Lunch at the French Laundry + Gluten-Free Brioche Rolls | Mary Fran, Cupcake Therapist

Insanely good, to-die-for Gluten-Free Brioche Rolls recipe and a detailed account of dining gluten-free at the French Laundry. Swoon.

Article Courtesy:  Mary Fran Wiley, Frannycakes

This is a tale of the day I took a bite of butter like it was cheese. I blame Kyra.

I spent some time in San Francisco recently for the Gluten & Allergen Free Expo, and while I was there, I had only one day to do something touristy.

And since I was going to be seeing some of the foodie-est people I know, I knew we had do do something incredible. No one-starred restaurant would do. Not when we could get reservations at one of the best restaurants in the world. And one we knew could handle the way we order food.

Going out to the French Laundry has been something of a dream of mine. It is on my list with Aviary here in Chicago. And about a year ago, I had the opportunity to do a little bit of correspondence with Lena, the chef behind the French Laundry’s incredible gluten-free flour blend, Cup4Cup (and no, I don’t get a discount because I love it so much, although that might be kind of nice…). And it was decided. The French Laundry was on my list.

So, I stalked OpenTable. Reservations open up exactly three months in advance, and I had one day and only one day during my trip that I could make this work.

I made the drive from San Francisco to Yountville with Brandy Wendler, the gluten-free beauty who is currently Mrs. Northwest 2013, Kyra Bussanich, 2-time cupcake wars winner & owner of one of the best bakeries in the country, Charissa who owns the award winning Zest Bakery in San Carlos with her husband, Patrick and Andrew from Taste Guru. We met up with Alison from A Girl Defloured outside the restaurant.

You can’t get a bunch of food bloggers (or girls for that matter) together without a need to document every moment.

So document, we did. From the first glass of wine until our phone batteries died, we were happily snapping away.

With our party shoes on (well, mine were on once I got them back from Kyra), we descended on one of the culinary industry’s most famed locales. And, with a whole host of food allergies and intolerances, we challenged the kitchen to feed us.

Feed us they did.

I might have even eaten a piece of beet and not wanted to spit it out for the first time in my life. So, Chef Keller, your team must be magic, because that has never happened before.

And it wasn’t just some special sauce on the beets.

You could see the skill in the artfully presented dishes. Flavors danced. Each course was perfectly portioned, just a few bites each. Enough to fully experience the dish but not so much that you would be weary.

My favorite had to be the cauliflower. It was crunchy. Robust. Not at all what I expected. The courses were all like that. Surprises of flavor.

At some point, they must have figured out who Kyra was. Or they thought if they fed us more we might stop giggling.

They were wrong about that. But the surprise courses might have been some of the best. Mango sorbet and champagne granité. A root beer float that was unexpected. Spicy. Bright.

They couldn’t make us the desserts on the menus for us gluten free, so they asked us if we preferred chocolate or fruit.

Really? You have a doubt in your mind what 5 out of the 6 of us chose?

My phone was all out of juice by then, so you will have to take my word for it being divine. And then they served us chocolates. I might have had a peanut butter & jelly one.

At this point, Brandy & I had to run because we were talking to bloggers that evening back in San Francisco, and we were 5 hours into lunch. Our greedy friends didn’t save us any of the doughnuts that they made for us. Something about fried doughs not keeping well.

I tossed my wallet to Kyra and after some disproving glances from the hostess who looked like she thought we were running out on the bill, our experience of one incredible display of food artistry came to an end.

Except it didn’t.

That meal has been following me all week. Those vegetables have consumed my thoughts.

And the brioche.

Oh. the gluten-free brioche.

They were clouds of yeasty goodness that punctuated an incredible meal. And frankly, I needed more.