Take a moment and reflect on your own personal history of sitting with people at a table, sharing a meal and talking. How many important conversations have you had in this setting? Do you have meals associated with favorite memories at favorite tables, with favorite people in your life?
Food is such a personal connection for us, and I can think of hundreds of memorable moments that took place while sharing a meal, a snack or a nightcap. Tears cried over breakups while at brunch with my friends, and midnight dancing to fast pop while sharing snacks in the kitchen at the end of a great night out. Do we love the food because of how it tastes? I might have an entire list of meals I love because of who I ate it with, who prepared it, where I sat, where my emotions were in that time of my life…you get the point.
18 years ago I was diagnosed with celiac disease and my entire relationship with food was changed permanently. Those favorite meals I had such strong attachments to were suddenly on a list of things to avoid if I did not want to feel terribly sick all the time. Pasta, bread, bagels and pizza became things that I had limited access to and the gluten-free options on the market at that time were honestly quite poor. Being from New York I felt the loss of a good Sunday morning bagel particularly cruel, and often crept off to weep at the sight of other people enjoying pizza.
I had a choice to make: give up on safe versions of some of my favorites, or begin creating delicious gluten-free dishes for myself while I wait for the market to catch up to me. You can imagine that an avid home cook could really only land on the latter.
This website is my opportunity to have you sit at my table, regardless of our physical distance. Share my meals, share your stories, reach out for guidance and hopefully discover how amazing a dedicated gluten-free meal can really be. It shouldn’t be an occasional treat, it should be a moment to savor each time you sit down to enjoy something you’ve made. For those of us with health conditions that are managed through diet it is especially important to feel that our food is safe for our bodies. As a cook, what I love to celebrate is that the meal is free from gluten, but also free from the restrictions that I experienced 18 years ago as I set to work reteaching myself how to cook.