Coeliac Association Dinner @ PREVIEW

On Tuesday 6th September, the Central Coast Coeliac Association held their second successful annual dinner at our PREVIEW RESTAURANT.
The affliction of a Coeliac is, that he or she cannot digest wheat based proteins. A glutenfree diet is another way of looking at the same issue.
What are the implications for a cook, chef, caterer?
No different care is required than for any other (special) diet - and read the labels of packet products and proprietary sauces and the like.
Any menu and any menu item can be adopted to be suitable for a glutenfree diet.
It takes care and consideration, a bit of planning and to know where you can buy specialty items.
Our third year cookery students proved last Tuesday that such an adaptation is all in a hospitality practitioner's daily work, when they planned, adjusted, cooked and presented a five course table d'hote menu with choices in the courses for the Central Coast Coeliac Association.

• An Italian style bread made from rice flour, potato flour and chickpea flour started the menu. This was then followed by
• Asian beef stirfry served with fresh vegetables and glutenfree fettucchine, ( a glutenfree soy sauce product was the only extra bought item required) or
• Roast pumpkin and sweet potato soup (no changes needed)
• One of the mains was: panfried ocean perch, turned in rice and potato flour on a bed of rosemary chat potatoes & watercress with broad beans and a semi dried tomato beurre blanc sauce, or
• Chickenbreast with sauteed mushrooms, fresh seasonal vegetables with a Native pepper jus lie. (Again, no alterations here either)
• The desserts were: homemade Pavlova roll with a strawberry gelato and a fresh passionfruit syrup, or
• Creme Brulee with a crisp toffee and a Preview biscotti. (We just made sure no icing sugar was used to create the toffee and that the biscotti utilised a glutenfree flour.

Not all that hard really, provided one observes a few simple rules. Think about ready made sauces and ensure they do not contain flour; all flour containing products use suitable flours like rice, potato or chickpea flour.

Now you can welcome Coeliac sufferers into your establishment and offer them a hassle free dining experience.

The response from last weeks dinner was most favourable all around, with some association members now confidently booking other dinner dates in the PREVIEW restaurant.

Why don't you also make them welcome in you establishment.

Culinary Creation

Another glimpse of Martin W's art.
An impression of the chicory and mandarins salad and one of the PREVIEW public favourite: the almighty watermelon sorbet.