Welcome to The Gluten Free Kitchen. We have information and recipes for individuals who have Celiac Sprue.
My name is Lucy Shriver. I founded The Gluten Free Kitchen in 1996 after being diagnosed with Celiac Sprue and Dermatitis Herpetiformis. After being diagnosed, I was told by my physician, that it was a rare disease, with little information available. I was given two pages from a medical journal and told that I should refrain from eating whole wheat bread. I began investigating Celiac Sprue and Dermatitis Herpetiformis. Along the way I was often given misleading information by various physicians, dieticians, and some internet web sites.
After a year of research and experimenting in my kitchen, I began to create Gluten Free recipes that I could eat and that my family liked too, even though they are not Celiacs. I have created this web site to help other individuals with this disease cope. I try to update the recipe files once a month, but if you are looking for a specific recipe e-mail me at gfkitchen@yahoo.com and I will do the best I can to accommodate you.
I urge anyone with this disease to become a Food Label Detective. Ingredients can change from batch to batch. Manufacturers often change ingredients, and you should always read the label even if familiar with a particular product. I also see a lot of sites that state it is safe for a celiac to eat out if they follow a few basic rules. This is not always true. For example: I read in one publication that when you are in a Mexican restaurant always order the beans and rice or while in a Chinese restaurant order things in a white sauce. This is so untrue and you could have a serious allergic reaction, if you follow this advice. Let me just say, that when you were first diagnosed with this disease, you were probably unaware how many foods and additives contain gluten. If you asked the chef in a Chinese restaurant if the white sauce on the stir fried vegetables and rice contained gluten, he would probably tell you that it did not contain gluten. He did not realize that the soy sauce or the modified food starch contained gluten. This would be a honest mistake, but could cause you pain in the long run.
I am not a physician, I am just a individual trying to cope with this disease and help others along the way.