FYI: Gluten Free Tidbits to Share....

* Chelsea Clinton's wedding was a private event and I read that caterers had to sign privacy agreements. There have been several published news stories that discuss her vegan menu options and her choice of a GLUTEN FREE WEDDING CAKE! I do not claim to know anything about Chelsea's medical history, but some articles claimed she has a "Gluten Allergy." Regardless of the reasons, this high profile wedding and discussion of the gluten free wedding cake, helps to continue to increase the awareness of Celiac Disease and a gluten free diet!

* My GF daughter had the recent experience of dining at Mellow Mushroom in Durham and noted that after she ordered her GF pizzza, the server proceeded to ask her if she had a true allergy to gluten? and when she answered yes, the server then took everything off the table and sanitized the table. She said it was a new procedure to make sure everything is clean and safe. Way to go the extra mile Mellow Mushroom!

*I have written previous posts about Twin Cakes having a booth at the Durham Farmer's market on Saturday morning, but note they are also there on Wednesday mornings!

North Carolina Governor Declares May Celiac Disease Awareness Month

Media Release

North Carolina Governor Declares May Celiac Disease Awareness Month

• Triangle residents can participate in a gluten-free food drive at various locations or make a monetary donation to help stock the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina
• Bella Monica Italian Restaurant is hosting a six-course gluten-free dinner prepared by Vanessa Maltin, food and lifestyle editor for Delight Gluten-free Magazine
• A top food allergens poster is available for restaurants to download to educate their staff about these items, including gluten

Raleigh, N.C., USA, April 30, 2010 – The Gluten Free Raleigh Blog has announced Governor Beverly Perdue has declared May 2010 “Celiac Disease Awareness Month” in North Carolina. The Gluten Free Raleigh Blog and Pat Berger, leader of the North Raleigh Celiac Sprue Association (CSA) Support Group brought the petition to the Governor’s office regarding the awareness month.

Celiac Disease is a genetic autoimmune disease that affects one in 133 people in the United States. It interferes with the absorption of nutrients from food and can cause gastrointestinal and neurological issues, infertility, skin rashes and cancer. The only treatment for Celiac Disease is lifelong, strict adherence to a gluten-free diet.

“The Governor’s proclamation paves the way to further educate the community on Celiac Disease and helps to create a positive impact on the quality of life for people living with this condition,” said Zach Becker, creator of the Gluten Free Raleigh Blog. “It’s my goal to help raise awareness so those living with this disease can safely eat out at restaurants and have easier access to gluten-free food.”

In an effort to educate, raise awareness and give back to the community, there are a number of gluten-free events scheduled during the month of May.

• A gluten-free food drive will be held on Saturday, May 8 to benefit the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina. Special discounts at the drop off locations may be available in exchange for your donation. Bins are set up in each of these locations to accept the packaged gluten-free non-perishable food items:
o Rosie’s Plate – N. Person St., Raleigh
o Bella Monica Italian Restaurant – Edwards Mill Rd., Raleigh
o ZPizza – Falls of Neuse Rd., Raleigh and Cornerstone Dr., Cary
o Mellow Mushroom – W. Peace St., Raleigh
o Whole Foods Market, Raleigh – Wade Ave., Raleigh
o Earth Fare – Moncreiffe Rd., Raleigh
o Harmony Farms/Café Harmony – Creedmoor Rd., Raleigh

• A virtual food drive will be held all month to benefit the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina with gluten-free food. The link to donate can be located on the Gluten Free Raleigh Blog.

• On Sunday, May 16, beginning at 5 p.m., Bella Monica Italian Restaurant will host a six-course gluten-free dinner prepared by Vanessa Maltin, food and lifestyle editor for Delight Gluten-free Magazine and Corbett Monica, head chef at Bella Monica Italian Restaurant. They will be preparing dishes from Maltin’s gluten-free cookbook entitled The Gloriously Gluten-Free Cookbook: Spicing Up Life with Italian, Asian and Mexican Recipes. Copies of the cookbook will also be included. Tickets are required for this dining event and can be purchased by calling Bella Monica Italian Restaurant at 919-881-9778.

• The Gluten Free Raleigh Blog worked with Sofia Noble of the design firm This Is Beautiful to create a poster featuring all of the top food allergens, including gluten. This poster is now available for download in English and Spanish at the Gluten Free Raleigh Blog. Wake County restaurant owners may use it to educate their staffs about these foods.

“Research indicates there are approximately three million people living with Celiac Disease in the United States and of those, only about 120,000 have been diagnosed,” said Alice Bast, founder and president of the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness (NFCA). “It’s great to see North Carolina working to raise awareness about this disease so perhaps others can be accurately diagnosed by their doctors. Zach Becker and the entire North Carolina Celiac Disease community should be commended for their leadership and successful advocacy efforts.”


About Gluten Free Raleigh Blog
Zach Becker was diagnosed with Celiac Disease in May 2008. He founded the Gluten Free Raleigh Blog in August 2008 and has created similar blogs across the state. He has recruited writers for these blogs so gluten-free information in those communities can be shared. The blogs contain restaurant and grocery store reviews, summaries of national news as well as highlight local companies that cater to the gluten-free community. Becker is an advocate for those living with Celiac Disease in the Triangle and donates his time to educate the newly diagnosed, local restaurants and government leaders on this condition.

Finally: Gluten Free Pizza in Durham

As written in earlier posts the Durham Mellow Mushroom has launched their gluten free pizza about a week ago. My family finally had the opportunity to visit the Mellow Mushroom in the American Tobacco District for lunch the other day. How awesome it was for those of us that must follow a GF diet to order pizza along with the non-GF folks in our family! Zach, at GF Raleigh did an extensive post when the Pizza made it to the Raleigh market read here for lots of great details! We enjoyed our pizza. It was thin crust and plenty to serve two people with 2 left over slices (6 slices in all). The flavor was very good. The crust was also good but I would have personally liked the crust a little more crisp. Overall I would recommend trying the pizza. I just want to give a shout out to all those Durhamites that we finally do have a place to go to order gluten free pizza and post a few pictures for your review.

Gluten Free Pizza arrives at Durham's Mellow Mushroom

After several weeks of waiting it is true Durham now has gluten free pizza! I first started writing about this back in January. Zach called attention to the breaking news last week in his gluten free Raleigh blog. The company website confirms that Durham, Raleigh and Burlington are the North Carolina test market sites for Mellow Mushroom's new gluten free pizza. And the launch date is Monday April 5th. I know where we are going for dinner!

Note: When I called Mellow Mushroom Saturday evening, the person I spoke with did not seem to know anything about the gluten free pizza option??? You may want to give a call before showing up to order your GF pizza. I will update information as it becomes available.

UPDATE as of Monday April 5th 4:30pm
I did receive an email confirmation from Jason Kemp with marketing at Mellow Mushroom that the GF pizza would be available today. However after speaking with a manager in Durham this afternoon she has stated that the GF pizza will be available to order in a week on MONDAY, APRIL 12; and she also noted they have gluten free beer too!

Mellow Mushroom
410 Blackwell Street
Durham, NC 27701
(919) 680-8500

UPDATE: Gluten Free Pizza at Mellow Mushroom

I have posted a few blogs concerning gluten free pizza coming to the Mellow Mushroom in Durham. I received an update from marketing this week which stated:

As of right now, we have decided to have a certified GF bakery produce the GF dough for us.

According to this communication it seems the company was originally considering producing the gluten free pizza crust on their own, but have now decided it would be best to contract with a gluten free bakery to produce the crusts. Negotiations are underway and I am told gluten free pizza will be available in Durham in the near future.......I will keep you posted!

Gluten Free Pizza at Mellow Mushroom: UPDATE

I was contacted yesterday by the folks at Mellow Mushroom concerning updated information on the gluten free pizza crust that I mentioned in my previous post. According to the email I received: The gluten free pizza WILL NOT be available on January 19th as they are still working on some issues with this offering. Further information from this email contact explains:

Within the past three months, this initiative has
moved from a purely theoretical standpoint to a point where we have
researched and developed a pretty decent GF dough. The Mellow Mushroom in
Durham will eventually be part of a gluten free test program in the near future.

So it looks like those of us longing for a gluten free pizza offering in Durham will need to wait a bit longer. Of course it is worth the wait if the final pizza crust is a high quality product and Mellow Mushroom adopts good manufacturing practices on site to reduce the risk of cross contamination at the point of service. The marketing folks at Mellow Mushroom have promised to keep me informed on their progress and when we can expect to see Durham as a test site. I will post this information on the gluten free Durham blog as I receive it.

Gluten Free Pizza Comes To Durham!

I have been wondering why there is not a good gluten free pizza place in Durham. I even sometimes wish I was closer to Raleigh to take advantage of all those places that Zach at gluten free Raleigh has blogged about. After reading the recent posts from Zach and from Tiffany Janes about Mellow Mushroom going GF in Raleigh, I decided to call the Durham location. I spoke with their general manager, Andy, who informed me that YES Durham, along with Raleigh and Wake Forest are the test markets for the GF pizza crust!! Andy explained this is a brand new roll out for the company and that corporate would be bringing some GF crusts to Durham on January 19th. He said this would be a "soft roll out" and after that the store would be able to start ordering crusts for use at the Durham location. The crusts will arrive to the store already pre-formed and frozen. I asked Andy several questions and also explained the importance of training their chefs and wait staff to avoid cross contamination of the gluten free crust. Andy was very interested in the information I had to share about the needs of those with gluten intolerance. In addition to the GF Pizza the Durham Mellow Mushroom hopes to start offering some gluten free beer to go along with that pizza! I know those of us who live, work and eat Gluten Free in Durham will be excited to have a great place to order GF Pizza. I encourage you to be patient, kind and ask those GF questions of your server in a way that will help educate the staff at Mellow Mushroom. Also if you go and have a good experience take the time to say thanks to Andy and the folks at Mellow Mushroom. Mellow Mushroom is located in the American Tobacco District of Durham:

410 Blackwell Street
Durham, NC 27701
(919) 680-8500