NEWSLETTER
EXCITING UPCOMING EVENTS
GLUTEN FREE GARAGE
I just want to thank everyone who stopped by to see me at the Gluten Free Garage. It was a great day, i met a lot of amazing vendors and thanks to the large gluten free community, we had a very successful turn out. I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did!
I answered your gluten free questions and let you know what I could do for you as a gluten free consultant.
As well, I was sharing my booth with Chef David Chung of AKASAKA JAPANESE RESTAURANT where he served up lots of delicious sushi and we let everyone know about our upcoming Gluten Free Sushi Classes and Gluten Free Asian Cooking Classes.
UPCOMING GLUTEN FREE COOKING CLASSES
Thanks to everyone that joined us for this delicious GOURMET AND GLUTEN FREE WITH MARNI WASSERMAN cooking class. It was a great evening and the recipes were wonderful as usual!
The menu included Carrot Apple Soup, Brown Rice Pesto Pasta, Tempeh Stir Fry, Saffron Laced Quinoa, Black Bean Burgers, and Pea Muffins. As always, I enjoyed working with Marni and was delighted to be a part of this class. I hope I answered all the great gluten free questions! I look forward to working with Marni again in the near future.
Saturday January 12, 2013, from 12:00pm to 2:00pm GLUTEN FREE SUSHI WITH CHEF DAVID. Learn the art of making sushi and enjoy an afternoon at one of my favourite restaurants, Akasaka Japanese Restaurant in Richmond Hill. The price is $75. Class sizes are small and usually sell out, so be sure to sign up early.
RSVP to me at glutenfreeconsultant@gmail.com.
Saturday January 19, 2013, from 12:00pm to 2:00pm GLUTEN FREE ASIAN COOKING CLASS WITH CHEF DAVID. The menu will include pad thai, spring rolls, and dumplings. This class is offered on a Saturday afternoon when the restaurant is not open so that we have the whole place to ourselves to cook in the kitchen and learn from an amazing chef!
GLUTEN FREE CATERING FOR CORPORATE AND PRIVATE FUNCTIONS
PERFECT PALATE TOO is a full service catering business that is able to take care of ALL your catering needs in the Greater Toronto Area. They have lots of gluten free options on their menus and really understand how to do gluten free the right way. I have really enjoyed working with them on a few occasions and feel that they do an incredible job taking care of their gluten free clients.
GLUTEN FREE BAT MITZVAH PARTY
My latest, and probably, most rewarding gluten free project to date, was planning a completely gluten free Bat Mitzvah for 140 guests. The venue was LeParc Markham, in Thornhill. They provided us with our own kitchen, read every label of every item of food that was to be served, and made the food not just gluten free but delicious and wonderful for everyone at the party. Highlights included sushi, smoked salmon on lentil chips, french fries, and sweet potato fries, and nachos with spinach and salsa dips!!! There was also a table set up of organic popcorn in 3 different colours to match our theme placed in a variety of glass jars and served in little pink pin-striped bags! The popcorn was made by a company called crazy corn www.crazycorn.webs.com. And those were just the hors d'ouvres!!!! The dinner was four different stations placed around the room and included the Bat Mitzvah girl's favourite foods. There was an Asian station, which included fried rice, pad thai, and chicken yakatori, prepared by Chef David of Akasaka Japanese Restaurant. The Italian station had 2 different types of gluten free pasta, and 2 different sauces, and was prepared a la minute style so that it was served fresh and hot! The meat station was a Montreal smoked meat sliced while you wait and served with roasted vegetables, and garnished with cherry tomatoes and olives. And the final station included a variety of salads; a ceasar salad, a spinach salad with pear and goat cheese, and of course a mixed green salad. The dessert station was served later in the evening and was a huge hit! The desserts were centered around a milk and cookie bar. The cookie bar included a variety of cookies and personalized Hershey's Kisses all arranged beautifully in different size glass jars. To match our theme, the milk was 3 different colours, white, chocolate, and strawberry, and served in shot glasses! LeParc allowed me to provide the dough for the chocolate chip cookies and the chocolate chocolate chip cookies and baked them for me on parchment paper to avoid any chance of cross contamination. The sugar cookies were made by Goodbye Gluten and they were as beautiful as they were delicious!
To compliment the cookie bar there was a chocolate fountain that included fruit, marshmellows, and rice krispie treats that LeParc allowed me to prepare myself. The company that provided the chocolate fountain was Amore Chocolates and they made sure their equipment was well cleaned, they bought new containers for the chocolate we were using, and they allowed me to provide chocolate that I found that was labeled gluten free. And, last but not least, dessert was served with Chapmans nut free and gluten free ice cream, which was the most important food requested by the Bat Mitzvah glrl!
Now, I can't go any further without mentioning the fabulous Decor company I worked with, who also was very helpful in finding and providing the popcorn table and the cookie bar. Andrea from Style Statement Wedding and Event Design was another person I was able to find that was not at all intimidated by a gluten free event. She embraced the challenges of making everything fabulous and at the same time gluten free!
Working with LeParc was thrilling! They were so accomodating and so completely able to handle the gluten free requests I continued to throw at them along the way. During the whole process, they never said, "no I can't do this for you", they only ever said, "sure let's figure out how we can do this so that everyone is happy and enjoying themselves". My relationship with LeParc was with John and his assistant Dina. Not only did they work well with me, but they worked well with everyone helping me. This event was a collaboration of amazing people and wonderful gluten free food and was a night I will remember for a very long time!
For more details, check out my blog at www.glutenfreeconsultant.blogspot.com. I will be doing a series of blogs to showcase in detail the extrordinary efforts of all the people that made this exciting gluten free event!
AT HOME ORGANIC FARMS
I have always loved to garden. Every year I dream of producing beautiful fruits and vegetables that my family can enjoy. This is so complimentary to living on a healthy gluten free diet (or any healthy diet for that matter!) However, I am not the accomplished gardner I wished I could be, until now... I was fortunate enough to come across athomeorganicfarms.com.
This company builds, plants, and maintains my organic garden for the season. I got to name my garden, Jo's Best Ever Kitchen Garden, and pick the plants that I want to grow! I am responsible for watering the garden as I am
instructed by email and I am in charge of harvesting and eating the vegetables when they are ready.
Our second season with At Home Organic Farms was even better than the first!
NUT'N GLUTEN
This store is family owned and they take a lot of care in helping out the gluten free (and nut
free) community. I always feel grateful when I go into this store and pleased with my purchases when I leave.
If you live in the Greater Toronto Area and haven't been to Nut'N Gluten yet, I urge you to go check it out. You won't be disappointed! They are located at 3120 Rutherford Road, which is Rutherford Rd just west of Jane Street. They have just opened up a second location in Oakville as well.
EXCITING UPCOMING EVENTS
GLUTEN FREE GARAGE
I just want to thank everyone who stopped by to see me at the Gluten Free Garage. It was a great day, i met a lot of amazing vendors and thanks to the large gluten free community, we had a very successful turn out. I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did!
I answered your gluten free questions and let you know what I could do for you as a gluten free consultant.
As well, I was sharing my booth with Chef David Chung of AKASAKA JAPANESE RESTAURANT where he served up lots of delicious sushi and we let everyone know about our upcoming Gluten Free Sushi Classes and Gluten Free Asian Cooking Classes.
UPCOMING GLUTEN FREE COOKING CLASSES
Thanks to everyone that joined us for this delicious GOURMET AND GLUTEN FREE WITH MARNI WASSERMAN cooking class. It was a great evening and the recipes were wonderful as usual!
The menu included Carrot Apple Soup, Brown Rice Pesto Pasta, Tempeh Stir Fry, Saffron Laced Quinoa, Black Bean Burgers, and Pea Muffins. As always, I enjoyed working with Marni and was delighted to be a part of this class. I hope I answered all the great gluten free questions! I look forward to working with Marni again in the near future.
Saturday January 12, 2013, from 12:00pm to 2:00pm GLUTEN FREE SUSHI WITH CHEF DAVID. Learn the art of making sushi and enjoy an afternoon at one of my favourite restaurants, Akasaka Japanese Restaurant in Richmond Hill. The price is $75. Class sizes are small and usually sell out, so be sure to sign up early.
RSVP to me at glutenfreeconsultant@gmail.com.
Saturday January 19, 2013, from 12:00pm to 2:00pm GLUTEN FREE ASIAN COOKING CLASS WITH CHEF DAVID. The menu will include pad thai, spring rolls, and dumplings. This class is offered on a Saturday afternoon when the restaurant is not open so that we have the whole place to ourselves to cook in the kitchen and learn from an amazing chef!
GLUTEN FREE CATERING FOR CORPORATE AND PRIVATE FUNCTIONS
PERFECT PALATE TOO is a full service catering business that is able to take care of ALL your catering needs in the Greater Toronto Area. They have lots of gluten free options on their menus and really understand how to do gluten free the right way. I have really enjoyed working with them on a few occasions and feel that they do an incredible job taking care of their gluten free clients.
GLUTEN FREE BAT MITZVAH PARTY
My latest, and probably, most rewarding gluten free project to date, was planning a completely gluten free Bat Mitzvah for 140 guests. The venue was LeParc Markham, in Thornhill. They provided us with our own kitchen, read every label of every item of food that was to be served, and made the food not just gluten free but delicious and wonderful for everyone at the party. Highlights included sushi, smoked salmon on lentil chips, french fries, and sweet potato fries, and nachos with spinach and salsa dips!!! There was also a table set up of organic popcorn in 3 different colours to match our theme placed in a variety of glass jars and served in little pink pin-striped bags! The popcorn was made by a company called crazy corn www.crazycorn.webs.com. And those were just the hors d'ouvres!!!! The dinner was four different stations placed around the room and included the Bat Mitzvah girl's favourite foods. There was an Asian station, which included fried rice, pad thai, and chicken yakatori, prepared by Chef David of Akasaka Japanese Restaurant. The Italian station had 2 different types of gluten free pasta, and 2 different sauces, and was prepared a la minute style so that it was served fresh and hot! The meat station was a Montreal smoked meat sliced while you wait and served with roasted vegetables, and garnished with cherry tomatoes and olives. And the final station included a variety of salads; a ceasar salad, a spinach salad with pear and goat cheese, and of course a mixed green salad. The dessert station was served later in the evening and was a huge hit! The desserts were centered around a milk and cookie bar. The cookie bar included a variety of cookies and personalized Hershey's Kisses all arranged beautifully in different size glass jars. To match our theme, the milk was 3 different colours, white, chocolate, and strawberry, and served in shot glasses! LeParc allowed me to provide the dough for the chocolate chip cookies and the chocolate chocolate chip cookies and baked them for me on parchment paper to avoid any chance of cross contamination. The sugar cookies were made by Goodbye Gluten and they were as beautiful as they were delicious!
To compliment the cookie bar there was a chocolate fountain that included fruit, marshmellows, and rice krispie treats that LeParc allowed me to prepare myself. The company that provided the chocolate fountain was Amore Chocolates and they made sure their equipment was well cleaned, they bought new containers for the chocolate we were using, and they allowed me to provide chocolate that I found that was labeled gluten free. And, last but not least, dessert was served with Chapmans nut free and gluten free ice cream, which was the most important food requested by the Bat Mitzvah glrl!
Now, I can't go any further without mentioning the fabulous Decor company I worked with, who also was very helpful in finding and providing the popcorn table and the cookie bar. Andrea from Style Statement Wedding and Event Design was another person I was able to find that was not at all intimidated by a gluten free event. She embraced the challenges of making everything fabulous and at the same time gluten free!
Working with LeParc was thrilling! They were so accomodating and so completely able to handle the gluten free requests I continued to throw at them along the way. During the whole process, they never said, "no I can't do this for you", they only ever said, "sure let's figure out how we can do this so that everyone is happy and enjoying themselves". My relationship with LeParc was with John and his assistant Dina. Not only did they work well with me, but they worked well with everyone helping me. This event was a collaboration of amazing people and wonderful gluten free food and was a night I will remember for a very long time!
For more details, check out my blog at www.glutenfreeconsultant.blogspot.com. I will be doing a series of blogs to showcase in detail the extrordinary efforts of all the people that made this exciting gluten free event!
AT HOME ORGANIC FARMS
I have always loved to garden. Every year I dream of producing beautiful fruits and vegetables that my family can enjoy. This is so complimentary to living on a healthy gluten free diet (or any healthy diet for that matter!) However, I am not the accomplished gardner I wished I could be, until now... I was fortunate enough to come across athomeorganicfarms.com.
This company builds, plants, and maintains my organic garden for the season. I got to name my garden, Jo's Best Ever Kitchen Garden, and pick the plants that I want to grow! I am responsible for watering the garden as I am
instructed by email and I am in charge of harvesting and eating the vegetables when they are ready.
Our second season with At Home Organic Farms was even better than the first!
NUT'N GLUTEN
This store is family owned and they take a lot of care in helping out the gluten free (and nut
free) community. I always feel grateful when I go into this store and pleased with my purchases when I leave.
If you live in the Greater Toronto Area and haven't been to Nut'N Gluten yet, I urge you to go check it out. You won't be disappointed! They are located at 3120 Rutherford Road, which is Rutherford Rd just west of Jane Street. They have just opened up a second location in Oakville as well.
