Everyone you know currently appears to be somewhere on the Amalfi Coast? The Botanica Vaucluse might have found the antidote to your European summer FOMO. The Sydney restaurant is celebrating its 10th birthday this August by bringing a taste of Italy to Vaucluse with a month-long Gluten-Free Italian Festival, complete with special pastry collaborations, cannoli and plenty of Amalfi-inspired citrus. Better yet, the entire celebration is gluten free. The Botanica has teamed up with some of Australia's leading gluten-free artisans for the occasion, with the festivities taking inspiration from Naples, Calabria and the Amalfi Coast. Throughout August, you'll be able to order the famous lemon tart from Sebastien Sans Gluten, created by acclaimed gluten-free pastry chef Sebastien Bohr. Inspired by the flavours of the Amalfi Coast, it combines citrus with delicate gluten-free pastry and gives those of us spending August in Sydney at least a small taste of an Italian summer. Then, on Saturday 8 August, Calabria takes over dessert. Daniele Barresi, the Calabrian pastry chef behind Eden Pasticceria, will be creating a towering cannoli display for the restaurant, with every table of two or more receiving a complimentary gluten-free cannolo as part of The Botanica's birthday celebrations. The celebrations officially kick off with a Gluten-Free Pizza Night on Saturday 1 August, and if you were hoping to nab a table, you're already too late — the event has completely sold out. A pretty good indication of just how much appetite there is in Sydney for genuinely good gluten-free Italian food. “It's our way of saying thank you to everyone who has supported us over the past decade,” says Venue and Events Manager Sara Paganelli. “We wanted our anniversary to feel like a holiday in Italy. Every collaboration tells a story and celebrates the incredible artisans helping redefine what's possible in gluten-free dining.” There's another reason this year's anniversary is particularly significant. The Botanica recently became one of Sydney's few Coeliac Australia-accredited restaurants, with an entirely gluten-free menu rather than a separate selection of gluten-free dishes. Behind that menu is chef Abby James, whose background includes time at Quay and Jonah's and who is helping challenge the rather outdated idea that eating gluten free should mean settling for a lesser version of the dish everyone else gets to enjoy. “A decade ago we opened The Botanica to change that,” says The Botanica co-founder Evette Moran. “This month is proof it worked — we're bringing in some of Italy's best pastry traditions and showing Sydney that gluten-free was never the limitation, it just needed someone to take it seriously.” So, while we can't quite provide the Mediterranean Sea, linen-clad Europeans or a month-long Italian holiday, an Amalfi-inspired lemon tart followed by a complimentary cannolo isn't a bad consolation prize. The Botanica Vaucluse's 10th Anniversary Gluten-Free Italian Festival runs throughout August at 2 Laguna Street, Vaucluse.
Get the latest & greatest straight to your inbox each week.
You can unsubscribe at your convenience. Refer to our T&C's.
Get The Wellness Wrap - wellness discoveries, launches and events delivered to your inbox each fortnight.