Gluten-Free Guidebook

When visiting New York, there are certain sights that should be on every traveler’s checklist: the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park, the Frick Collection, and Century 21 (come on, who doesn’t want great discounts on designer clothing?). For gluten-intolerant visitors, that list should also include Bistango.

Haven’t heard of Bistango? The restaurant is located in Murray Hill, and it’s been in business for 15 years. There was an interruption of service this spring, when Bistango closed for renovations. The original plan called for it to be closed for only a month, but as the timeline stretched on and on, I started to worry whether it would return.

Happily, Bistango is back. If you’ve been there before, you’ll notice that the bar is shorter (making more room for tables), and that the brick walls have given way to red-painted plaster (with stylized portraits of the owner’s three daughters on the walls). What hasn’t changed is the restaurant’s commitment to its gluten-intolerant diners. The first sign is when bread is brought to the table: I love the warm slices of gluten-free bread — baked by Everybody Eats in Brooklyn — and the individual bowls of oil and garlic for dipping (that way, there’s no cross-contamination).

Almost every item on Bistango’s menu, with the exception of a couple of stuffed pastas (such as the ravioli), can be prepared in a gluten-free version. (Many dishes are naturally gluten-free, and all of the sauces are.) Celiac-safe starters run the gamut from the Bistango salad (a mix of mesclun, sliced apples, goat cheese, and pine nuts), to the plate of prosciutto and Gorgonzola with fig compote. Main-course dishes include rack of lamb in a rich cognac sauce, and chicken breast topped with spinach and mozzarella in a marinara sauce. There’s also gluten-free pizza and pasta to choose from.

While the food is consistently excellent, what really makes a meal at Bistango stand out is the graciousness of its staff. The owner, Anthony, goes back and forth between the dining room and the kitchen, talking to everyone and making sure that diners are comfortable. The servers are just as thoughtful, making Bistango a rare find.

Bistango [address] 415 Third Avenue (at the corner of East 29th St.), New York, NY 10016 [tel] 212-725-8484 [web] www.bistangonyc.com

I love it when people tell me about their great gluten-free dining experiences. One reader, whose husband has celiac disease, contacted me about their dinner at Rick Bayless’s Topolobampo restaurant in Chicago. They were deeply impressed by the thoughtfulness of the staff. It was clear from the start of their meal, when the restaurant’s manager came to their table to talk, that the restaurant took gluten-free dining seriously. Because the chef was concerned about cross-contamination (apparently the chilies in some sauces were flash-fried in a deep fryer, and could have been exposed to gluten particles), the two gluten-free dishes that made their way to the table were variations of menu items. Topolobampo’s sommelier also did a fine job pairing wines with the special dishes. The reader wrote:

We travel and eat out extensively and have never come across this level of dedication and exemplary service. The manager kept apologizing that our meal was going to take a little longer than normal. It was unreal and did not break the bank either…

Another reader wrote to tell me about Leaf Cuisine, a Los Angeles restaurant that is virtually the only place where she will dine out (in addition to being gluten intolerant, she has allergies to casein and corn). Leaf Cuisine is a raw-food restaurant, meaning that none of the food is heated above 110 degrees Fahrenheit. All of the menu items are vegan and reasonably priced. The restaurant also sells some of its creations in local stores (including several Whole Foods outlets in Los Angeles) and offers courses in raw-food preparation.

One reader told me about a website created by her daughter. It’s a wonderful resource called Gluten-Free Ontario, and if you’re traveling anywhere in the province, take a look at it. The long list of cities represented includes Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton, Barrie, London, and Sault Sainte Marie. A lot of work has gone into the site, and the results will help many people make decisions about dining out.

Finally, I wanted to alert U.S. readers that a couple of medical centers are offering free screening for celiac disease. This past Saturday, the West Virginia Gluten Intolerance Group and the Department of Pediatrics at the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine at Marshall University worked with the Cabell-Huntington Hospital to provide free blood screening (I wish I’d heard about it earlier, and I hope that they will repeat this event in future). The University of Chicago Celiac Disease Center offers an annual day of free screening; the next one will be on October 18, 2008. That may sound like a long way off, but participants need to pre-register by calling [tel] 773-702-7593 after August 15, 2008. For a calendar of events of interest to the gluten-intolerant, including free blood screenings, check out the calendar at Gluten-Free Forum. For a list of the Gluten Intolerance Group’s branches and partner offices, click here.

Barcelona is a city that I find more beautiful the closer I get to it. There’s nothing particularly striking about its skyline when viewed from a plane or train. Even from Montjuïc, one of Barcelona’s two mountains, the view is more impressive for what it captures of the Mediterranean than for what you can see of the city itself (see photo above). But once you start walking through its streets, Barcelona becomes so stunning that it’s almost impossible to believe. Up close, Barcelona’s charms are irresistible.

Part of the city’s attraction is its unusual layout and architecture. For starters, once you’ve seen octagonal intersections, you wonder why anyone would plan them any other way. Then there’s the work of extraordinary architects, such as Antoni Gaudí. His inspiring Sagrada Familia, psychedelic Park Güell, and various otherworldly visions are an essential part of what makes Barcelona so dramatic and unique.

Casa Calvet is considered the most conventional of Gaudí’s buildings. Located in the Eixample district, it was built for a textile manufacturer in 1898. While the exterior is far more conventional than a typical Gaudí project, its interior is striking. Better yet, a restaurant (also called Casa Calvet) has been open on the premises since 1994, making fine use of the ground-floor rooms with their soaring, undulating ceilings. But this isn’t a dining spot that gets by on its good looks. While the menu at Casa Calvet changes frequently, I was impressed by the duck-breast salad I had as a starter, and the main-course grilled hake (a salt-water fish that’s similar to cod); both were already gluten-free and required no modification to make them safe for me. Almost everything was made from scratch on the premises (always a help when you need to identify every ingredient in a dish), except the rice cakes that were served to me in lieu of bread. Familiar with celiac disease and the gluten-free diet, the thoughtful restaurant staff made the evening extraordinary. I’ve learned not to expect anything less from Barcelona.

Casa Calvet [address] Carrer Casp 48, Barcelona, Spain [tel] 93-412-40-12 [web] www.casacalvet.es

Just after I arrived in Cusco — Peru’s third-largest city, and the jumping-off point for any trip to Machu Picchu — I toured the city’s massive cathedral. It’s not only a religious institution; it’s also a fine museum that showcases some 300 paintings. The works are mostly by the Cusco School (or Cuzco School) of the 17th and 18th centuries, which had European painters come to Cusco — once the capital of the Inca Empire — to teach local artists to paint in the European style. The results were beautiful, beatific, and occasionally bizarre. The indigenous artists converted to Catholicism, but they retained certain Inca ideas. For example, depicting Jesus in a loincloth was profoundly disrespectful in their eyes, so Jesus wears the knee-length linen skirt of the Inca nobility in scenes of the crucifixion. But the most famous departure from European tradition is in the rendering of the Last Supper. Forget Leonardo da Vinci: this version depicts Jesus and his disciples gathered around a table to enjoy a last supper of… guinea pig.

If you haven’t visited South America, it may come as a shock that a mammal North Americans take for a family pet is considered a delicacy (it’s called cuy in these parts). By the end of my week in Cusco, I was ready to give it a try. I finally had it at the MAP Café, the restaurant at Cusco’s Museum of Pre-Columbian Art (an offshoot of the renowned Larco Museum in Lima). The restaurant is one of the most extravagant and exceptional in the city, and its setting is unique — it’s essentially a glass box in an interior courtyard, surrounded by archways through which diners can catch glimpses of ancient art.

What impressed me most about the MAP Café was the service. When I showed the waiter my Spanish celiac disease card, he got the other staff members together so that everyone who would be working with my table would be aware of my gluten-free diet. The kitchen had a few questions about ingredients that weren’t mentioned on the card, including quinoa. I started with a dish that paired thinly sliced grilled alpaca with anchovies, followed by cuy confit with peanut-and-panca-flavored potatoes (panca is a type of Peruvian pepper, not to be confused with panko — Japanese breadcrumbs — which aren’t gluten-free). Cuy turned out to be an incredibly rich, strongly flavored meat (it doesn’t taste anything like chicken). For dessert, I had sautéed strawberries in a purple corn sauce, served with a corn-infused ice cream. It was an incredible gluten-free meal from start to finish, and while it was expensive compared to my other meals in Cusco, the three-course prix fixe menu included a glass of wine and cost only $35. Best of all, I had a fine introduction to just how appealing cuy could be.

MAP Café [address] In the Museo de Arte Precolombino, Plaza Nazarenas 231, Cusco, Peru [tel] 084-242-476 [website] www.cuscorestaurants.com

I’ve been working on the Frommer’s Toronto 2009 guidebook for the past several weeks, and one thing that has impressed me is the continuing strength of the city’s restaurant scene. Being a travel writer who has celiac disease has its drawbacks, but it does give me a unique perspective when evaluating a restaurant. I can’t sample certain dishes on the menu anymore, but I have a better perspective on how accommodating a restaurant is willing to be and how helpful the staff is.

Every year I have to compile a list of Toronto’s “Unforgettable Dining Experiences” for the book. In the new edition, the restaurant at the top of my list is Amuse-Bouche. Located on a mostly residential, quiet downtown street, it’s a cozy bistro with a charming patio out front. I decided to review it after sampling some of the chef’s work at the first Cross Town Kitchens dinner. When I called Amuse-Bouche to make a reservation, I mentioned that I have celiac disease, and I was assured it wouldn’t be a problem at all.

Imagine my surprise when I got to the restaurant, identified myself, and had a plate of warm bread set in front of me. “We’ve been baking all afternoon,” the waiter announced with a smile. “Gluten-free bread!” A couple of other staff members joined him and described the process and the several gluten-free flours they’d mixed to create a delicious (albeit slightly crumbly) bread. It was delicious and when I’d finished it all off they asked if they could bring out more. How could I say no? (I do lose control in the presence of really good gluten-free bread.)

The meal I had that evening was excellent. An amuse bouche is technically a small taste at the beginning of a meal that showcases the chef’s creativity and whets your appetite for more. Even after all that bread, I found room for dishes like the black cod ceviche with pink grapefruit and pineapple caipirinha sorbet. It was unusual to have so many strong flavors on a plate at once, but to have them come together harmoniously was a great achievement. And the excellent service I experienced at the restaurant made a lasting impression. (Before you ask, no, the restaurant staff had no idea I was reviewing it.)

Amuse-Bouche [address] 96 Tecumseth St. (one block north of King Street West), Toronto, Ontario, Canada [tel] 416-913-5830 [web] www.amuseboucherestaurant.com

I’ve been a fan of the Toronto restaurant Far Niente for years. Located in the heart of the Financial District, it’s changed a lot over the past decade, morphing from a fairly casual California-winery-style open dining space with simple wooden tables and chairs into a sleek and expensive restaurant with leather banquettes and sultry lighting. The food has been excellent throughout, and when I was re-reviewing it recently, I found that the staff and the kitchen were considerate and informed about the gluten-free diet.

Still, it was a pleasant surprise to learn that a new, moderately priced restaurant had recently opened in Far Niente’s basement, where there used to be a bar. The restaurant, Four, was one of my favorite finds on my latest visit to Toronto. Four advertises itself as having a “balanced approach to guilt-free dining,” and while I’m forever skeptical about health food, it turns out that good-for-you can mean delicious. Every dish on the menu is less than 650 calories. That’s not such a feat with a starter salad like the beet-and-pear with goat cheese, but it’s pretty impressive with main courses like the delicious ocean trout with beluga lentils and sherry-mustard-dressed greens.

Four isn’t such a health-oriented place that they neglect the cocktail list: it’s particularly lengthy (locals still come here just to schmooze around the bar), and the pernod-chambord-raspberry cocktail is lovely. Service at Four is friendly and helpful, and the staff is well-versed in the gluten-free diet. At lunch, they offer sandwiches on gluten-free bread, and at both lunch and dinner there are pasta dishes made with buckwheat noodles (there’s also a spelt fusilli as another option for those allergic to wheat, though it’s not celiac-safe).

My dining companion, a friend who doesn’t have celiac disease, was just as thrilled with Four as I was. We’re both planning to go back soon… I just need to wait for my next visit to Toronto.

Far Niente [address] 187 Bay St. (at Wellington St.), Toronto, Ontario, Canada [tel] 416-214-9922 [web] www.farnientegrill.com

Four [address] 187 Bay St. (lower level) [tel] 416-368-1444 [web] www.fourtoronto.com

I’ve gotten a couple of e-mails from readers asking me for Italian restaurants with gluten-free menus in different neighborhoods around Toronto. Oddly enough, my answer has been the same each time: Il Fornello. This small Toronto chain has become an institution with nine outposts in and around the city. There’s one across from Roy Thomson Hall (with easy access to the Theatre District), another at Queen’s Quay by the waterfront, and still another in the middle of Greektown on the Danforth. It feels as if Il Fornello is never far away, wherever you are in the city.

That’s a good thing because all Il Fornello restaurants offer celiac-safe options. They always stock rice pasta (which can be substituted in most pasta dishes for an additional $1.75) and gluten-free Quejos pizza crust (for an additional $3.75). The pasta is always a good bet, and I’m particularly fond of the Pollo e Pesto dish (an excellent combination of chicken, pesto, plum tomatoes, and pine nuts). The pizza, in my experience, is a tougher proposition — literally. The Danforth location consistently gets it right, and options like the Fig Pizza (think mascarpone, prosciutto, grana padano, honeyed arugula, and figs) are heavenly. The downside of the Quejos crust is that if it’s overcooked, it becomes rock-hard, a fact I’ve discovered much to my chagrin at some of the other locations. Il Fornello also offers excellent salads (the naturally gluten-free Roma salad is a mix of greens, goat cheese, walnuts, and roasted peppers), and a reasonably priced list of wines by the glass, including several from Ontario wineries.

I recently discovered that the Zagat guides named Il Fornello as one of Toronto’s top ten restaurants. Initially, I was shocked. Toronto is foodie heaven, with chefs like Jamie Kennedy, Mark McEwan, Marc Thuet, Greg Couillard, Chris McDonald, and Susur Lee (for now — Mr. Lee is heading to New York to open a new restaurant). Putting Il Fornello on that list seemed like a stretch. But in all honesty, Il Fornello is a place I hit at least once (more often twice) when I visit Toronto. It’s not glamorous, but it offers good value for the money, and peace of mind for gluten-intolerant diners.

Il Fornello [web] www.ilfornello.com; nine locations in Toronto, including:

In the Theatre District [address] 214 King Street West (west of University Avenue) [tel] 416-977-2855

On the Danforth [address] 576 Danforth Avenue (west of Pape Avenue) [tel] 416-466-2931

At Queen’s Quay [address] 207 Queen’s Quay West [tel] 416-861-1028

North of Rosedale [address] 1560 Yonge Street (north of St. Clair Avenue) [tel] 416-920-7347

What could be better than having a talented chef cook dinner? How about having five talented chefs prepare a five-course dinner? That’s exactly what I enjoyed at the first Cross Town Kitchens dinner in Toronto on June 2nd, when chefs from local restaurants Amuse-Bouche, C5, Marben, Perigee, and Torito cooked up a storm to raise money for charity. (The second dinner in the series will take place on July 28, 2008.)

When I first heard about the Cross Town Kitchens event, I doubted that I’d be able to go. While I’m always up for the challenge of dining in a new restaurant, I’ve had difficulties finding celiac-safe food at events. Hors d’oeuvres are something I steer clear of, since they’re usually set atop brioche, nested in a pastry shell, or treated with gluten in some other way. And I’ve learned from experience that it can be hard to get a kitchen to modify a set menu.

However, the five restaurants participating in the Cross Town Kitchens dinner couldn’t have been more accommodating. Not only was I treated to custom-made hors d’oeuvres (and let me say that a slice of cucumber is a fine substitute for brioche), but they managed to ensure that all five of my courses were gluten-free. Sometimes this involved reinventing a dish, so that while my fellow diners tasted a pappardelle pasta dish with morel mushrooms, fava beans, and duck prosciutto, I was tucking into a salad with identical accompaniments. Some of the dishes, including the pan-seared langoustines and the venison main course, were already gluten-free and needed no modifications.

Need another inducement? Proceeds from the dinners are donated to The Stop Community Food Centre. After the next dinner on July 28, 2008, there will be one in September 2008, another in February 2009, and the fifth (and hopefully not final) one in April 2009. If you’ll be in Toronto on one of the dates, I’d encourage you to check it out (and be sure to confirm that they will be able to accommodate your gluten-free diet when you make your reservation). The $95 per person charge is expensive, but this is a rare opportunity to have five chefs cooking for you — and raising money for a great cause at the same time. Bon appetit!

When the Canadian chain Pizza Pizza announced in March that they were introducing gluten-free pizza dough in a pilot program at 50 of their locations around Toronto, people took notice. Not only did the news hit the blogosphere — on Toronto Celiac and other websites — but the Toronto Star reported the story as well.

Here’s an update: the response to the gluten-free pizzas was so overwhelmingly positive that Pizza Pizza has expanded the program. All 531 of the company’s locations in Quebec and Ontario now offer gluten-free crusts. I’ve finally tasted the pizza for myself, I can understand why it’s become so popular. Made from rice flour, potato starch, water, non-hydrogenated canola oil, sugar, salt, methylcellouse, yeast, and monoglyerides, it’s crispy, it’s delicious, and it holds up well even when reheated.

There are a couple of things to watch for when ordering this pizza. The most important is that not all of the toppings are gluten-free. Want pepperoni with it? Then ask for the New York-style pepperoni, which is celiac-safe, instead of the standard “classic” pepperoni, which contains wheat. The gluten-free crust is currently available only in a medium pizza, which will feed two people, and there’s an additional $3.25 charge for it. But this is a great option for pizza-lovers on a gluten-free diet — and the ready-in-20-minutes-or-it’s-free rule still applies.

UPDATE (06/16/08): This post originally stated that gluten-free pizza crusts are available in all Pizza Pizza outlets across Canada. While this is true of the outlets run under the name Pizza Pizza, it is not true of the Pizza 73 outlets the company owns in Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia.

One of Toronto’s newest attractions is actually one of its oldest: the buildings of the Distillery Historic District have stood since 1832, but it wasn’t until 2003 that the complex was reinvented as a historic center. This 45-building site was once the home of the Gooderham & Worts Distillery, Canada’s largest distilling company in the 19th century. For much of the 20th century, the buildings sat in ruined splendor, put to use occasionally as a site for film shoots. More recently, the district was restored to its Victorian red-brick glory, and now it contains art galleries, shops, theaters, and restaurants.

I’ve written already about SOMA Chocolatemaker, a particularly delicious chocolate shop in the Distillery Historic District. Other notable spots include the Corkin Gallery, the Sandra Ainsley Gallery, the Deaf Culture Centre, Bergo Designs (cutting-edge housewares), Lileo (clothing for men, women, and children), and Corktown Designs (jewelry). And then there is Perigee.

When I think of places I’ve dined since being diagnosed with celiac disease, few have inspired such confidence as Perigee. This could be because the staff is incredibly well-versed in the gluten-free diet (and considerate of food allergies as well). I didn’t need to explain that not only wheat, barley, and rye were off my particular menu, but so are kamut, semolina, bulgur, and couscous (I have, on several occasions, had well-meaning waiters tell me that couscous is “like rice”; for some reason, it’s commonly mistaken for a gluten-free food). Another part of Perigee’s appeal is the glass-walled kitchen, which sits in the middle of the dining room, allowing diners to watch the chefs at work.

This is an expensive place to dine, but whenever I’ve splurged it’s been worth it. The cooking is classical French with a twist, since ingredients from South America and Asia spice up the plates, too. The restaurant offers several prix fixe menus: one for theater-goers (a great bet if you’re seeing Native Earth Performing Arts or Soulpepper that evening), one for vegetarians, and an extravagant nine-course omakase tasting menu, in which you advise the chef of your dietary issues and food preferences, and put yourself in his capable hands. Of course, you can order à la carte as well, which means you can enjoy grilled yellowfin tuna paired with Japanese diver scallops in a mild green curry sauce, or venison with a leek-and-fennel sauce (but minus the phyllo-wrapped greens that usually accompany it).

Perigee [address] Distillery Historic District, 55 Mill Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada [tel] 416-364-1397 [web] www.perigeerestaurant.com