Hi everyone!
If you are here it is because gluten-free food has become an important part of your life. Either if you are celiac, intolerant, allergic, or simply want to live a gluten-free life, you have probably noticed that it is not an easy task to do (and let’s not speak about the cost!). The world today, although it has progressed a LOT in terms of the gluten-free consciousness, is still not enough. Food is not as tasty compared to the gluten-containing one, ingredients are difficult to find, they are more expensive, and in addition to all this, we have the cross-contamination issue!
So…. what is the answer to this problem?
We have to cook ourselves to be safe! But… is it hard to cook gluten-free? NO!
I have been experiencing for more than 3 years different techniques and here, I will give you all my knowledge guiding you through the recipes, how to follow each step so you in your house can prepare a really delicious and enjoyable meal that everyone will envy (even the gluten eaters!).
Who I am?
I am Giovanni Pamparana and I am married to Cherezade. We are both Mining Engineers from Chile (as you can guess, we met at school and started dating 7 years ago). We have an awesome dog named Steve. Right now we are living in Vancouver since I am studying to get my Ph.D. degree. The three of us are foodies (yes, Steve has a very refined palate), very passionate about food and we love to try and experience new flavours!
I was diagnosed with celiac disease about 3 years ago. It was when suddenly I had to be hospitalized in urgent care because of intense pain in my stomach and the doctors, trying to discover what it was, made me loads of tests… one of them was the IgA-TTG blood test. After they got the results and discovered what it was (not related to gluten by the way), one of the doctors approached me and asked: “Why didn’t you tell us that you were celiac?”. It turned out that I am an asymptomatic celiac, so I would have never guessed that gluten was hurting me from inside.
I was blank. I couldn’t believe what he was saying…
I come from an Italian foodie family, where my father and his mother are excellent cooks and love it. Everything was homemade in our house, so it wasn’t weird to have fresh pasta, pizzas, all kinds of bread, desserts, and anything you can think of. All the cooking had a big influence on me, and ever since I have memory, I have been helping in the kitchen and learning from them. As I grew up, I started learning by myself a lot more about cooking, especially bread-making techniques, so the sudden news was devastating. Everything that I have learned wasn’t useful anymore… I was completely lost.
My wife gave me the strength and encouragement to continue forward, that this is a new opportunity to learn new things and I couldn’t get depressed about this. We were living together at that time, so she helped me to replace everything and eliminate gluten from our house. She even went gluten-free with me! I am lucky that our family and friends have been very supportive and comprehensive with my condition and made everything so I could enjoy life with them.
Since then, I have been experimenting with different kinds of flours, learning about gluten-free cooking, and trying to make things that are the same or better as if they were made with gluten. It wasn’t easy, gluten-free certificated ingredients in Chile are scarce (imagine that there are some brands of rice and almost every spice have traces of gluten), but I managed to transform my cooking and start to enjoy it again, and of course, make it delicious!
After all the study, frustration, and ingredients wasting, I knew that I had to do something about it. Every day there are new persons being diagnosed either celiac disease, intolerance or allergy to gluten that are left completely lost in the world, and I want to help them. That is why with my wife we decided to build this blog and help everyone and tell them that anyone can cook gluten-free food, and make it delicious!
We don’t want the food to be a barrier that prevents us from enjoying the tasty things of life so we are here to help everyone to feel happy and enjoy food again!
So… WELCOME to our corner, where we can enjoy food without envy!
I hope I didn’t bore you with my story and I am eager that you start learning all kinds of stuff in here!
Go through the recipe index to find something tasty to cook, follow us on Instagram to have a glimpse of what we are cooking right now or, if you are just being introduced to this world, go to the learning section so you can learn what you need to have to cook and what precautions you have to take!
See you on the blog!
Giovanni
PS: Steve was pissed off that he didn’t appear in the picture above so he has one for himself here. What a dog!
