A Gluten-Free Nut-Free Strategy for Business
These days businesses like to show that they are friendly, equal-opportunity employers, who are not-racist, sexist or homophobic and of course carbon neutral.
But do they extend this caring attitude to such things as food allergies, when they do business personally or perhaps entertain clients.
Let’s put a couple of facts in here. according to Peanut Allergy UK, it is estimated that 1.8% of children have a peanut allergy at school entry. Also, 4% of the UK ppulation is a coeliac, many of whom are undiagnosed.
So just as you wouldn’t serve meat to a vegetarian, is it not a wise idea to not serve gluten to a coeliac or nuts to someone with that allergy. In fact there is a big difference between veggies and some allergies, in that some allergies are very dangerous and others make you ill.
So why not startt by ensuring that your tea/coffee and biscuits are both gluten and nut free. Also remember that chocolate isn’t banned, so you can indulge your clients if that is your wish.
I’ve actually heard of a couple of companies in London, who do this and now only give away GF and nut-free biscuits with their coffee, as they find it avoids any problems and shows them to be a caring company! One was a financial services company dealing with a faddy actress. They got the business.
At least now corporate events at places like hotels, racecourses and football grounds have got a lot better in recent years. I know that Newmarket racecourse, Ipswich Town and Tottenham Hotspur can all cater, as can most decent hotels with a trained chef. But do at least check about allergies when you book. If they can’t cater, it might just be your luck, that your best client is a coeliac.
In these tough times, profits will be harder to grow or even make. But by applying lots of little details like this to your corporate strategy, you might help your business in the tight direction.
Hotel Chocolat
It has just been announced on the local news, that Hotel Chocolat is expanding and creating 250 new jobs in Huntingdon and at its chocolate factory in St. Lucia. I checked their web site to see if they do gluten-free, as I am partial to the occassional bit of chocolate. Now that Cadbury’s have been taken over by Kraft, I worry that their products will end up contaminated by wheat maltodextrin to save money. I just can’t take the chance and so I was pleased to see that Hotel Chocolat have a gluten-free page on their web site.
I have sent a comment to Hotel Chocolat to query the level of gluten, as they say the odd contamination might happen.
I am a coeliac and also I monitor a Yahoo group for others. I haven’t tried your gluten-free products, but some coeliacs won’t as they are very sensitive to gluten. I myself am not, but I do react to wheat maltodextrin. What’s wrong with Demerara sugar? I think you may find that there is a lot of demand for a simple guaranteed gluten-free product, especially since G&B are now part of Kraft and US companies seem to have a fetish for wheat maltodextrin.
I shall await their reply.
what is interesting, is how they have raised the money for the expansion. They have raised it from their tasting club and will pay the interest in chocolate, as described here in The Telegraph.That sounds a model, that might work with a lot of food and drink products, especially where you are dealing with a specific group of people like coeliacs.
Hail the Humble Crisp
I find that I have a bad taste in my mouth a lot of the time. I suspect it’s probably caused by the hay fever, rather than any lasting damage caused by the stroke. You just feel that you want to clean and wash your mouth out all the time.
Last night, I felt I wanted a small snack and there was a pack of coeliac-friendly Kettle lightly salted crisps in the cupboard, so for the first time since my last stroke I tried them. I’d been avoiding them, as I felt that the roughness might actually make my mouth worse.
In the end, they made my mouth feel a lot better. Perhaps, the salt and that roughness, were actually good for my mouth.
There are just another five packs to go in the cupboard.
The Place To Be Tonight
I am not far away from Stansfield, a small village between Haverhill and Bury St. Edmunds.
What is unique about the village is that its pub, the Compasses, is owned and run by a Dutch couple.
We went on Friday and it looks like tonight will be the night for a visit, especially as they look like they can cope with my dietary requirements and serve Aspalls Cyder.
Sorbitol
I hadn’t even heard of sorbitol until I got some comments about it in this post.
It would appear that it comes from two sources;wheat and corn. I do wonder whether I am affected in the same way as I am by maltodextrin. So I’ll cut out the tooth products with wheat sorbitol. This web site gives some more details and says that Colgate Palmolive don’t use wheat sorbitol in any products. I have changed to one of their mouthwashes.
A One-Handed Fish Pie
When I Cooked my last Jamie Oliver’s Fish Pie, I hadn’t had a stroke and had full use of both hands. Now my left hand has a lack of feeling in the fingers and tends to drop things a bit. But at least my right hand is almost unaffected.
Making the pie was surprisingly easy, using mainly my right hand :-
- Peeling the potatoes wasn’t too difficult, especially as I used a plastic chopping board to cut the potatoes into smaller chunks for boiling.
- Jamie said to use a big box grater in the middle of the baking dish and my left hand was strong enough to hold it completely steady, whilst I grated the carrot, celery and cheese. It was very easy and it was almost if Jamie had people like me in mind. Good on you, Jamie, if you did!
- For chopping the chilli, I used one of Delia’s little choppers.
- I did have a problem getting the skin off the salmon, but the simple solution to this, is to get the fishmpnger to do it as I did with the haddock. Waitrose and good fishmongers are happy to do this.
- Mashing the potatoes wasn’t too bad as I have a proper one-handed potato masher.
It’s amazing how much the good and sensible tools helped.
Peeling Potatoes
Would anybody describe this as a go0d exercise for someone who has had a stroke? But I’m making one of Jamie Olivers’s fish pies and that needs a kilogram of potatoes to be peeled.
I peel potatoes with the potato in my left and the knife in my right, but then I’m right-handed. I also tip the potatoes into a largew bowl of cold water and in fact just retrieving the next potato is quite soothing. But the action of holding the potato and then twisting it so that the next bit of peel is removed, seems to be a good exercise.
It’s also rewarding to yourself, as you see your naked creations gradually filling the saucepan.
I think though that peeling potatoes is one of those mundane jobs, which because a knife is involved, you concentrate about to get done well and then get a large degree of satisfaction, when you complete it.
I found the same satisfaction, when I cleaned my shoes on Saturday. Perhaps stroke recovery is all about getting back to normal and that means doing all those day-to-day tasks.
Roasted Duck Fillets with Marmalade and Chilli Glaze
This recipe is from Waitrose and it follows a pattern of meat with a sweet sauce, that are gluten-free.
The ingredients I used were :-
- 1 tsp Waitrose Cooks’ Ingredients A Dash of Sherry Vinegar – I used Aspall Cyder Vinegar
Pack of 2 Waitrose Skinless Free Range Duck Breast Fillets
1 orange
4 tbsp Waitrose Organic Seville Orange Marmalade – I used Tiptree
Pinch of dried red chilli flakes
These quantities make enough for two.
The method is as follows :-
- Preheat the oven to 190°C, gas mark 5. I used the top of the bottom oven on the AGA, Cut the orange in half and squeeze the juice from one half into a small bowl. Cut the remainder into 4 wedges.
- To make the glaze, combine the marmalade, chilli flakes and sherry vinegar with the orange juice and season lightly.
- Place the duck fillets in a porcelain dish and score the flesh in a crisscross pattern, then spread the glaze liberally over the top of each one. Arrange the orange wedges around the duck and place in the oven for 30-35 minutes (or a little less time if you prefer the duck slightly rare). Baste the duck and orange wedges with the glaze a couple of times during the cooking time.
- Transfer the duck and orange wedges onto 2 plates, drizzle with the glaze and serve with lightly steamed kale or green vegetables.
It does suggest that if you have time,that you allow the duck to marinate for 10-15 minutes to help the flavours develop and that this recipe would also work well with chicken fillets.
But I would prefer duck.
Felixstowe Ferry
As a child, I spent a lot of time at Felixstowe Ferry. Yesterday, I was going to the dentist in the town, so before, we went to have lunch and a stroll there. We also had an excellent lunch in the Ferry Boat Inn.
Ferry Boat Inn, Felixstowe Ferry
The pub looks very similar to how I remember it as a child, but then it was a Tolly Cobbold pub, and now it serves mainly Adnams. But the lettering on the wall is still the same.
Inside is rather different, as the barrels of beer are no longer stacked behind the bar and there is a restaurant. But I have a feeling that the clock on the wall is the same, as I can remember sitting there with my father and Pete, who was an usher at my weeding to C in 1968.
Today, we had a glass of Aspalls each, with sea bass for me and proper fish and chips for my companion. Note that the sea bass was wild, not farmed, and apparently landed at Colchester
Lunch at The Ferry Boat Inn, Felixstowe Ferry
They knew their gluten rules too!
It does seem that this part of East Suffolk is doing its best to fight its way out of the recession, by doing things well.
A Coeliac-Friendly Pier
As I walked down Southwold Pier, I saw this notice.
A Coeliac-Friendly Pier
If you can’t read it, it says that on the first Saturday of evry month, gluten-free fish and chips are served in the restaurants. I went to investigate and found that they had Aspalls on draught, coeliac-friendly crisps and that they always have gluten-free cakes available.
If you check the Pier’s web site, they have a Coeliac-UK logo on the front smd here‘s details of their fish and chips.
Perhsps we’re not so silly here in Suffolk.
The Anonymous Widower 