll save you for La Cuisine). 

I've become more consumed by my job then ever before.  I think about it almost nonstop (much to the annoyance of my husband, who now constantly suspects my pastries made at home are secretly Gluten Free.....maybe they are...) I work in a beautiful space, I have a great boss and an awesome team to work with. Most days are great, a lot of my recipes have adapted well and haven't noticed to much that I've secretly substituted that wheat flour for a mix or rice, millet, tapioca or other various non-gluten containing flours.  We play well together.  Then once in a while there is a days where I decide to try something new......and it doesn't always work the way I want.  My highs are higher and my lows are lower at times.  Its a whole new playing field.  But the best part of it is the satisfaction of the clients, who look at all my pastries and still in disbelief ask if they are all truly Gluten Free, and then are finally able to enjoy something they couldn't for so long. 

So I can't promise to post more often, but at least now you know what is keeping me away from this blog, and that I am really happy in my work right now. Really happy making other people really happy.

My Gluten Free Bread, Available Each Day at NOGLU

(oh and its delicious)

You can follow Noglu on Facebook, where we post our daily menu and photos of our delicious Gluten Free goodies.