Carluke Chef wins top award

CARLUKE chef Peter McKenzie has been awarded the title of Coeliac UK’s Gluten-free Chef of the Year.


Mr McKenzie, head chef for South Lanarkshire Council, received the award from two-Michelin-starred chef Raymond Blanc at a special presentation in his award-winning restaurant and hotel, Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons in Oxfordshire.


This year’s competition, which was run in association with the Institute of Hospitality, had two categories – Gluten-free Chef of the Year for professional chefs and Up-and-Coming Gluten-free Chef of the Year for catering students.


The competition, to design a three-course gluten-free meal, was launched earlier this year to raise awareness and highlight the need for increased provision of gluten-free menu options for the 1 in 100 people in the UK with coeliac disease.


Mr McKenzie wins a one week placement at Gleneagles with two-Michelin-star chef Andrew Fairlie, a trophy from Coeliac UK and a signed copy of Raymond Blanc’s latest cookery book.


The standard of entry was extremely high but it was decided that Peter’s entry stood out above all others, with a menu of fillet of red mullet, breast of pheasant and vanilla and basil panacotta.


Mr McKenzie has worked at many hotels across Scotland and England but for the past three years has been based at South Lanarkshire Council headquarters, Almada Street, Hamilton, where he is responsible for three kitchens at the council headquarters catering for everything from breakfasts to buffets and banquets.


He said: “I am trying to put an end to the myth that local authority catering is just pies, chips and peas. I entered this competition not only to get recognition for the council, but also help raise awareness for special dietary requirements. I strongly believe that people with coeliac disease should be able to enjoy tasty food without having to feel it is a burden to ask for gluten-free options.”


Raymond Blanc supported the recipe competition and judged the entries, saying: “I was really impressed by the quality and attention to detail displayed in the entries for this competition and congratulations to all the winners. Although more common than many people realise, the condition is not taken seriously enough by far too many chefs. A wide range of gluten-free sweet and savoury recipes can be created by anyone and we all need a few really good gluten-free recipes in our repertoire. Each of my businesses has for a long time been catering for people with coeliac disease.”



Source: Hamilton Advertiser

Worming way out of gluten ills and coeliac disorder

October 22, 2009
Article from: The Australian
SCIENTISTS are getting closer to a new therapy for immune disorders, but many people will find the treatment, involving a parasitic worm, hard to swallow.
Researcher James Daveson admits there is a "yuck factor" in his work, after he deliberately infected 20 volunteers who have coeliac disease with hookworms.
The parasite, which burrows through the skin before travelling via the bloodstream to live in the gut, was shown to give these people an improved tolerance for bread.
"The people playing host to live worms tolerated the gluten challenge and fared better on the tests compared with the wormless control subjects," said Dr Daveson, from Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital.
More than 250,000 Australians have coeliac disease, a condition in which their malfunctioning immune system treats the gluten in wheat as a foreign invader.
Antibodies are produced that attack the wall of the bowel and over time this damage can increase a sufferer's risk of bowel cancer.
Dr Daveson said the research was based on the theory that immune systems needed exposure to foreign organisms -- such as hookworms -- to make them work properly.
AAP

Source: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26243565-23289,00.html

Gluten-free in Japan

After all these years studying Japanese and wanting to get to Japan, now that it seems I may achieve my goal sometime in the near future, my main worry is food! I have been looking into it, and really have got nowhere. I know at least that Tamari soy sauce you can buy here in Spain (although quite difficult to find) is ok, but it seems to be Japanese don't really know what coeliac disease is... All I found on a forum is someone who read there were under 30 diagnosed Japanese coeliacs in 2006 (or was it 2005?). And the coeliac disease entry in the Japanese Wikipedia doesn't really have any links to anything useful in Japanese! I have found various posts in forums enquiring about where to eat gluten-free in Japan (especially in Tokyo), no-one seems to really have come up with a clear answer... except one Japanese person who said you can shop gluten-free in Natural House (and I'm afraid I'd already come to that conclusion thanks to an advert on a webpage... I'd be lost without Google ads!). The only problem is knowing what you can buy, as if it wasn't hard enough in your own language... luckily here's a video on youtube about forbidden ingredients....

Dietary Specials

This is a brand which I really haven't seen much down here, since most of my food comes from the same supermarket, but as I say, Mercadona doesn't actually make specifically gluten-free products, they just mark the products which are gluten-free. Right now Dietary Specials is actually the only gluten-free make I can think of which is sold there (at least in my local one, don't know about Mercadonas in larger cities). And I must admit I think I've only tried their Corn Flakes, but, as someone who has grown up being a Corn Flakes addict, I must admit I'm really chuffed with this gluten-free version :). On the DS webpage they have a store locator, although I can't find Mercadona in it, so I assume it leaves out all supermarket chains. I just wish I could try those ice-cream cones...

Better guide to eating out...

Apart from general information, recipes and news, I find the restaurant, shop and hotel guide at www.specialgourmets.com especially useful. A bit incomplete when it comes to certain parts of the globe, but hopefully some readers will start to fix that sometime!

Good news for future coeliacs!

In the news today is a Spanish researcher, Itziar Zubillaga Azpiroz, from the Universidad del País Vasco, who has presented her Doctoral Thesis about genetic analysis, and how it can be useful for the diagnosis of Coeliac disease. After having studied 175 coeliacs in the Basque Country, the conclusions of the research were that it is not necessary to have an endoscopy to have the disease diagnosed, but a simple genetic study will tell us whether we have Coeliacs or not. Apparently the result of the technique (which I haven't seen explained in detail in Spanish media) is 100% certain when it comes to a positive diagnosis, although only 97% when it's negative. But surely her research will be of great help if it's applied to public in general (who knows if, and when, with the health system being the way it is).

Gluten-free travellers

Ok, so this is a bit like my previous post, but a bit more general!

Once again, looking for what to do when one wants to eat out, and abroad (I wish!) I came accross the Gluten Free Travel Site . Although it is a good idea, specially the part with the gluten-free restaurant reviews, it could really be much better... but of course that also depends whether people bother to comment on the places they go! Proof is, nothing in Japan (isn't shabu-shabu meant to be gluten-free?), one restaurant reviewed in the whole of Spain and Portugal (and it happens to be in Portugal!), and, better than nothing, two reviews for Scotland. One of them being in Edinburgh, logically enough, and the other one being in... Oban! Although I suppose you really have to be quite careful with this reviews, as anything could have changed since the reviews, the restaurants may even have closed down...

One place I remember having being in Edinburgh a few years back was in Edinburgh. Vittoria Restaurant, I think it was called. Just a normal Italian restaurant with a huge sign on the door saying that there were gluten-free pizzas available, so we went there for my sister's birthday (she had recently been diagnosed). The rest of us ate normal pizzas, but some of us (those who live with her) tried a bit of her pizza, and that HAS TO be the best gluten-free pizza I have ever eaten. It would be interesting if someone reviewed that place, if it still does gluten-free stuff... (I think they also made gluten-free pasta... I think.)

Just looking on Google makes you
a) Want to open your own gluten-free restaurant (now, there may be a career for me there! :D)
b) Wish that people with restaurants featuring gluten-free food be more intelligent, pay Google a bit more for their ads, make coeliacs' life easier, and, surely get them a fair bit more business!

Joinin' in the coeliac party!

It's not that there's not any blogs about coeliacs out in the cyberspace, but are all coeliacs in the same part of the world? Luckily, even for a recently-diagnosed coeliac like me (I would kill for an ice-creaaaam), it seems to be that in Spain, thanks to the fairly good labelling-system in a major supermarket chain, there's not much of a problem. For food that is. But it's time to start freaking out when one finds out there can be gluten in soap, suncream, make up (probably also in that nice-scented lipgloss which makes you want to eat it?), teabags ... (??).

I have found many blogs out there which I will look for again, and add to my regularly-visited blogs list, 'cause thanks to these blogs I don't feel so lonely, and I have even found some info about Japan (where I hope to be in under a year, and where I haven't come accross any coeliac association :S). I intend not only to review products available in Spain, but also, when I have the kitchen all to myself and can experiment until I come up with something successful, I'll post it here!

See you all around!