August, The Restaurant

I’m afraid my first time to eat out after hearing that I had celiac jaded me for life.  My parents had to go to New Orleans for work, and they asked me to go with them and lured me away from my bathtub (the absolute best place for sulking and the place I had been hiding out for the previous two days) with the promise to eat at August that night.   August, one of legendary John Besh’s seven restaurants, takes you back in time a bit with its elegant dark wood paneling and old brick.  August serves contemporary French fare but has a down home Southern feel due to the focus on local, seasonal ingredients.

When my mom called to make a reservation, the hostess asked if anyone in the party had special food concerns.  Why, yes actually!  When we arrived, our waitress could not have been more helpful.  She knew everything on the menu that was gluten free or that could be altered to become gluten free.  When my parents ordered an appetizer that I couldn’t eat, she surprised me by bringing me an appetizer that I could eat so I wouldn’t feel left out of the party.  It was a slightly spicy strawberry gazpacho poured over quenelles of locally made goat cheese, baby herbs, and whole strawberries.  I plan on living on this soup as soon as I have the money to buy large quantities of these ingredients.  I’ll get back to you with a recipe as soon as that time comes.  Next, I had what turned out to be a pork sampling plate.  Braised pork shoulder on top of sweet, stewed tomatoes, sous vide pork tenderloin with caramelized onions and roasted corn, and finally, my favorite food of all time, slow cooked pork belly with fresh heirloom tomatoes.  As if this weren’t enough, I was even able to have dessert—goat cheesecake (or would it be goat cheese cheesecake?) made without a crust and sitting on crushed hazelnuts and honey ice cream. 

I left the restaurant with this new outlook—everyone must be watching out for those of us with food allergies!  This isn’t that bad after all!  Unfortunately, I soon found out that I was very, very mistaken.  But don’t worry!  There are so many delicious things we can eat, and I hope you’ll love my recipes to come soon!