Elementi restaurant launches gluten-free night
Voted Australia’s best pizzaiolo. Now he’s turning over his hugely popular Italian restaurant to a gluten-free restaurant for just one night a month.
It wasn’t just feedback from celiacs and gluten-sensitive diners that had Mauricio Zarate Castillo and Stefano Spataro signing up when they launched a gluten-free night at their hugely popular Paddington restaurant Elementi.
“At the first service, we had a lot of regulars who had no problem with gluten but were just curious,” says Zarate Castillo. “Or maybe they were bringing in a partner with celiac disease.
“They would say, ‘I wouldn’t have noticed if you hadn’t told me it was gluten-free.’ That was up to us.”
But you’d expect Elementi to pull it off. After opening in a homey venue in Given Terrace in 2021, it has quickly gained a reputation for serving some of Brisbane’s best wood-fired pizzas, as well as a dynamic seasonal menu of starters, pastas and main courses. The place would be full most nights of the week.
Things took another step forward in 2023 when Spataro competed against 450 pizzaioli from 52 countries at the World Pizza Championships in Italy. Although there was no gluten-free pizza on the Elementi menu at that time, Spataro was in the top 100 in the classic pizza category and in the top 40 in the gluten-free category.
Spataro returned in 2024 and improved in every category, again this year in April placing 51st out of 353 for classic pizza and 40th out of 99 for Neapolitan pizza. However, in the gluten-free category, it specifically ranked seventh among 79 competitors. He became the highest-ranked Australian chef in the entire 2025 competition.
Spataro says the results over the past three years have been satisfactory, but it was an interview on ABC Radio in February last year that inspired the Elementi team to introduce a gluten-free night at the restaurant.
“I was very proud of my achievement, but when I talked about the gluten-free outcome on the radio, a lot of people started looking into it and wanted to try it,” she says.
“They basically threw us under the bus and we had to figure out how to do it,” Zarate Castillo jokes.
Spataro and Zarate Castillo had not previously considered a gluten-free menu due to cross-contamination concerns.
“We couldn’t make it as safe as we wanted,” Zarate Castillo says. “It doesn’t matter if we make it in the kitchen oven or the pizza oven. [out front]There would be flour everywhere and we want to make it as friendly as we can.
“We want the venue to be completely and utterly free for celiacs or people with high sensitivities, at least on that day.”
Instead, they eventually decided to dedicate one Wednesday a month to baking a short selection of completely gluten-free pizza, pasta, appetizers, and main dishes. They launched the menu in June.
“We thought about trying it out and seeing how it develops, and so far we haven’t had any problems,” says Zarate Castillo. “It’s been a huge success with celiac. They come back again and again.”
Elementi’s Gluten-Free Wednesday menu is a slightly simplified version of the restaurant’s typical menu.
It varies slightly with the seasons, but expect starters like porcini mushrooms sautéed with ricotta, beetroot emulsion and herbs; rice croquettes served with mushroom ragu, smoked mozzarella and truffle mayonnaise; and stir-fried cuttlefish with chickpeas and sweet and sour rosemary mix.
There’s also a mix of main courses and pastas, including roast duck ragu and vegetable penne, pumpkin cream risotto with taleggio and fried pepitas, potato gnocchi with tomato sugo, mozzarella and basil, and braised veal cheeks served with lemon mashed potatoes and red wine sauce.
But many customers go straight for the Bufalina (tomato sugo, buffalo mozzarella, basil, extra virgin olive oil), the Lasagna (slow-cooked beef and tomato ragu, mozzarella, bechamel, Grana Padano, basil) and the Salsiccia (mozzarella, homemade pork sausage, mixed mushrooms and parmesan).
“There’s no real secret to making good gluten-free pizza,” says Spataro. “You’re trying to understand how different you are [gluten free] what flours work for… and how they combine to achieve the same effect as gluten.
“I’ve been researching for a long time, and you discover things. For example, I was looking at gluten-free panettone and trying to figure out how to make this thing because the gluten in a regular panettone really helps it rise. And I discovered a special recipe that used psyllium and carob seeds, and I decided to add those to my pizza dough.”
In addition to appetizers, main courses and pizza, there is also a short menu of appetizers and desserts.
“Maybe we could do it differently and source gluten-free products elsewhere, but for us at Elementi, it’s important to make as much as possible in-house,” says Spataro.
“It needs to be gluten-free, but it also needs to be Elemental.”
Elementi’s next Gluten Free Wednesday menu will be released on October 29th.
Restaurant reviews, news, and the latest openings delivered to your inbox.
become a member
Matt Shea is Food and Culture Editor at the Brisbane Times. He is a former editor and editor-in-chief at Broadsheet Brisbane and has written for Escape, Qantas Magazine, Guardian, Jetstar Magazine and SilverKris, among others.
