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Is it possible to try a tasting menu when you have a list of food allergies as long as your arm? That was the challenge we presented to George Restaurant in Toronto during our vacation.

They went for it and this is the story.

Amuse bouche

When The Boy and I first started dating, we watched quite a bit of old Julia Child episodes, as well as Two Fat Ladies. It was the perfect idea of romance for a relationship between two foodies, in which one has food allergies. If you can’t eat out, watch food.

I have continued watching everything Netflix has in terms of food shows, swooning quietly over the gourmet creations by brilliant chefs. In particular, I have become very fond of watching tasting menus. Five, seven, ten or more small exquisite dishes presented beautifully like little pieces of art.

Tasty, tasty art.

For me, scallop with yummy things. For David, ahi tuna enrobed in amazing potato something. And yummy things.

But I have food allergies. Rather a lot of them, so it’s a lot easier to create my own meals.

And then we went on vacation and I instructed The Boy that he was to take me out to a nice dinner. White table cloths kind of nice.

For me, salmon on top of yummy things, potentially containing smoked salmon. For David, seared swordfish and grilled vegetables.

We reviewed a number of options, checked menus, excluded the ones where almost every dish contained some kind of nuts, and then I remember having been to a meeting at George four years ago. I didn’t eat anything, but I remember that the coffee smelled like Danish coffee.

And then there was the email, with a wonderful return email suggesting that we came for an early dinner, which would enable the chefs to pay that extra attention a safe dinner required, and we made a reservation for the seven course tasting menu.

For me, Fogo crab with yummy things. Duck for David.

We were both really excited and I more than a bit nervous, but I needn’t have worried. Everything was wonderful. There were white table cloths, wonderful atmosphere, amazing servers, and lovely wine.

But let’s get to the real star of the story: the food. Which was an education for me, including several things I haven’t tried before. Food allergies can make your diet very limited, but before they joined my life, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) always wreaked havoc with my stomach, making me very nauseated. Which also limited to my culinary adventurousness. Once medication started controlling my RA, I became less nauseated, but then came the food allergies. Our visit to George was an opportunity to try simply everything.

For me, pork belly with foie gras and yes, yummy things. David had squab with foie gras and yummy things.

I wanted to document each course so I could show my mother (and you) later, but didn’t actually realize the camera on my phone had a food setting until the next day. Subsequently, some of these photos are a little blurry — the lighting went down around the third course — and, well… At a certain point, I was more interested in eating than documenting.

Brilliantly, aside from the amuse-bouche — pickled artichoke heart filled with tomato-ish ricotta — David and I were given different dishes for each course. Naturally, this meant that we ate approximately half of our own, then switched. Except for the Fogo crab (third course) which I let him taste, but otherwise not touch because I really, really like crab, and a few dishes involving fowl, which aside from a nibble, I let him keep, as I react the same way to fowl as I do to eggs.

Steak  for me – the best piece of beef I’ve ever had – and lamb for David.

I had not had artichoke before, mostly because it seems like a lot of work for not a lot of payoff, which is same opinion The Boy has of heavenly things like crab and crayfish. Turns out that pickled artichoke heart is delicious. So are scallops (previously untested due to texture issues), pork belly (I’ve been off meat for several years), and foie gras, which I felt guilty about eating, but not enough to stop. Perhaps it was the non-guilty kind?

Each perfect course was composed of a particular piece of seafood, fowl, or meat, supported by a variety of vegetables and more. As each plate was put down in front of us, we were told some of the ingredients, but I didn’t take notes. We were both too consumed by the experience. After the first bite and appropriate reverential closing of the eyes and quiet moans, we would try to guess some of the ingredients. I’m quite sure we missed most.

For David, a parmesan-like Quebec cheese with pear puree (I think). For me, an incredible Ontario cheese called Figaro in a rosemary profiterole (savoury pastry?!).

From watching all those food shows, I know that there is a flow to a tasting dinner, one course building upon another, starting with light, moving towards heavier fares, ending on light again. It is like a perfectly composed symphony of flavours, playing off and with each other. And every single bite was heavenly. Even more so, because I felt the eating of them was safe.

The price was up there for a special dinner out, but considering the excellence of the experience, entirely reasonable.

Dessert: I forget, but both dishes were out of this world.

Thank you so much to the team at George Restaurant for the amazing meal and for helping fulfil one of my dreams. We will definitely be back.

Cappucino for the win at the end of a great meal experience.