Today we get to know Gaté sans gluten a bit better. Gaté sans gluten is a newly opened pastry shop in Paris, in the Saint Germain neighbourhood. I love its pastries, they are some of the best that I have ever eaten. Emmanuel Grenier, founder, and Sébastien Lenglet, the talented pastry chef, answer to our questions.
Chiara: Why gluten free?
Emmanuel: My wife was diagnosed with celiac disease 10 years ago. I have been developing and managing projects of shops and boutiques for big companies for years and then one day I decided to create my own specialised in quality gluten free food. I am not celiac, I love eating great food, in France eating is a pleasure that we like to share. I wanted to bring this back to gluten free as well: the pleasure and the sharing. With this idea in mind, I looked for the best possible chef and I met Sébastien Lenglet who trained himself working for a MOF pastry chef (Meilleur Oeuvrier de France) and he also worked abroad. Sébastien had not only the talent I was searching but also an open mind. At Gaté, we are four associate partners: myself, a Swedish architect that I have been working with for 15 years now, a banker and a marketing director.
Sébastien: During all my career I have always worked with gluten. Then one day I met Emmanuel who challenged me to create gluten free pastries and cakes as good as those with gluten. To me it meant changing the way I used to work but at the same time also use everything I learnt to create the best possible gluten free food. I decided to accept the challenge and here I am at Gaté sans gluten.
Emmanuel: Last July, when the kitchen at Gaté was finished, I gave Sébastien “carte blanche” to go there and create freely what he thought where the best gluten free pastries and tarts to start with.
Chiara: What is Gaté sans gluten?
Emmanuel: It is a pastry shop and tea room where we serve food for breakfast, lunch and an afternoon tea. We work only with top quality, seasonal ingredients, most of them are organic. Everything is cooked fresh everyday. We have just opened: our clients helps us a lot to understand what they like and what they would like to eat in the future. Most of the pasties we sell at the shop can be also made cake-size: you just need to order them in advance and in 48 hours, they will be nice and ready.
Chiara: What is the gluten free food that you love the most?
Emmanuel: The choux made by Sébastien and also his vanilla cake. If you eat them, I bet you can’t spot the difference with a gluten one. To me this is the real challenge: create such great tasting gluten free food that nobody can really say if it is with gluten or without.
Chiara: What makes you create such amazing gluten free pastries?
Sébastien: Well, you know, everyday to create a good recipe I put the passion for my work, a little bit of sugar and a lot of love.
Chiara: Gluten free is…
Emmanuel: A constraint and a challenge. Very often, when you would like to eat something gluten free, you can have hard time in finding it and when you do, it can happen that it is not good. This is why my wife and I decided to cook the food we eat by ourselves. Eating gluten free has become a journey around food: we started to discover new ingredients, textures, flavours. Going to the market, talk to the local farmers and learn new tips and tricks about fresh seasonal vegetables and fruit. I am not a cook but I have learned a lot during the last years. Our daughters are not celiac but they eat gluten free with us and they like it very much.
To read my oder post on Gaté sans gluten:
http://bacididamaglutenfree.com/en/portfolio/gate-sans-gluten-pastry-shop/
