Food ·
Why the whole kitchen is gluten free, and why you will not notice
No separate menu, no asterisks. Corn, plantain and rice were doing this job in Latin America long before anyone needed a label for it.
The first question we get from a table that has read the small print is some version of: so what can't I have? The answer is nothing. Every plate that leaves the kitchen is gluten free. There is no second menu tucked behind the bar, no dish with a warning on it, no fryer we have to think twice about.
This is less of a stunt than it sounds. Latin American cooking was built on corn, plantain, rice and beans. The tortilla under a Baja fish taco is corn. The arepa under the avocado smash is corn meal. The patacones under the grilled prawn are plantain, smashed twice and fried. Wheat arrived late to that part of the world and never got the lead role.
Where it takes work
Churros. Sourdough for the scrambled tofu. Cornbread for the chili con tempeh. Those are the three places a normal kitchen reaches for flour without thinking, and where ours had to think. Churros are the hardest of the three, because a churro that does not shatter when you bite it is just a warm stick.
The other place is sauces. Soy, some stocks, a lot of bottled things. We make the salsas, the chimichurri, the aji panca marinade and the leche de tigre ourselves, which is more work and also the reason they taste like ours.
Who it is for
Coeliacs, obviously. People travelling with one. But mostly it is for the table that never has to have the conversation. Order the wings, order the chorizo fries, order the picanha and the churros to finish. Nobody has to check.
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