For those in search of gluten-free baked goods, you have new — and tasty! — options from Blue Duck Tavern. The Park Hyatt and its West End restaurant last month launched a “heart-healthy” breakfast menu that includes some of the best gluten-free baking I’ve yet to sample. It’s all about the texture, and without gluten, it’s an immense challenge to get bread products to behave how they’re supposed to. Here muffins and granola bars are moist. Particularly impressive? A loaf of sour cream coffee cake and a sweet, citrusy orange scone that pulls apart like a soft biscuit.

The results are the flour-blending machinations of a young pastry chef named Tori Kramer, who’s been on Blue Duck’s kitchen team for two years. About a year ago, she was diagnosed with Celiac disease, the autoimmune disorder that leaves its sufferers with digestive systems that attack the protein gluten when it’s ingested. Gluten is the protein found in wheat, so it’s a tough diagnosis for a baker.

“Every doctor told me, ‘Get out of the kitchen. Find a new career.’ It was really frustrating,” says Kramer. “I cried a lot about it. And then decided, you know what? I’m not giving up. I’m going to do this.”

She turned to science books to learn more about the nature of carbohydrates as she worked on perfecting mixes that might include tapioca, potato, white and brown rice flours, corn starch, milk powder, and xanthan gum, which helps bind everything together. There was also a lot of taste testing by veteran head Pastry Chef Naomi Gallego and the rest of the kitchen staff, continually revising the scone proportions to try to achieve flakiness.

Those blends also go into the gluten-free pancakes and waffles. It’s nice for those avoiding gluten to have those options, even though pancakes are one of the easier breakfast items to reproduce at homes with decent commercially available blends out there. Though the waffles come out a bit too thin and crisp, they’re great outlets for the lemon curd and homemade preserves served with them. Seasonal egg dishes make use of egg whites, mixed with potatoes, onions, kale, and romesco in a frittata or scrambled with jumbo lump Maryland crab. Yolks, hollandaise, and short rib hash are available opposite from the balanced fare side of the menu.

Gluten-free doesn’t always have to go with heart healthy. Pretzels have had high fat and calorie contents, though their manufacturers are learning how to bring things down to acceptable levels. One of the best frozen baguettes I’ve found on the market is that good because it’s loaded with cheese. Kramer’s recipes turn to techniques such as using applesauce to replaces oils when possible and rejecting refined sugars in favor of natural sweetening with fruits like dates and cherries and agave nectar. The muffins and granola bars at Blue Duck are fairly healthy, and while the scones and coffee cakes may be gluten free, they’re certainly not fat-free.

The restaurant is working on offering breads, and Kramer is working on getting the texture down for gluten-free croissants. “I’m really thankful that I was [in pastry school before being diagnosed],” Kramer says. “I don’t think I would have gone into this industry if I had known. It happened to work out this way and now I’m on this path making gluten-free pastries and loving it.

“My goal is to be able to make one thing for everyone. I don’t want to have to make something for myself and my sister who also has Celiac disease and a separate meal for everyone else. I want there to be one thing for everyone that we can enjoy together. So I don’ like when people say ‘This is great for gluten-free.’ I just want them to say, ‘Yeah this is great.'”

The pastries are part of breakfast at the restaurant. It’s not a to-go bakery operation, so while it may be possible to grab a few to go, they would prefer you come sit down for the morning meal. That way you get to enjoy the expansive yet cozy dining room, open kitchen, and view of the cooling muffins. Breakfast at Blue Duck is served from 6:30 to 10:30 a.m. and diners can get complementary parking and a newspaper with their gluten-free muffins.

Blue Duck Tavern
1201 24th Street NW
202-419-6755