Wheat Allergy and Nut Allergy

This morning I didn’t wake up until 11:27a.m. – right before my alarm. I wasn’t actually expecting to sleep in that late, I was planning to head to work early anyway. But obviously I needed the sleep, so I then quickly headed in to work. First thing when I arrived, we had a wedding tasting in the restaurant tonight and I needed to prepare the three desserts, sorbets, breads, and petit fours. We keep individual portions of wedding desserts on hand in the freezer, but some have to be made fresh. Pavlovas for example, cannot be frozen, so I had to make the meringues straight away, then later whip fresh cream, pipe it on, and add the fresh fruit – one slice each of eight different fruits, which is kind of annoying to cut. Vanilla crème brulée was also on the menu, and sometimes we have some of the mix frozen, but not this time. I made it as per the pastry cook’s recipe, but he failed to tell me I had to heat the cream first (which I should have figured) so I had to redo it. Luckily I could just take a brownie and the bread rolls from the freezer.

Next, I moved on to the petit fours again – baking canelles, blueberry fananciers, and today madeleines for the wedding tasting. After some arguments as to what temperature, how long, and which fan setting to use for baking these between the three guys upstairs, the head chef settled it. I also cut up the white chocolate lime ganache, raspberry marshmallow, nougat, and lollipops. I also gathered the jelly, white chocolate cranberry fudge, and truffles for the wedding tasting petit fours. I prepped the sorbet for tonight – blueberry, and the sorbets for the tasting – mango passionfruit and celebration champagne. Then I moved on to my breads. I wanted to be creative and try some different flavors than the usual ones we do today, so I went with tomato fennel, orange raisin, and sesame, as well as the cranberry buns for the starter section. 

Things were going well, and I topped up the only things on my section that were slightly low – crisp mint leaves and chocolate slice, both really quick and easy jobs. I also made a fruit platter requested for the spa tomorrow. I was going to move on to some tasks that didn’t really need to be done for tonight, but could be, although the restaurant would be closed tomorrow, so it was either prep in advance or deep clean. I doubled-checked the wedding tasting function sheet, and saw that at the top it listed “Bride has a wheat allergy and groom has a nut allergy. Please ensure all dishes are suitable for both of them.” I’m glad I caught this when I did, as the other cooks hadn’t noticed it. Sure, these allergens are mostly an issue for pastry items, but still. I was wondering how, if it was only the bride and groom at the tasting tonight, either of them was planning to eat the chocolate walnut brownie?

Both the pavlova and crème brulée were fine, but I asked the head chef about the brownie. He seemed annoyed at first, as most chefs are with special dietary requests, but after a few minutes came upstairs with a recipe for me for gluten-free chocolate brownie, which I had just enough time to whip up before service began. I also had to get gluten-free bread from the freezer, remove all the rolls with nuts in them, and double-check the petit fours – the madeleines I had made had wheat in them, and the truffles may contain traces of nuts. Then I checked the ice creams and sorbets – most of which stated they may contain traces of nuts. So chef suggested serving them on the side and allowing the couple to choose if they wished to take the risk or not, and to offer an alternative sorbet – orange granite. 

The special dessert I made - mojito of lime confit with fresh fruit and chantilly cream

Once I had all that sorted out, I didn’t have to worry about being bored as I had just enough time to set up for service. Service was slow, but went well. Near the end of the night, the head server told me it was one of the waitress’s last days working here after two years, and asked if I would make a dessert for her. I asked which one she would like, and she said the lime mojito, so I made that up between orders, and made the plate special for her. She was delighted!