Saturday 26 February 2011

Pizza Express make progress -eating gluten free

No, don't get excited, they haven't made a gf pasta dish or a safe gf pizza crust.  However, I ate there this week as Tolerant Tater really likes their pizzas, and, when confronted by a a need to eat and unknown restaurants that may well poison me and still not please him it is easier to eat there.

Two years ago I went to the Pizza Express place I ate at this week.  I asked about the ingredients in their salad dressing.  They wouldn't or couldn't tell me. I ate a bare salad.  A year ago I ate there and asked about the ingredients in the salad dressing.  They brought me the bottle to read.  This week I asked about the ingredients in the salad dressing.  The waitress said she would go check on the list of allergens and came back a minute later to say it was gluten free.

Pizza Express have also produce an allergen table available online.  It is a pity it doesn't list the salad dressing separately, as at first glance all the salads are unsuitable because of the bread/croutons etc.

They do have a column at the end that shows how to modify the dish to make it suitable for coeliacs, vegetarians etc.  This is helpful as it shows that they know that dishes can be disaggregated.

Just telling people to leave things off isn't  always successful.  I have had salads brought with croutons on after assurances no bread would go anywhere near them, and  a chunk of bread leaning up against my soup bowl.  I once ate at  restaurant, admittedly in Geneva, where I told them not to put the wafer on and I wouldn't accept the icecream when it came with a wafer and they got in a strop.  Just removing the wafer after it has been plunged into the icecream is not enough, any more than removing the bread sticks  or croutons from the plate of salad after plating is sufficient.

So a bit of progress, and I didn't get any gluten symptoms.  They clearly managed to keep their salad ingredients flour free as well, which is a bit of a triumph for a pizza restaurant.  I have finally bought some of that Glutenzyme digesting enzymes for occasions when I suspect cross contamination is likely. If this would help reduce the problems I get just being in regular gluten-rich environments like normal homes, even if I don't eat, that would be very useful. I know it will be tricky to be able to form a reliable opinion on its usefulness, but I'll post when I have tried it.


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