Everyone is talking about Number One Aldwych near Covent Garden this week and you may have seen them featured on ITV news too.
Apparently they went gluten and dairy free ages ago and no one noticed!
Nobody!
Brilliant!
I get so fed up with people thinking that my wheat and dairy free (not to mention the nut, soya, celery and tomato free) food must be boring, taste like cardboard, be lacking somehow in taste.
Someone at work said to me just this week… “I can’t help feeling sad for you having to have that milk (rice milk on this occasion) because it just looks so dead and tasteless.”
Well gee thanks. Make a girl feel good why don’t you! I know this person well and he didn’t mean to be rude or upset me. I agree in a way. Plant milk is dead and lifeless. You can’t ‘milk an oat’ or ‘milk a rice’ for that matter, but for those of us who cannot consume normal cow’s milk dairy it is a really useful product. No one would choose to drink these milks if they could have natural milk instead.
But so many chefs are also of the opinion that cooking allergen free will cramp their style. That butter makes every dish taste better. Bo-ring!
Well in your face all you doubters.
I just love this story and I love this chef even more.
You can read more about it in The Standard online in ‘Top London restaurant goes gluten and dairy free… no one notices.’
Dominic Teague, from Indigo restaurant in Covent Garden’s One Aldwych hotel, told the Standard that he worked on his new menu over several months after noticing a “massive uptake in guests who wanted gluten and dairy free dishes”.
The chef launched the menu three months ago, becoming one of the first in the city to have their entire lunch and dinner offerings free from gluten and dairy.
So far, he said, nobody has been able to tell the difference. “No one has said anything. We have regulars who have all given great comments about the new menu but not about it being gluten or dairy free,” he added.
“A few people have been told after, or when they ask for gluten-free food. Most can’t believe it. We have had loads of people coming back.”
Thank you, thank you Dominic. You have done a very good thing for people with allergies and coeliac disease with this story. Inspired!
My brother has been here before with his wife and said, “it was very swanky and nice”. He is a man of few words but when he speaks it is always worth listening to. ;o)
Not only is this restaurant gluten and dairy free, they can also accommodate other allergen requests too.
Who is coming with me? I want to go there. I want to go. I am so excited to go!
And finally, Dominic, you MUST enter the FreeFrom Eating out Awards next year 🙂
Me! Me! I want to go!
I have to disagree with you on the milk though- now I’m allowed dairy milk again I don’t actually like it very much! I’ve developed a bit of a taste for the subtle light flavours of almond and coconut milks on my cereal and in my cuppa. Although reminds me of a good friend who looked at a gluten free chocolate eclair I once had and said ‘it’s like patisserie with the joy sucked out’. I thought it was amazing! I guess taste buds adjust…
Oh you are soooo right about the taste buds thing. I used to eat such a poor diet and enjoy things like pot noodles – Yuk! and loads of cadbury like sweet chocolate. Now I can’t stand the taste of too much sugar or anything processed or poor quality meat etc. My taste buds have changed, maybe it’s self preservation, you kind of have to go with it and make yourself enjoy things or you would cry… I do miss cheese… real smelly cheese and mature cheddar but I’ve grown to love the food I eat. Reminds me of when I offered chocolate to someone, just to be polite really. I didnt’ really want to share at all, you know how that is… I hate sharing my freefrom stuff. She said, oh what is that? I said, it’s nut, dairy and soya free… she said, “What does it taste like? DUST!” Bleurgh! Tastes a damn site better than what you call chocolate Galaxy lover! I grinned and laughed and thought, well good more for me but they have no idea what they’re missing 😉