1st Annual San Francisco 2013 Gluten and Allergy Free Expo

This year we were privileged to have the GF expo held in San Francisco. There were several informative sessions on different approaches to dealing with gluten intolerance like using Enzymes; the Paleo Diet; How to Eat Out When Traveling; How Celiac and the GF Diet affect your Health. There were numerous cooking demos like Using Super Foods in Baking, GF Gourmet Desserts and Identifying Gluten in Asian Ingredients. The vendor fair was packed with both familiar and new GF products. For those of us with allergies it was heaven. Imagine having a room filled with food you CAN eat- Chips, ice cream, cakes, pastas, corndogs, pizzas, bread, bread and more bread!

One of my favorite was Purely Elizabeth, a woman from NY State making wonderful granola with superfoods like organic chia, amaranth, quinoa, all free of refined sugar. Sweetened with low glycemic coconut or palm sugar, I had to buy a few bags. I hope they market it in the West Coast soon but for those of you who are in the East head out to your nearest store and ask for it.

I tasted the world's first ice cream and cheese made from GF whole grains by Wayfare.  Non GMO and low glycemic, this ice cream was creamy, smooth, not too sweet and absolutely delicious. They had Lemon, Blueberry, Chocolate, Maple and Vanilla flavors. Can't wait for them to be sold at our local Northern California markets. I was skeptical about the cheese but it turned out to be a rather nice tasting cheese for nachos.


Second Helping served plump and juicy Corn Puppies, a GF corn dog with no nitrites, colors, fillers or preservatives that was really quite delicious.

It was inspiring to see these food entrepreneurs presenting their creations. Their offerings were fresh and unique. Some of them taking years to create the perfect mix. We all benefit from their labor of love. There was the South American couple who packaged the roadside treat, Pao de Queijo (recipe which I have featured in one of my previous blogs)  but their company, P*DE*Q has made it easy - keep frozen and bake when ready.

There were several GF flour mixes from companies like ThePurePantry which are sold in many WholeFoods and Blackbird Bakery (yes, the same bakery from the cookbook) who have packaged their flours into professional grade baking products which include a Choux pastry blend and a Bread blend. Review of these mixes will be forthcoming.

Overall, it was much fun in GF heaven. There are several more GF expos this year in different parts of the country, check out their site for the upcoming events.