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Gluten-free from me

February 2nd 2025       Coeliac, Damson & Wilde, Food, Gluten-free, The Cadogan, The Crown, The Fox, The One Bull


And now for a pretty personal post from me. A couple of months ago, I was diagnosed as coeliac. For the avoidance of doubt, this is an autoimmune disease which means that I can’t eat gluten. Forever. That’s anything containing wheat, barley or rye. It’s also anything that ‘may contain’ gluten. We’ve been around coeliac friends and family for some time and in the hospitality business for years, so I’m pretty clued up about this gluten-free stuff, right?

Right on one hand. But I don’t think you can fully understand the enormity of what this means if you can eat gluten. I should also mention that I was a fairly gluten obsessed person. I love pretty much all food with very few exceptions. I don’t like nuts (though I don’t have an allergy) and I hate squidgy milky desserts (crème caramel and panna cotta are an anathema to me though crème brûlée and crème catalan get a thumbs up). That’s about it though. So, I love food and I’m also pretty greedy, as those who know me well will attest. I generally need to know where my next meal (or snack) is coming from.

The idea of never being able to have a Wednesday morning croissant from Wooster’s nor savouring a fresh slice of sourdough with butter (also from Wooster’s) on a Saturday morning makes me very sad. On the subject of Wooster’s, it took me several weeks to face calling in to let Caitlin and Emily know and tears were nearly shed.

I’m aware that it’s important to look on the bright side. As long as I stay gluten-free then this should be a manageable condition. In the UK, it’s estimated that one in a hundred people are coeliac but half a million are undiagnosed and many people have been coeliac for a number of years before diagnosis. So I am glad that I know. Continuing with the positive theme, I’ve never been a beer drinker and wine is of course gluten-free!

Largely thanks to my (super capable and very supportive) husband, our shared meals at home are now gluten-free. Our home kitchen is not gluten-free as a) I don’t want everyone else in the family to have to go entirely gluten-free just because I have to and b) our youngest teenager is horrified by the idea that we might try to (in her own words) ‘de-gluten’ her. So we are working hard on avoiding cross contamination.

Eating out is a major source of joy for me and that too has been seriously tempered in recent times. I’ve had some really good and not so good experiences. I won’t go into specifics but being presented with a ‘normal’ menu with lots of crossed out (gluten containing) dishes and then waiting for 45 minutes after your fellow diners get their food for yours to come out doesn’t make a coeliac feel good.

Within Gusto Pronto, our attention has inevitably turned to how gluten-free diners feel when they visit one of our own places as that’s what we can directly help to shape and influence. In my opinion, our gluten-free offering is already pretty good. But you wouldn’t necessarily know that from looking at our websites and we’re now working to change that.

Gluten-free menus are now online for Damson & Wilde and whilst we’ve always had gluten-free menus in our pubs, these will also be added to the websites over the next few weeks. Over time, we’ll also be adding more information about how we work hard to avoid cross contamination of gluten-free dishes within all our kitchens. In the meantime, here’s some important information that you’ll want to know about if you’re a dining out coeliac:

  • All of our venues have gluten-free menus available when you visit. This means that as well as our dishes which are naturally gluten-free (and there are a lot of these), we can also include adapted versions of some of our other dishes to offer you the broadest possible choice.
  • Please make your server aware so they can communicate with the kitchen team. Our kitchens are not gluten-free but the team will work really hard at keeping your dishes away from gluten.
  • All of our kitchens have separate gluten-free fryers so your gluten-free ingredients won’t be cooked in the same oil as gluten containing foods.

So, watch this space (or rather keep an eye on our websites) for more specifics on our gluten-free offering over time. In the meantime, if you’re a coeliac wanting to dine out, then I hope this gives you the confidence to do so in one of our dining venues – The One Bull, The Cadogan, The Crown, The Fox or Damson & Wilde.

Best wishes

Roxane Marjoram


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