All posts filed under: Paris

Noglu, Paris

There is Paris and there are its enchanting “Passages” that I personally love so much. There is Walter Benjamin, in his remarkable book Paris, capitale du XIXe siècle, « Ces passages, nouvelle invention du luxe industriel, sont des galeries recouvertes de verre, lambrissées de marbre, qui traversent des blocs entiers d’immeubles dont les propriétaires se sont regroupés en vue de telles spéculations. De part et d’autre de ces galeries, qui reçoivent le jour d’en haut, s’alignent les boutiques les plus élégantes, en sorte qu’un pareil passage est une ville, un monde en miniature. » The passages like new galleries that make their way through blocks of buildings, they receive day light from the above, and with their many shops they are a miniature world, a city in its own right. Inside the beautiful Passage des Panoramas, not far from the Galerie Vivienne, stays precious and hidden like a gem Noglu, the first gluten-free restaurant that opened in Paris in 2012. Created by the talented Frédérique Jules, Noglu offers exquisite gluten-free cuisine, often lactose-free, and lately it opened the Take Away just …

Nous, Paris

Nous is a fast slow food, newly opened in rue de Paradis. Nous is the adventure of Paula + Henri who met in China and travelled a lot before coming back to Paris with a bag full of fantastic food experiences all to share and to enjoy. Nous is smile food because whenever you eat food, that is delicious, fresh, healthy, prepared with much care and love, you can’t but smile :-) Nous is gluten-free, vegetarian but you can also find top quality meat and chicken, all bred in France. So there is definitely place for everybody! And here it comes in a box….the “noulettes de boeuf”… … delicious meat balls with fresh chili sauce, rice from Camargue/in the South of France/ a healthy salad of red cabbage, peas, and pumpkin seeds. It was very good and gently spiced, just as I like it :-) Ops, here there is another box… … and it pops up a carrot cake muffin with glaze, how could I resist?!! In Nous the spirit is to share, to talk, and to enjoy experiences around …

Pain de Sucre, Paris

Pain de Sucre (Sugar Bread in English) is one of those pastry shops in Paris that looks like it is made in heaven…each cake, tart, éclair, brioche, ice-cream looks just perfect, the colors and the shapes are a symphony to the eyes. For us gluten-free eaters there is one thing - I say one but I hope there will be more in the future - that is naturally free of gluten and it is so good that is totally worth the trip….Marshmallows! This is a sweet that we don’t have in Italy, I don’t even think we have a word in Italian to translate it… ?!!? So I was much more pleased to discover it for the first time and eat it. In the past when bakers or pastry chefs were left with much egg white, instead of throwing it away, they started making this simple yet delicious sweet. Marshmallows at Pain de Sucre are really sublime! The ones I put on the post cover are with rose-water, the ones below with dark chocolate & coconut + green pistachio…yummy! At Pain …

My Free Kitchen, Paris

My Free kitchen is a newly opened restaurant, coffee + tea room that serves food that is organic, free of gluten and lactose but not of taste…! Delicious food is always on the menu prepared by Carole that along with her brother Philippe decided to open a spot in Paris where they could delight people with the same food they loved to cook at home and grow up with. My Free Kitchen is a family business and it means business: every day according to the seasons, the menu changes: Carole loves concocting new recipes from gluten-free French quiches, to quinoa salads, from carrot cakes, to blueberry tarts, brownies, apple & cinnamon muffins (like the one I chose for the post cover), crumbles prepared with seasonal fruit, and so much more. At lunch, they serve different formulas you can choose from, here I got one with a very good pumpkin soup with almonds. Followed by a cake made with eggplant, basil and goat cheese, actually the goat cheese is the only exception on the menu regarding lactose: it is …

That stone that turns

La Pierre qui tourne, literally the stone that turns, is a newly discovered French brand of delicious organic gluten-free cookies (they have a wide range of cookies with gluten as well). The legends says that in the forest of Compiègne, on the slope of Mount St Mard, close to a giant tree hides a peculiar stone that looks like a frog. At Christmas Eve, at midnight, the stone starts turning by itself… well, enough magic to inspire Benoit and Isabelle, the co-founders of La Pierre qui tourne, to call the brand after it and start baking some of the best gluten-free cookies that I have ever tasted. From rice flour to almonds, from butter to eggs, all the ingredients are natural, certified organic, top quality, selected from the best suppliers and naturally gluten-free (pls just notice that there is no crossed grain logo on the package yet, so if you are really allergic to gluten, do not try them until you see the logo, they tell me they are just waiting to receive it shortly :-)) Here I chose to have the …

Thank you, my deer, Paris

Thank you, my deer is a cosy, warm coffee bar and restaurant in Paris 11th arrondissement that serves exclusively gluten-free food. It is that kind of place in the neighborhood where you get to know the people that work there, you feel less as a customer and more as a friend who drops by time to time to spend a nice moment together. That’s what it is to me. Jana and Sona, who created Thank you, my deer, has welcomed me in since the first time I went there and every time I am back it is nice to catch up. Now I have one more reason to go and it is called Valerio, the cook from Naples - my hometown - that joined the team one year ago. Besides being skillful when he prepares food that is good for you, he is nice, friendly and funny. The geometrical wall of the “Deer” that I like so much is designed by Juraj Straka, known for the amazing prints he creates for the fashion world. Last time I was there it was …

Eric Kayser, Paris

Eric Kayser is an institution in Paris: he is one of the most skillful artisan baker who has developed during the years, top quality bread using and mastering liquid leaven, technical innovations, new recipes and a constant search for the best ingredients. When I lived in Paris for the first time, in 2004, when I got off work and out of the metro Odéon I used to walk to his shop in rue de l’Ancienne Comédie and would buy the baguette tradition or the baguette with raisins, my favorite actually. When I came back to Paris for the second time, in 2012, I knew I had celiac disease and thought I would never step into one of his shops ever. Well, never say never…! One year ago Kayser answered the raising demand of French people for gluten-free bread and started to make his own :-). And even though it is not baguette, now you can enjoy the “Gonesse” bread with rice flour, the “Mendiant” with rice flour, buckwheat and dried fruit, the buckwheat bread that I just bought as …

Café Pinson, Paris

Once upon a time there was Agathe, a lively, passionate woman who had a dream about eating organic, healthy, good-for-you food and a place between home and work where everybody could enjoy it. One day, along with her associate Damien with whom she shared the same passion, that dream became the Café Pinson in Paris, a juice bar, a coffee place, and restaurant, all rolled up into one. The Café Pinson has soon become the hot spot to be in town and reality has overcome the dream. Luckily for me, they serve food that is also gluten-free :) Looking at these pictures what can I say? I love the design by the talented Dorothée Meilichzon: to me it is just the perfect combination of modern and vintage styles, with a touch of nostalgia, a sprinkle of contemporary flair, comfortable couches, and the lively chit-chat of people around you who are enjoying the same simple, good things that you are. It’s a place where I like going to meet friend or work: I found it relaxing and inspiring at the same time. At Café …

Bien, Paris

Bien means good. Bien is an organic grocery store recently opened in Paris, with two venues in the 3rd arrondissement. Bien selects with care the best suppliers and products mostly from France, sourcing them locally and following seasonality. I can say that the fruit and vegetable that you find here are really fresh - and I underline the word “fresh” as I sometimes find it hard to find fresh fruit and vegetable in Parisian stores. Bien is a place I do like to go, they have a nice selection of gluten-free products from organic and allergen-free brands like the German Schintzer and a newly French one that I just discovered “La Pierre qui tourne” - you can read more about it in a new solo post. Here there are some snacks that I love from Schnitzer, the Canihua one is my favorite, this little dark seed from South America is naturally gluten-free, full of protein and antioxidant. And I also discovered PPURE, an Italian brand of organic, gluten-free pasta made of corn and eggs, and drawn in bronze as all best …

Chambelland, Paris

Every time I go the this lovely artisan bakery in Paris, Chambelland, dedicated exclusively to gluten-free, I take the rue Oberkampf and I can’t but remember the words of Jean Genet when he describes this street in the book “L’atelier d’Alberto Giacometti” : “Giacometti et moi - et quelques Parisiens sans doute - nous savons qu’il existe à Paris, où elle a sa demure, une personne d’une grande élégance, fine, haute, à pic, singulière et grise - d’un gris très tendre - c’est la rue Oberkampf, qui, désinvolte, change de nom et s’appelle plus haut la rue de Ménilmontant. Belle comme une aiguille, elle monte jusqu’au ciel. (…)” * … I let you discover how it goes if you read the book, it is completely worth it… …As it is completely worth it walking into this bakery and pastry shop all together, and splurge in a wide choice of gluten-free fresh bread, focaccia, tarts, cakes, cookies, brownies, muffins, they are all delicious…well, as a regular customer, I have tested almost all of them, so I can tell ;-). Chambelland is the story of Thomas and Nathaniel …