Allergy friendly pastries in Glebe - Finding Gathered Kitchen
Establishment: Gathered Kitchen, Glebe
Cuisine: plant based, vegan, cafe
Allergy information: all dishes are dairy and egg free, some dishes are also nut free or gluten free
Suggestions: the pancake stack and the pain au chocolat – delicieux!
Living with allergies, suggestions from family and friends have become a great way to discover new foods or places to eat out, especially in the last decade or so. Don’t get me wrong, Google is a pretty handy way to find articles and sites that guide you to some amazingly allergy friendly finds, but when you have people on your side, looking out for you and thinking about you when they see something delicious that won’t have you running for your epipen or to the hospital, that’s a pretty wonderful thing.
In this case, I have to thank my workmate, Morgaine, for suggesting I check out this relatively new place in Glebe. Being vego, she had started frequenting a vegan cafe called Gathered Kitchen and one day at work, she made a passing suggestion to me to give it a try. I admittedly completely forgot for a while, but then just before the Christmas break, she suggested it again, bringing up their Insta page and ok - I went a little insane.
Look at those photos! Cakes, pastries, doughnuts, croissants… being allergic to most of the baking essentials has made getting to eat this sort of food a total treat, if not just the stuff of fantasies. Not being able to just buy them at the shops or at bakeries and cafes means you have to do the work and bake or get treated by any excellent experimental baker friends (as is more often the case, because pro-baker, I am not). I have been lucky enough to happen upon some allergy-friendly croissants (!) and other pastries while travelling overseas but admittedly, options like that are still pretty thin in Sydney so when you find a place that makes amazing pastries, ready made and safe, and in your home city, you can't help but get excited.
Soon after that initial foray into the Gathered Insta, some friends of mine were down from the UK for the Christmas break so we made plans immediately to meet up and they happily agreed to check out Gathered with me.
While my friends went for one of the Gathered Bowls (which they both agreed was delicious), I was eager to try something I’d actually never had the chance to have before – a big fluffy pancake stack.
Despite the countless alternatives now available to allergy-folk like myself, I still hadn’t quite made it to thinking I’d ever have a Mascarpone-alike and yet, here we are. This was amazing. The pancakes were beautifully light and fluffy (something my homemade banana pancakes could never hope to be) and the ‘mascarpone’ alongside the berry compote were just the most luxuriously perfect accompaniment. I actually barely ended up using the syrup because I was already enjoying the stack without it, that’s how good it was. After years of going to places like Pancakes on the Rocks and never once being able to try their signature food, I felt pretty chuffed getting to eat something that looked just as good as one of their pancake creations.
Now I had rather stupidly eaten a larger breakfast than I’d originally planned earlier that day so my gut commanded me to stick to the one dish that visit, though I did buy one of their Pain au Chocolats sitting by the counter and took that away with me. Yes, that’s right, a pain au chocolat. That wouldn’t kill me. The primary school French student in me pretty much spontaneously combusted after my usual initial test bites garnered no itchiness in my tongue or throat, leaving me free to scoff that lovely pastry right down. I didn't take a photo, but you can find it easily on the Gathered Instagram.
I have yet to make my return because Gathered is only open during work hours on weekdays, so I need to drag people over some weekend soon to try some of their more savoury offerings and partake of more pastries, but for anyone else who has to miss out on croissants and doughnuts because of dairy and egg allergies, get thee to Glebe!
As there are no other items on the menu that contain those ingredients, cross contamination risk is very low and the food is lovely. The staff were very friendly, including when I inquired about nuts, and the place itself is enticing and welcoming with its entry decked out in all manner of baked goods and a comfortable and green outdoors eating area out the back.
I honestly cannot wait to go back and I look forward to dragging more people with me because this place is still relatively young, having opened in August 2017, and I want it to stay very much alive! Thankfully, according to Morgaine, Gathered doesn’t sound short of customers and with the food on offer, I’m not a bit surprised. I’m just so pleased that I don’t have to take a cookery course or travel back to Europe to get to enjoy croissants and scrolls again!
Cuisine: plant based, vegan, cafe
Allergy information: all dishes are dairy and egg free, some dishes are also nut free or gluten free
Suggestions: the pancake stack and the pain au chocolat – delicieux!
Living with allergies, suggestions from family and friends have become a great way to discover new foods or places to eat out, especially in the last decade or so. Don’t get me wrong, Google is a pretty handy way to find articles and sites that guide you to some amazingly allergy friendly finds, but when you have people on your side, looking out for you and thinking about you when they see something delicious that won’t have you running for your epipen or to the hospital, that’s a pretty wonderful thing.
In this case, I have to thank my workmate, Morgaine, for suggesting I check out this relatively new place in Glebe. Being vego, she had started frequenting a vegan cafe called Gathered Kitchen and one day at work, she made a passing suggestion to me to give it a try. I admittedly completely forgot for a while, but then just before the Christmas break, she suggested it again, bringing up their Insta page and ok - I went a little insane.
Look at those photos! Cakes, pastries, doughnuts, croissants… being allergic to most of the baking essentials has made getting to eat this sort of food a total treat, if not just the stuff of fantasies. Not being able to just buy them at the shops or at bakeries and cafes means you have to do the work and bake or get treated by any excellent experimental baker friends (as is more often the case, because pro-baker, I am not). I have been lucky enough to happen upon some allergy-friendly croissants (!) and other pastries while travelling overseas but admittedly, options like that are still pretty thin in Sydney so when you find a place that makes amazing pastries, ready made and safe, and in your home city, you can't help but get excited.
Soon after that initial foray into the Gathered Insta, some friends of mine were down from the UK for the Christmas break so we made plans immediately to meet up and they happily agreed to check out Gathered with me.
While my friends went for one of the Gathered Bowls (which they both agreed was delicious), I was eager to try something I’d actually never had the chance to have before – a big fluffy pancake stack.
 |
| I fully plan to up my photo game as I go so bear with me, but still, how good does this look? |
Despite the countless alternatives now available to allergy-folk like myself, I still hadn’t quite made it to thinking I’d ever have a Mascarpone-alike and yet, here we are. This was amazing. The pancakes were beautifully light and fluffy (something my homemade banana pancakes could never hope to be) and the ‘mascarpone’ alongside the berry compote were just the most luxuriously perfect accompaniment. I actually barely ended up using the syrup because I was already enjoying the stack without it, that’s how good it was. After years of going to places like Pancakes on the Rocks and never once being able to try their signature food, I felt pretty chuffed getting to eat something that looked just as good as one of their pancake creations.
Now I had rather stupidly eaten a larger breakfast than I’d originally planned earlier that day so my gut commanded me to stick to the one dish that visit, though I did buy one of their Pain au Chocolats sitting by the counter and took that away with me. Yes, that’s right, a pain au chocolat. That wouldn’t kill me. The primary school French student in me pretty much spontaneously combusted after my usual initial test bites garnered no itchiness in my tongue or throat, leaving me free to scoff that lovely pastry right down. I didn't take a photo, but you can find it easily on the Gathered Instagram.
I have yet to make my return because Gathered is only open during work hours on weekdays, so I need to drag people over some weekend soon to try some of their more savoury offerings and partake of more pastries, but for anyone else who has to miss out on croissants and doughnuts because of dairy and egg allergies, get thee to Glebe!
As there are no other items on the menu that contain those ingredients, cross contamination risk is very low and the food is lovely. The staff were very friendly, including when I inquired about nuts, and the place itself is enticing and welcoming with its entry decked out in all manner of baked goods and a comfortable and green outdoors eating area out the back.
I honestly cannot wait to go back and I look forward to dragging more people with me because this place is still relatively young, having opened in August 2017, and I want it to stay very much alive! Thankfully, according to Morgaine, Gathered doesn’t sound short of customers and with the food on offer, I’m not a bit surprised. I’m just so pleased that I don’t have to take a cookery course or travel back to Europe to get to enjoy croissants and scrolls again!
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