The Gluten Free Chef Blog’s Pop Up Cafe & Bakery

What can I say? Everything I bought from the GFC Pop Up Bakery I ATE in three days. My plan for freezing the soups & breads was GONE as soon as I ate the chicken pot pie. Talk about comfort food. My picky 3 year old loved the cinnamon bread and even ate the carrots out of the soup. High praise! I can’t I wait to buy more chicken pot pies. :)

They say the quickest way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. False. The quickest way to a man’s heart is through his ribcage with a .44 magnum. The 2^nd quickest way to a man’s heart is through his esophagus, via his mouth. That’s where Calvin Eaton of the Gluten Free Chef Popup Café and Bakery Comes in. The food can be summed up in one line, but I’ll write a bunch of extra words anyways. My friend, who is neither celiac nor interested in gluten free cuisine said, «I couldn’t even tell that cake was gluten-​free unless he had said anything.» This was our first foray into this new chef’s kitchen in the Rochester scene.
He had attended a vendors’ gathering at a local grocery store and his products were up for public trial. I was reluctant but soon became hopeful after the first bite. I subsequently began following him on Facebook and his social media presence is welcome and refreshing. He keeps a blog, and writes about his work and the world at large as well — it is not merely limited to his own products. This eclectic adherence to trying something new is part of what makes Calvin’s products so good. They’re not boring, stale recipes. Much of the gluten free products on the market have to hit certain criteria: does it keep well on the shelf? Does it look like its gluten-​laden alternative? Etc. Etc. Calvin is not pigeon-​holed by these restrictions and bakes to his heart’s content, and even more interesting his bread specifically is some of the best I’ve tried, and he doesn’t even EAT bread anymore.
Another thing that stuck out to me as a person who has followed a gluten free diet fairly strictly over the past 2 years is his products aren’t greasy. For whatever reason other loaves of gluten-​free bread I’ve tried are just greasy out-​of-​the-​bag, and that was just an added headache of biting into barely edible cardboard. Calvin’s food is very good. I tried both his dessert cakes as well as his pumpkin bisque and turkey cabbage soup, in addition to the multi grain bread and banana bread. He uses locally sourced ingredients, and you can taste the perfection in every bite. It doesn’t have the mass-​produced taste other products have. And that’s what everyone really wants isn’t it? A nice, home cooked meal. In this case it’s baked by a tireless chef who donates back to the community, does popup food stands so he’s not limited to his Brick and Mortar storefront. Though I’ve only run into Calvin twice, I have a rising suspicion he’s going to be constantly innovating and on the cutting edge to stay ahead of his competition, which frankly right now are left in the dust.