Three quiches sit in the savoury cabinet. Lorraine, mushroom, caramelised onion, twelve dollars each, and all three are made with no added gluten. Ordering a quiche in Christchurch when a guest avoids gluten usually means a phone call. Then a hesitant answer. Here it is simply what we make.
You are the one who picks where everybody eats. That changes the shape of an afternoon. Bring a visiting colleague, a friend, a parent. Hand them the savoury menu and skip the dietary interview at the door.
The three, and how they eat
A quiche is savoury custard baked in pastry, and the set of that custard decides everything. Firm enough to hold a clean edge on the plate. Soft enough to give under a fork, with a faint wobble at the middle. Ours are warmed to order, so allow about ten minutes from the moment you ask. The pastry comes back crisp at the rim. The top takes a little colour.
- Quiche Lorraine: the classic of the three, and the one most people reach for first.
- Mushroom quiche: earthier, savoury before it is rich, with the damp woody note mushrooms keep after baking.
- Caramelised onion quiche: onions cooked down slowly until they turn sweet, so the custard carries a low, jammy note underneath.
These are cabinet items, not made-to-order cakes. No lead time at all. You walk in and choose.
What "no added gluten" actually means
We word this carefully because the labelling rules require it. The shorthand most people expect is not available to us. What we can say is that we have not added any gluten-containing ingredients to the recipe. Our kitchen is small and without exclusive production areas for all of our different recipes, so traces may occur, and nothing we make is guaranteed safe for severe coeliac disease. If your guest is coeliac and not simply gluten-avoiding, that is the honest position. Better said before you order.
The same standard runs through our No Added Gluten range. That range goes broader than most people expect. One more thing worth knowing before you order for a table: nothing we make is both no added gluten and no added dairy at the same time.
Building a full lunch around one
A quiche on its own is a light plate. The Brazilian cheese scone is made with cassava instead of wheat, so it carries no added gluten too. It arrives warm, tears open with a soft chew, and comes with hand-whipped butter and guava jam. Past that, the savoury side is wheat-based: the stuffed sfiha, a Lebanese-Brazilian filled pastry, the croque monsieur, and cheese and spring onion potato bread, sausage scroll, creamy chicken bread and ham and cheese bread.
The sweet half of the same idea
Several cabinet desserts follow the same no-added-gluten standard. Nobody sits watching the others order. The mini lemon tart sits on a shortcrust made without added gluten, under a lemon mousse that is sharp and very light, finished with meringue toasted until the peaks go brown and tacky. The Romeo and Juliet mini cheesecake sets white chocolate cheesecake against guava jam, sweet against sweeter, with a musky edge off the fruit. The Pudim caramel flan is slow-baked Brazilian custard, cool and dense on the spoon, sitting in dark caramel.
To drink, there is a Zealong teapot for one. Most of the hot and cold options on the drinks list can be made with a dairy-free milk.
Bring the person who usually eats around the menu
Everyone has one. The friend who reads a menu twice and then orders a side. Bring them, order two different quiches between you, and swap halves halfway down. A fork crosses the table, a plate turns, and a solo errand has quietly become a table for two. Our tables move, so a group of four to eight fits, and the kitchen is open to watch while you wait.
Coming in for lunch
Quiches and the rest of the savoury cabinet need no notice at all. Walk in, ask, and we will warm one for you in about ten minutes. Anything made to order, a layer cake or a tray of minis, needs two days and is booked through the date picker at checkout. Pickup only, always: everything is collected from our patisserie inside The Welder on Welles Street, and we do not deliver or courier. Open 10am to 9pm Tuesday to Saturday, closed Sunday and Monday as a rule.
