Where’s the Wheat?

Celiacs unite to fight our gluten-heavy diet

A couple of issues back, our food reviewer, James Russell, popped into Douglas Street’s Pizza Pi and was pleased to find they offered a wheat-free crust on their menu, which prompted him to include the line, “Tell your celiac friends” in his review. Alas, ’tis not so—at least, not according to Ellen Bayens, a volunteer for the local chapter of the Canadian Celiac Association and the founder of the Celiac Scene website (theceliacscene.com).

Alerted to Russell’s comment by another local CCA member, Bayens was quickly on the case to find out if Pi’s pies were indeed suitable for celiac consumption. “While Pizza Pi advertises a gluten-free crust—more like a flat bread made from rice flour—the risk of cross-contamination with regular gluten-containing crusts, between toppings and crusts, utensils and within the oven, is considerable,” she found. And while she felt Pi’s chef was doing his very best according to FoodSafe training, she feels that celiacs “who must not consume even the smallest particle of wheat, barley or rye, should proceed with extreme caution at Pizza Pi, if at all.”

Seems like this is just another day in the life of celiacs, whose wheat intolerance (in the most extreme cases) can put their health at risk every time they eat out. But despite a growing awareness of, and support for, gluten-free diets, Bayens notes that only three percent of celiacs are diagnosed. “Part of it is people not really knowing if they have problems eating bread and a lot of it is the awareness in the medical community,” she says. “It’s like being on a hostile planet. Our culture has so much bread in it, and almost all processed foods have wheat to some extent.”

Prompted by this, Bayens decided to create her Celiac Scene website back in May and, with over 700 hits a day, she’s clearly tapped into a growing market. As well as including facts and event listings, the site also offers a searchable map of Canadian and American cities which assists locals and tourists alike in finding places they can eat without risk.

“Victoria has the most gluten-friendly restaurants in Canada,” she says proudly. “And I think it has a lot to do with our Chapter—if we hear of a restaurant, we check it out, have a restaurant night there and get the information out.”

And if you check out the handy site map on the Celiac Scene, you’ll find the likes of Zambri’s, Adriana’s Cocina, the Black Olive, the Little Thai Place, Cafe Bliss, Wild Saffron Bistro, Ferris’, Nautical Nellies, Pink Bicycle, Bon Rouge and many others—over 30 restaurants in the downtown core alone. “It’s such a relief,” Bayens says. “Suddenly, it’s not like you’ve got a medical condition, but that you have an alternative diet like a vegetarian. You can look at it as just being part of the human race again.”

But back to the pizza. Bayens says the two best locations locally are the Joint and West Burnside pizzeria Mama Linda’s. “We trust the Joint implicitly,” she says. “They use separate utensils and they train their staff in dedicated serving techniques.” Similarly, Mama Linda’s boasts a separate oven and a separate mixer for their pizzas. “Those are the kind of assurances we look for and have no hesitation in promoting a place like that,” she concludes. “We’ve got some great restaurants that really get it.”