Allergic to shellfish?

I decided not to rely on the tardiness of our Tae Kwon-Do club's Instructor to organise the Christmas do this year as we ended up in a 'last minute' venue last year.  I therefore took it upon myself to sort out the event.  As it happens it's quite late to arrange Christmas Dos in October - who knew?!

The consensus of opinion was to go to a national restaurant chain with an Italian theme locally and then onto various watering holes.  They can fit 25 of us in at the beginning of December with a set menu.  Ideal.  I provisionally booked.  It wasn't until later that I thought about myself and what I could eat, so then looked up the menu on line.

I don't know why this particular chain thinks this is a good idea - I thought we were really making progress in providing relevant information - but in order to find out which menu items are suitable for coeliacs, I had to send an email (in the 21st century?) to a "Guest Relations" person, requesting the allergen information.  Now I'm sorry, but that is about 40 steps backwards from where we were two years' ago.  What if I wanted to eat then and there with a hungry child?  How ridiculous is that?

However, what makes me more mad......and sad really.....is the set menu choice, and I quote.......

"I can confirm the following dishes from our Christmas Set Menu which are gluten and wheat free are the King Prawn starter without Ciabatta Bread and the King Prawn Risotto."

Inspiring? Not very.  As it happens I am mildly allergic to shellfish.....I come up in an attractive red blotchy rash, but in small amounts I can eat them.  Even without this, I'm not sure I would fancy king prawns for a starter (without the bread - I eat carbs too you know!) and then king prawns for main.  This has to be the 'epic fail' Christmas Menu of the year.

To be fair to the company, I can eat off the Classic Menu, which means that I don't receive the Christmas Set Menu discount, but that's not really the point.  In what chef's kitchen, did they decide that the only set menu items that would be gluten free would be king prawn starter and a king prawn main? Even if one of the dishes were without prawns, that would be a little more adventurous.

The upshot of this is that it further convinces me the need for the KISS Campaign.  We need to inspire companies to cater for us.  It's not that hard to do and it makes eating out so much more pleasurable and less stressful.  Despite that I know I will have a good time out - but as usual, will probably eat before I go.......just in case......


This week's recipe is "Winter spiced fruit with a hot meringue topping".   For further information about our KISS Campaign, this recipe and others, please see www.glutenfreetraining.co.uk

Winter spiced fruit with a meringue topping

Droppa & Droppa’s KISS campaign – Keep It Simple & Safe

As Christmas draws closer, so the festivities begin.  This is, however, generally a coeliac’s worst nightmare.  I‘ve been to many a Christmas do in my working life and it’s fair to say that, at the majority of places I have been poorly catered for.  In fact it may shock a lot of people to know that I’m not the only coeliac who eats before they go out to eat…..just in case there is nothing for me when I get there. 

As a manufacturer of food, I totally understand how difficult it is to cater for special diets when you have to serve over 200 covers at once.  Fear not, I have a cunning plan.  I have produced some gluten, wheat and dairy free alternative recipes for caterers.  All the dishes are ‘naturally’ gluten free and use regular kitchen ingredients, so there is no reason why these dishes (or similar ones) shouldn’t be on the menu for all diners.  They are not intended to be followed to the letter – more inspirational than anything else.

So, my campaign is going out to as many caterers as possible.  Wouldn’t it be amazing to eat from a menu, where some of the items are gluten free anyway.  The kitchen doesn’t have to prepare anything special for you, you won’t feel like a social pariah and be made to feel different, but you can eat out safely.

Please let as many people know about the KISS Campaign as you can and then hopefully we’ll really start to make a difference.  The first recipe – two ways with rostis is already up on www.glutenfreetraining.co.uk//Pages/Recipes.html.

If you have any recipes that you feel would work in any kitchen, feel free to email them to me and I will test them out and post them on my website.  I’m after recipes that use normal kitchen ingredients, no fancy flours that are costly and hard to source.  We really want kitchens to buy into this, not make their lives more difficult and this can only be achieved by making it as easy as possible.

Christmas kisses to one and all.

Still getting it wrong......

We were out in town after school with our daughter the other day and decided to treat her to a meal at one of her favourite restaurants.  She’s eleven years old and, if she had her way, her diet would consist entirely of junk food and ice cream.  Anyway, she decided she wanted to eat at a well-known pizza chain (more for the availability of said ice cream and a variety of toppings!)  Groaning internally we agreed…..

Now don’t get me wrong, I, like others, welcome the fact that these big chains now provide gluten free pizzas so that I can feel ‘normal’ when eating out, but I just don’t like eating that kind of factory made, processed food and I particularly don’t like it for my children.  Unfortunately, my previous arguments of “mummy can’t eat there, so let’s go to X restaurant instead, don’t stand up anymore!”  I should have known better than to offer her the decision making responsibility, but hey ho…… So, off we toddled.

Having eaten in this establishment a couple of times in the last few months, I know that some of the toppings aren’t gluten free – or rather should I say were “made in a factory blah blah blah.”  So, when our waiter came over, I asked him to check the toppings that are gluten free.  “All of them” he said with confidence.  “Can you please check,” I said as I’m sure not all of them are….”

He duly went off to the Manager and came back brimming with even more confidence and said “I’ve just checked with my Manager and definitely all of the toppings are gluten free.”  This is when it gets awkward.  I know that’s not quite true, yet I don’t want to appear as if I’m being difficult, but I know he’s wrong.  At this point he tells me he’s only just started, which is absolutely fine - we all have to start at some point!  So what do I do?……husband to the rescue….!  It’s so much easier to be more assertive when it’s for someone else.  “Please can you check your ‘book’ as I know you have a full ingredients list with allergens?”

So off goes the new guy again and I turn around to see him and the manager discussing the matter at length.  Again he comes back and confirms that all toppings are gluten free.  The Manager still has the ‘book’ in his hand, so being very brave I get up and say “I’m really not being difficult, but it is very important as I don’t want to be ill.”  And I check the ‘book’ with him.  Lo and behold there is a contamination risk associated with the ham topping.  I point that out to the Manager and waiter and explain that the risk is too high and I would prefer not to have something with ham on (shame as I was going to order a Hawaiian pizza!)

As it happens, I had a Cajun chicken.  Sadly, I still had a dodgy tummy when I got home and two days later I was still feeling a little icky.  I get very tired, short tempered and experience an overall feeling of lethargy when I’ve been exposed to gluten.  Now therein lies the dilemma - deprive child from stuffing her face with pizza and ice cream for my sake; or just put up with it and make it my mission to try to train these establishments, so that they do not keep making the same basic mistakes……resolutely, I choose the latter.

New and temporary staff will always come and go, but the rules and regulations that surround the delivery of allergen information - is here to stay.  Appropriate training materials and systems are essential to keep your staff up to speed, keep the business compliant and above all your customers happy.