Easy Allergy-Free Cooking with Kayla Cappiello

Do you or someone you love have a food allergy or intolerance? Or maybe you're like me, a chef who cooks for people and wants to get better at accommodating customers with dietary restrictions. Today I have Kayla Cappiello, author of the new book easy allergy free cooking, which is out now. Kayla has celiac disease is lactose intolerant and is allergic to tree nuts. On today's show, we'll be talking food allergies. This is Chris spear. And you're listening to Chefs Without Restaurants The show where I speak with culinary entrepreneurs and people working in the food and beverage industry outside of a traditional restaurant setting. Well, there are many cookbooks that address specific food allergies, there aren't as many that address multiple allergies at once. Sure, you can find a book on gluten free cooking or dairy free cooking. But Kayleigh felt that it was challenging to find a book that could accommodate all of her dietary restrictions. Something I often hear from people with food allergies is that it can be isolating. Your friends and family want to go out to eat but you don't want to be the person who dictates where to go or have a lot of questions when you go out. Kayla started documenting her experiences online. Sometimes it would be new recipes she was making. And sometimes it would be a list of places that have a really great selection of food that people with allergies can eat. Shortly afterwards, she took her Instagram off private mode and opened it up to the world. And people really seem to love it. Today. She has 47,000 followers on her Instagram and has built a community of people who are supportive of one another and are looking to learn more about allergy free cooking. Kayla had no professional experience working in kitchens or restaurants. She had never written recipes professionally. She was just looking to find a way to recreate some of her favorite dishes in a way that she could eat them like buffalo chicken pizza. One of the things I like about the cookbook is it's kind of choose your own adventure. Not every recipe is gluten free, dairy free and nut free. But for every recipe, she gives tips on how to make those adjustments, and additionally guides you on how to make them maybe vegetarian or low fat if that's something you're interested in. So if you or someone you know has food allergies or intolerances. Or if you're looking to expand your cooking skills to better accommodate those with dietary restrictions, you won't want to miss this episode. Be sure to check out the links in the show notes to connect with Kayla and learn more about her cookbook. And if you enjoy the show, please share it with others and consider leaving a rating or review on your favorite podcast platform. Thanks for tuning in to Chefs Without Restaurants and have a great day. Hey, Kayla, welcome to the show. Thanks so much for coming on. It's great to have you here today.

Hi, thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to chat.

I'm looking forward to talking to you about your new cookbook, which is going to be coming out in a couple of weeks here. By the time this airs. It'll probably be out already.

Yes, I have my final copies. I'm so excited for other people to finally get there.

I got a copy in the mail the other day.

Oh fantastic. I think my mom is my mom is upset. She hasn't received her yet. But I'm like, Oh, I have mine.

Don't tell your mom that I have a copy already. Well, I would love to talk about this. Your book is called Easy allergy free cooking. And I guess let's start with kind of the story as to how you got into this. assuming there's a food allergy that kind of led you to start working on some of these recipes. So why don't we start there? Can we talk about kind of you know, how you found out that you were allergic to food and when and how that all kind of unfolded?

Sure. So it kind of started? Well, I guess it started in college, I started noticing. I talked about it a lot in the intro to my book. Like you're in college, you want to eat pizza, you want to drink beer, you want to do what everyone else is doing. And I kind of noticed that after nights like that, I just was not recovering well. And I had nothing to do with like how much or how little I was drinking but like if I had that slice of pizza at the end of the night, it was like

awful. But we all felt that way. Right? Like yeah,

everybody else was hungover. And I was like, oh, maybe I'm just hungover, but I have symptoms that no one else has. So I guess that should have been a red flag and like hindsight is always 2020. But in the moment I just wrote it off as like, you know, this is typical college behavior. And then when I started working more in the corporate world, right after college, my favorite moment of the day was lunch. I used to love to go to New York City deli, get a deli sandwich. I love bread, I just loved sandwiches, and I'd go back to my desk and I'd eat it and an hour later I would be like completely ill. I almost couldn't make it through the workday. I was so tired. I was lethargic. I couldn't think straight. It was like I was living in a fog. And I couldn't figure out how to fix that. Around the same time. My dad also was feeling ill and ended up going to the hospital for a stomach ache and they did all these tests and he finally came back as celiac positive that he had the celiac gene. And the way he was feeling was very similar to the way I was feeling and sometimes that gene is hereditary, so I ended up getting 10 Sit for that. And I guess as many people know, like if you're allergic to something, it takes like multiple doctors or multiple doctor visits to get some answers. But at the end of the day, I did find a doctor that, you know, took the steps to like, test me for everything in the book. And as she was testing me for the celiac gene, she also tested me like, let's throw another test in there while we're doing it. And I ended up being lactose intolerant as well. So it was no pizza. Oh, I know, it was like the pizza was really working against me. I got the info at the same time, it must have been like a year or two after college. And like I said, looking back, it was very clear, but in the moment, it was not. I am also allergic to tree nuts, specifically almonds, pistachios and hazelnuts.

That's a lot. Did you find that out around the same time as well. I

knew before college, I knew I was allergic to pistachios, like pretty badly, I'd eaten them a couple of times, and my lips got really big. And they always tell you like if you have an oral reaction that it's like pretty severe. So I always stayed away. And then it wasn't until that I started going gluten free, a lot of things are substitute. Instead of wheat. They use almond flour. And I was like, let me just go to the allergist. And just like check about the almonds. So I knew I was allergic. But I wanted to know how severe the allergy was. She was really great with me though, she was very patient and had me come into her office with almonds. And they observed me for an hour eating one almond at a time. So I knew that I can consume like X amount before the reaction. So if I'm ever in a situation where I take a bite into something, and it's made with almond flour, and I didn't know at least I know like one almond like isn't going to hurt me but like six of them well.

And does this like lay dormant like the gluten like no problems from childhood up through

there? I guess there definitely were problems. But in my family, it was always just like, Oh, she has a weak stomach. Like my dad has like a weak stomach. I guess looking back, we would eat the wheat and eat gluten and I just I had a perpetual stomachache like my entire childhood. But when you don't know any different, it's hard to pinpoint it as a symptom. And then as you get older and you start associating, like, Yes, I ate lunch, and then the hour later, I didn't feel good. And now it's happening days in a row. You can connect the dots. But it was very hard, like in middle school in high school to even figure out like what was happening, especially because I had felt like that my whole life. But once I got into the corporate world, and it was more of a daily routine, it was easier to pinpoint like this stomachache is happening every day at three o'clock. So then, looking back, it was like, Oh, yes, it was oh, he's a problem. But it wasn't until I was an adult that I could figure it out.

Well, it's hard because it could be stress. You know, like for me, coffee bothers me. It's not even the caffeine. It's like the acidity of coffee. So I know a lot of people do food journaling, really trying to figure out what bothers them. And then maybe an elimination diet, which sounds crazy, because you take like everything out of your diet. Putting it back in. I've never had to do that. I just know from hearing people talk about it.

I did. They call it a low FODMAP. So you really eat like specific things and then start to reintroduce. And that was it was very eiopa. And that's

a hard one because it doesn't seem like there's set rules to the layperson. Like I work as a personal chef, it's easy when someone says I'm gluten free, I understand what gluten is, I'm dairy free, I understand that the low FODMAP is like all over the place. So it's like beans, it's garlic. And you know, like all these things

are like an like huge red flags.

But they don't have anything in common to the layperson who doesn't know, like if someone just says I'm on the low FODMAP diet, it's like you need to break out this whole chart. And it's like from all these different categories. And it's really tough I empathize for with people who have to deal with any diet like this, because it's so challenging. So you started a food blog, kind of to create recipes. So what was the timeframe of that? You know, you're, you've been diagnosed, you are working? When did you decide that you're going to take it upon you to start writing recipes and why you know, because, well how long ago was this?

Um, I guess at this point, like, it happened right before I started my blog right before COVID, maybe a year before COVID. So there were some

resources out there. There had already been some books and blogs, but you wanted to do your own.

Yeah, so what happened was, I guess it was so I graduated college in 2011. So it must have been like 2013 or 14, where I like started finding this all out. And I guess my main goal was taking meals that I ate on a daily or weekly basis and converting them into something that was healthier and safer for me to eat and that I knew I wouldn't get a stomachache and I knew I wouldn't get the brain fog after eating Um, as I did that, I kind of kept notes along the way, like, oh, I tried this gluten free pasta, it was really good like next I'm going to try it and make it this way instead, or I'm going to add these toppings instead. And the same thing with the pizza. It was like, I really liked ordering, let's say like buffalo chicken pizza, but I couldn't order it anymore. So now I'm trying these crusts and trying these different cheeses to be able to consume it at home by myself. And when I found something that was like a success, I wanted to celebrate it like myself. So I had a private Instagram account at that point. And I would just post a picture of my food and my recipe. It was like for my friends and family to see I counted it as a win. Like this is definitely something I would make again, and kind of used Instagram in a way that like I hadn't before, it was kind of like my own personal diary where I knew I could go back and look at these meals and recreate them again if I had to. And then as I guess, I inched forward in the timeline, I was like, oh, let's make my account like public in case there's someone out there who's also gluten free and dairy free or gluten free and not free. Because I was like convinced that like, I must be the only person feeling this way. And that's very isolating. So when I opened up my Instagram and kind of started finding other food bloggers out there, who did have like the gluten free option, or someone who did have a dairy free allergy, and then it was like, I could relate to those people on specific levels. But then I started finding people or people found me who had multiple allergies. And that's kind of where I found my community and my sense of like purpose, like, Oh, I'm posting these recipes, not only for myself, but other people are really interested too. And I think it just kind of snowballed from there.

You have like 45,000 followers now on Instagram. Is that crazy for you?

Yeah. And it's weird when you think about it, like, put that like in a stadium. And then it's like, oh, like that's the only place that can hold all these people. Like I can't invite all these people over to my house. But it was like when COVID happened, all those people were cooking at home anyway. So I think on top of the hour G A comedy accommodations for my recipes, they were also easy, and you could make them at home and they were like, kind of user friendly. They they use simple ingredients. Nothing's crazy. And I think that definitely was interesting to people as well. Were you keeping

dedicated lists of the brands you like because it's really hit and miss with a lot of that stuff. I cook a lot of this way both for myself and customers and like sometimes you nail it with like the cheat like cheeses are really hard. It's like some amazing, absolutely love them. Like I love cheese. I think that would be the hardest for me. I feel like the gluten free things are getting there. The dairy stuff is a little hit or miss I find

for sure. So in the beginning I did keep like a diary of I tried this brand there type of chatter. Did I like it? Did I not? And how did I use it. And then along the way, I continued that and then I would highlight the ones that were really successful are highlight the ones I liked. And in my cookbook, I actually have an example of that chart there so people can take their own notes in the same fashion. Because until you like you said until you start trying other brands you don't know that the brand you're currently eating is either not so good, or it's actually really good compared to what else is out there. And that was definitely the most challenging part of the whole thing.

I love the Meo Coast cheeses their dairy if you have you used them.

They're good I liked them and Trader Joe's actually has a ton of really good options. If you're not vegan because I know people eat dairy free cheese for like the vegan aspect. But they do have lactose free like a it is it has soy cheese and it but it's also just like lactose free and not completely vegan

that nothing's hard or can you do cashews because so much of it's like cashew,

so I can do cashews, I can do p cans. And that's it I think because I

think like most of those M Yoko's cheeses are like cashew chicken mashed bass. Yeah, that's tough to have the multiple, which is what I love about the book, because not all of your recipes, it sounds overwhelming to think that oh, all of them are gluten free, dairy free and not free, but they're not. And then you have like, this is how to make it but then it's got dairy in it. But if you want dairy free, this is how you do it or not free and I liked that because it's kind of the Choose Your Own Adventure of diet, diet restrictions. So I think that's really great. And I'm sure the recipes are fantastic as written but like if you need to adapt it for whatever your diet is, and you also have like low fat options in there as well. So I think that's really helpful.

Yeah, thanks. I think that was something that I used after I found like you said it was a gluten free recipe but it wasn't dairy free, but now I had to adjust it to make it dairy free and I wished all these recipes that I was reading that accommodated one of my allergies, I could figure out a way to accommodate my other ones. So then I was like that's the easiest way, like, here's your base recipe and here's how to alter it if your X, Y or Z.

So I'm assuming no formal culinary training, no background and recipe development just winging it. So where did you start? Were you just using the internet and cookbooks to kind of find base recipes and adjusting from there?

Yeah, I think I was actually using meals that I really liked at restaurants that I would order on like a daily basis like you know, you get home from work, you just want some pizza. Okay. Like I said, my go to was buffalo chicken, pizza. And then I was trying to come as close to like something that resembled that as possible. So then I would Google like buffalo chicken pizza. Okay, how do you make it dairy free? How do you make a gluten free? Okay, like, what do I want to pull from here? What do I want to pull from here? And then it's just like trial and error. It definitely got easier as I went along. And it was less research and more. Okay, like, let me trust my own trial and error. But yeah, like, internet, YouTube, Pinterest, like other food bloggers, like anyone I could watch. And just find out like more information. It was like, even if I just watched someone cook a recipe, but I didn't make it everything I gained from watching it, then at least I could have, like apply at home.

And the market for available products has exploded. I mean, a decade ago, there was no cup for copper King. Right, whatever. So I'd have to buy like 15 different things. I think my recipe is like white rice flour, brown rice, flour, rice, flour, you know, ag our corn starch, you know, and, and all this stuff. And I'd have all these containers. And now it's like, you can just go buy one bag of AP gluten free flour. And it's nice. Were there any recipes that you still haven't been able to adapt? Like, or what were some of the hard ones, like the ones you really were craving and just couldn't nail it anything?

Yeah, for sure. So I love Indian food. Like even if we order it like from a takeout restaurant here. I can't figure out how to make good gluten free non I can figure out how to make an acceptable substitute. But it doesn't taste like the one from the restaurant and I it's not on the market. I've Googled gluten free nine you can't buy it. It's just impossible.

That sounds like a challenge for someone out. I mean, I can't even imagine making not you know, bread making in itself is challenging. Well, maybe I'll try making so have you tried making gluten free? Non? Yeah.

So I followed like a bunch of recipes. And a lot of them are you use gluten free flour, and then you use yogurt and you make it in a cast iron skillet. But I just maybe it's one of those things like I always feel like salads are different when you order it versus like when you make it yourself. So maybe it's like I know that this not unlike isn't me at a restaurant. So I like second guessing it. But it's just not the right texture. I don't know I can't nail it

well, and do not use yogurt because that's also like if you're not using real yogurt that also was probably challenging.

Exactly. So if I'm using vegan yogurt, like the texture is definitely off. And if I'm using regular yogurt, I still hear like here's an ad for lactate, then I obviously like have to take the lactate, but I'm willing to do the lactate if I can get the texture correct

is lactate a big deal? Because I always think like, oh, you know, like lactose intolerant? Just take a pill like I would rather do that than give up dairy. But like, does it get rid of all the symptoms?

Um, it depends. For me, it's soft cheeses that are a way bigger deal than hard cheeses. Because hard cheeses have like less lactose in them. I want to say it's like a roller coaster. Like sometimes there are moments where like, if I don't take the Lactaid I kind of don't feel good, but I can just brush it off and like continue with my day. And then there are moments where like, if I don't take a lactate, I have to like go home and lay down and get a heating pad and I don't feel well at all. It usually comes on like spurts so like this week if I eat cheese like I can get myself to feel okay, but I know if I'm having a stomachache before I eat the cheese that it's just like, you have to take the Lactaid Yeah,

don't don't roll the dice of Yeah,

I was gonna say people are very, they like chance. If you're very risky. When you're lactose intolerant. It's like you're willing to take the chance even though you know you're not going to feel good. Versus like with the gluten. I'm not going to take the chance.

Have you ever tried any of the flowers that they say are like, you know, ancient Greek because there's a lot of talk about, you know, it's the wheat and how we grow it now on a lot of chefs and farmers are talking about, well, if you're using this strain of wheat, like wouldn't have any problems. Have you read about that? Have you tried any of that?

I've definitely heard about it. A good example. My parents went to Italy a couple summers ago it was actually way before COVID And my dad who also has celiac was like it's so different, like eating wheat here eating pizza here like eating bread here. It's just like their reactions completely different. I haven't gone so I haven't actually perience tip but I did recently walk into a pizza place. I actually moved from Hoboken, New Jersey to Morristown, New Jersey, which like really isn't that far. But like, you have to change your restaurant. So I was looking for another restaurant like now locally that had gluten free pizza. And I walked in and asked, and he tried to say that to me, he was like, well, like the flour we use even though it has we like, you could probably still have it. But I was so nervous that like, I didn't even take the chance. I wonder if he was right. I just I was so scared. Well, I

know people have talked about like einkorn flour being like the original flour. I know, Chef Dan Barber up in New York like talks about their growing the strain of wheat, I think he calls it Barbar wheat, and they even make it in their restaurant at Stone barns. And he said like, I would never make anyone try anything they don't want. But if you know they wanted to try it, everyone who's come and said they have celiac or problems have not had any reactions. I just find that interesting. Yeah. Maybe we'll get there. We've just screwed up our food system. Like why are we all having these things? I mean, I'm sure for generations people have had food allergies and things. But there's also got to be some other things contributing to the fact that more and more people are getting sick from the food that they eat. We think that

that's totally like, it really messes up my mind if I think about it too hard. When we moved to Morristown, I was like, I want to yard so I can grow garden. So I know exactly what I'm eating and exactly where it's coming from. And I don't have to like overthink anything

is going out to eat challenging for you. And have you had any accidents anywhere?

Oh, yeah. So I actually was just out, I'm not going to name the restaurant. But I was out two nights ago, I went to a restaurant, and I called ahead to make sure that they had gluten free items. And they said that they did. But when I ordered it, I just it was like I just knew that it wasn't. And I was like all they told me over the phone that this this dish was like, I'm just gonna try it. And when I got home, I was like, Oh, I definitely don't feel right at all. It's scary going out. I think in the beginning, it was really isolating because you want to go out with your friends to the same places and order the same food that you've been doing your whole life. And now not only do you have to change it, but you have to be that person to speak up when it's your friends or your family or a party and say like, Hey, I can't keep doing what I've been doing. And I don't like to upset like the status quo like that. So it was really hard for me, I started making lists, I actually posted on my Instagram pretty often. But I started making lists of all the places that I could go that I knew were safe that either had like a dedicated grill or a dedicated fryer, or they had like a separate preparation area. And then over time, I felt more comfortable like trying more food there and like kind of moving outside of my comfort zone with what I ordered. So when I was in Hoboken, I had this huge list of places that had gluten free options that I had never had a bad experience at. Because if I have one bad experience, I never want to go back. But when I moved, it was like you have to start from scratch again. So here I am, like calling all these places being like, do you have gluten free bread? Do you have gluten free bagels? Like where am I going to eat? So I do feel like the list is slowly growing. But I do like to prepare for going out. I look at the menu. I include this like on my Instagram to just like how to get through a night out like and still be gluten free or how to get through like a holiday. That's not You're not hosting. And still like keep to a gluten free diet. And it's like you just have to ask a lot of questions ahead of time. So I Google it. I call I ask the questions. And then when I go to the actual restaurant, I asked the questions. So it sounds

like you like food, which can be challenging. Yeah, like food. Yeah. Because I mean, some people don't care. It's like these people I see who are meal preppers. And like everyday they to chicken breast and broccoli and rice is no that's like that's like I couldn't do that. So you know, as someone who's social and likes going out, I can't imagine the anxiety around that. Like it's, you know, your friends all want to go out for pizza or burgers or whatever you want to hang out with them. But I used to be a vegetarian, I'm not anymore. But my wife and I were and it was the same thing. You'd go to places and like, you couldn't always trust it like it's broccoli soup, but it's probably chicken broth, which has stayed. You know, and we didn't have allergies, but it was just annoying. And then you went places. And I mean, this was a while ago. So you had to hear like vegetable plate or your portabella mushroom burger nonsense and like all the gluten free stuff. It's nice to see that that's coming around. And there's some really interesting options these days.

Yeah, and I think like over time, my friends and like my family I'm like now my fiancee, like everybody's so involved now that it's like if we go to a restaurant, he'll be like, do you have gluten free pizza and it's like I don't even have to ask and it's like knowing that your community around you like my friends my family are now all like on board and like helping and I'm not alone because like that's it's sucky to feel that way. Like you're by yourself. You have to embarrass yourself like asking all these like ridiculous questions. When you just want to be like socializing.

Do you get the server Soos humanoid like, just like going out, I've seen that like, some people are really cool. But sometimes it's probably like, Oh, here's another one of those people. Yeah. And also, like, the sidebar of that is so many people these days say they have allergies when they don't. And I'm sure that screws up for you guys, right? Because it's annoying. I cannot

stand when a restaurant is like, is it a preference or an allergy, because I'm like, either way, I don't want the cross contamination. And I also don't want you labeling like my genetic mutation as a preference, because it's not like I would not prefer to live my life like this. And I always think it's so offensive. Like, anyone who's saying they're gluten free, you should just be giving them the same, like situation like you shouldn't be treating my meal more seriously than someone's who says it's a preference.

But then I see things as a personal chef that, like people will have allergies and not tell me because they didn't think they ordered something that will have it like, I don't want that. Like I had a woman who has an avocado allergy, but I use avocado oil, because as a high smoke point. So I get to her house, and I'm like cooking. And she like makes this blase comment about like, Well, my only allergy is avocados. And it's like, you might put that on the questionnaire. She's like, well, I didn't order anything with avocados. No, he got me up getting these people to understand I did a dinner like a week ago, and they had a guest who was gluten free and they didn't tell me. I can accommodate you. But it's like you have meat balls. I used regular bread crumbs, I would have used gluten free you know there's a gravy and it's gonna thicken with a roux, I would have used like a gluten free flour or like, why not tell me but once I get there, then I'm like backpedaling and trying to find ya know, ways. But then like someone one time soy allergies are insane because soybean oil is in so much stuff. So I bought like soybean free mayo and all this stuff. And they're like, Oh, we just don't like like soy beans and tofu and stuff. I'm like, That is not a soy allergy. Like I had to restock my Whole Pantry just for your party. So getting that through to people to get them to tell me like really? What is an allergy? What is a dislike?

Yeah, for sure. Please

tell me everything that you can't have. Because I take this so seriously.

I guess that'll also like came in time with me. Like you try to be open and honest ahead of time. Because I would rather say, Hey, I'm gluten free. If you can't make anything gluten free, like totally fine. I'll eat beforehand, like I really don't care. But if you get there, and then there's nothing gluten free and you didn't open your mouth, it's like then you kind of did it to yourself.

What prompted you to write the cookbook because that seems like a huge task. I mean, it's one thing to blog, put your recipes on social media, but to write an actual book to make a physical book and get it in the world. That seems like a totally different undertaking. So when did you decide that that was something you were going to do?

So I guess it was always in the back of my mind. And I probably didn't even think about it. I actually minored in creative writing in college. So writing was like always, like interesting to me. And then when I was writing down my recipes for my Instagram captions, then it was interesting to like, make it a bigger deal, like on my blog and write more about like, you can always fit more texts and like write more in a blog post. So as I was enjoying that, I just thought, you know, if I could write a book I could fit more about my life and who I am and include more like the way we talked about, like how I had the worksheets about how to figure out like, what brands I liked or what flavors of things I like. So it was like, I felt like I just kept having more to share. And there's only like so much you can share on a blog because people are only going to click my one blog post and they're gonna read that recipe like maybe they make it maybe they comment on it, but then like they're kind of clicking away.

And they're gonna complain that they don't want your story right? Isn't that the isn't that the big thing? Yeah, food blogs like just jump to the recipe

right? No one wants the intro no one wants to hear my story but it's like when you put all that in a book and now people are getting like I think it's like 200 pages of recipes and my backstory and the way I stock my pantry and my theory on the way I grocery shop to like stay healthy and find the products I like and it's like you're getting all of it at once and like a nice package deal and I thought it was like a nicer way to present what was originally like a really hard moment in my life that I tried to turn around into like something that actually like worked out for the best

and I'm sure you were grabbing recipes that were already on your website and stuff and just kind of brushing them up you weren't starting from scratch.

No so I took I went through my Instagram over like I mean I started the cookbook process back in like 2020 So I went through my Instagram and kind of looked at which recipes like had the most engagement and people were like the most into and then I either tried to like recreate them either in a more elevated way or let's say I made it with like chicken breasts last time like now I'm making it with like breaded chicken or I'm making it with treaded chicken just so it was like a different take on like the say same recipe because if you've been around from the beginning, you know, some of them, it's really hard to like, make something and be really proud of it, and then hold off on posting it on the blog to like, include it in the book. So I want to say half the recipes were either elevated or changed from Instagram. And then half the recipes were like brand new that I was making, like, in the moment, or like over the year of writing it that I was not sharing on Instagram, and it was killing me.

That's gotta be tough. I've had those things where it's like you have an announcement to make, and you can't do it. Or, you know, or you shouldn't, and you're holding off. Yeah, I'm

the worst secret keepers. So I just wanted to like, share everything. I'm like, share all like the pictures and the videos and like the process, but I was like, shoot, like, what if it doesn't go anywhere. That was also the thing. It was like, I wrote a good chunk of the book. When I started out on this process, I had a literary agent. And he helped me write like the intro and some sample chapters. And then he helped me shop at around two publishers. But at that point, it was like I was in the process of writing it, but I didn't know if it was gonna get picked up. So it was kind of waiting for a publisher to like, give the green light before I kept writing the second half. So it was like, if no one picked it up, like yeah, you can go back and then I can share these recipes on my blog and on Instagram, and people will still get to like consume the recipe. But I was really nervous. But obviously it ended up well.

Did you ever consider self publishing?

I did. I didn't know a lot about it. So I did do a lot of research, especially. I mean, it takes a long time for publishers. So like read your proposal, come back with questions, come back with options and then either like, approve or deny it. So like in that process, I was like, okay, like, let me actually, like put some research into self publication. It was definitely if I didn't get like a publisher to get on board with me. It was definitely like the next option, because at that point, I was so deep into writing it that I wasn't just gonna, like, give it up at that point,

though. Did you have people test your recipes? I know a lot of cookbook authors send out recipes and have people try them and see if they work, especially people who are used to cooking.

Yeah, I was gonna say like, friends and family. It was like, here's the recipe. Can you try this? Like, I'm posting it on Instagram, if someone else made it, like, if a girl like a lot of girls like comment, and they say, Hey, I made this this weekend, like it was great. But then I'd message them and be like, hey, like, Did it come out? Okay, do you have pictures? Like, is there anything like you had questions on like, could I have written the directions better? And I think that really helped. But there were definitely things that like, I went back on and said, like, I need to make this again to make sure like in my own head. It made sense. And it came out well. I mean, the book is published and it's done. And I've made some of these recipes 100 times, and this week, I made one of the recipes from the cookbook, and I was like I'm gonna make it exactly in the cookbook, just like as a peace of mind to know even though I've made it 100 times like it's still exactly what I wanted. It was definitely the baking recipes that made me like the most nervous because I feel like cooking is like if you add more garlic or if you add more cheese like the recipe is going to come out like fairly similar anyway. But the baking it's not. So if you add too much sugar if you add too much peanut butter, like it's not going to be the same consistency and those made me the most nervous. So I remade all of those beforehand to make sure like I wrote it. I did it exactly as the recipe said I'm remaking it. Okay, yes, it did come out the same.

Well, I'm excited to learn that you can turn tater tots into meat replacement because tater tots are the best potato in my opinion. So to see a recipe or it's like, just crumble some tater tots and saute them up in oil. And there you go. It's a meat replacer that's gonna be my new meat. replacer every time forget tofu, I'm done with tofu. It's just tender.

I was gonna say it is not low carb, but it is definitely really good.

Ya know, there's some really fun recipes in there. The baking ones look interesting, too. I want to dig into some of those before too long. I enjoy baking. It's something that I didn't do early on in my culinary career. But now like as a personal chef, I have to I do all the courses for people, right? Like I used to work in kitchens where we did savory stuff. And now it's like I do all the courses. And you know, one of the things about being a personal chef is people hire me so much because I can accommodate them. You know, like Yeah, like, Yeah, I'm feeling that you can't go out to a restaurant. That's a huge opportunity for me because I'm only cooking for you and your dinner party tonight. So it can be whatever you need it to be dairy free, gluten free. I'm sure this cookbook is going to be a huge resource for me. So I'm looking forward to using it and breaking out these recipes. I'm gonna start cooking for customers using these recipes. Love it. What are some of your favorite recipes in there?

So I'm a big breakfast fan. There's definitely a lot of French toasts in there because that was really hard for me in the beginning like it's made with bread. It's made with milk like that was definitely a challenge. So once I started creating like all these French toasts there's a churro french toast. There's like a peanut butter french toast that was breakfast is one of my favorite meals, and then all the pizza As I could eat pizza every day of my life, the pizzas there's like it's a beet pizza in there so it has much rel it has goat cheese or like if you're making the vegan option sometimes I use vegan cream cheese instead. It has carmelized onions and beets on top. And I've been making that pizza probably for 10 years. We make it like every year for my mom's birthday. It's one of my favorites. How did

the beats go on? Do you cook the beats at a time or using canned cooked beats?

Yeah, so I buy the beats. They're already roasted. They're usually like in the produce section. They're like shrink wrap together. Yeah,

I love those. I think Costco like yes, I

sliced them really thin and then when they go on the pizza, they cook in the oven. I just think they're like so good.

I've never seen a beat pizza. I've seen the rise of like the potato pizza. Like that's the thing now with like Yukon Golds, but I've never seen beets on a pizza.

Yeah, it's so good. It's I can sometimes I put zucchini on it. I'm a big a big mix and match are for the pizzas. Do you

have a favorite cuisine? Like if we're gonna say like ethnic cuisine? Is there food that you really like to eat or cook?

Um, that's a good question. We do make a lot of like at home Chinese food or like Korean food or Japanese food. We always keep like gluten free soy sauce in stock in my pantry. He's

tamari.

I'm like coconut aminos I love the coconut aminos Yeah, we like that are like liquid aminos we use those too. But I feel like that's something I definitely cannot order out. So if it's a night like a Friday night at home, we're not doing anything. Me and my fiance will definitely make something of that cuisine because I feel like it's such a treat to be able to you know sit down and like make something like that. That there's no way I could ever order Chinese food out.

Have you found certain cuisines are more allergy friendly?

I feel like Thai is pretty allergy friendly. They have like, like rice noodles all the time. All the all the options are made with any kind of rice you can brown rice, white rice. I mean Italians really hard Chinese food is like really hard. We do get a lot of sushi. There are places like if I know ahead of time that the place is like gluten free soy sauce we can go out but we order a lot of sushi and and then like I just keep my own soy sauce here. Bring your own

bring your own little bottle of liquid Amina. Exactly.

And as long as there's like no tempura and like you don't get like spicy mayo on anything. It's like it's fine.

Yeah. So what's I mean, I hate to say what's next the book isn't even out. But I mean, are you continuously writing new recipes? Are you already in new recipe mode?

Yeah, I am. In the back of my head. I'm making like lists for a potential second, I'd love to write a second cookbook and focus on you know, this cookbook has breakfast, lunch and dinner. It has desserts as pizzas as appetizers. But I'd love to take one of those chapters so pizzas and just have the whole cookbook about pizzas. Every time I make something I'm like, do I share it? Do I hold on to it but I think right now I'm just kind of in the sharing mode until this cookbook is like out and people are enjoying it. And then once I can like dial it back into only sharing like some things but keeping some things ready then I think I'd consider a second cookbook but it seems

like community is so important to you, you know you've got a large group of followers obviously, they're supportive and it was you know why you kind of wanted to put this out so it's great that you're really connecting with them and wanting to share Do you have a go to recipe when you want to impress someone like if you were having like a nice dinner party? Do you have something that's a little on the fancier end or something that you just really enjoy making? That's more of like a I don't know maybe special occasion dish

recently we've been making like this pork dish it's like a Chinese pork dish I'm not gonna pronounce this ingredient right but is it called gocce Jiang Yeah,

yeah, that's on fire to it.

I love does that's been like our go to lately. Me and my fiance have been making that like once a week for the past like three weeks I think we just impressed ourselves with like following this really fancy recipe and we actually really enjoyed it. I have not made it for someone else yet. Do you eat

peanuts or peanuts? No for you

that peanuts are yes for me.

I've I've a recipe where you put go to Jiang and a blender with pineapple juice, raw garlic, shallots and peanuts and you'd like blended up into a paste I have. And then you like marinate your meat and then you can just like throw it on the grill. If it's a tougher cut that takes some time, then you put it in an oven and like beef stock and let it cook down. And that's nice. It's like fiery, it's salty. It's got a little sweet there. It's a really good

recipe definitely sent me that that sounds right up my alley. Yeah,

that's good stuff. And like you should be as long as you can do peanuts. You can do all that. Yeah,

there's a lot of peanuts in our household. It works really good with beef short ribs.

So I'll like put it on short ribs and throw them on the grill and then throw them in a pan with some more than marinade and beef stock and just let them go for a couple hours.

Okay, that will be our meal next weekend. I'm sold. That sounds fantastic.

Do you have any advice for people who are newly diagnosed with some kind of food allergy? Like, what would you tell them?

So I actually dedicated my book to the younger version of myself who like always had a stomachache and thought this would like, never ever get any better. And it did get better. So that's my advice is like, just keep doing what you're doing. Like, go to the doctor's, find the doctors that are going to advocate with you, like, find the people who are going to help you narrow it down and find out what's bothering you what's giving you a stomachache, what's causing your allergy, because you're not crazy. Like, I always felt really crazy in the beginning. This wasn't going to get better, like how was I going to fix this, but it's like you know yourself. So you have to like trust yourself. And if you find someone who can give you the answers you've been looking for, or answer the questions you've needed, answered, it's it's gonna get better. You're not going to feel alone and confused and hopeless this whole time. It's that's only a feeling in the beginning, it definitely gets better.

That's something I hear from so many people. And I've had that with doctors not related to food allergies, but just, you know, it's hard. They're seeing so many people in the course of a day, they're not specialists in all these areas, specially diet and so forth. And it's just easy to say like, oh, no, it's probably a something else it'll pass. But yeah, trust your gut, I think is a good one.

Yeah, definitely your gut.

Do you have any final words you want to share with our listeners, before we get out of here today?

Keep making your favorite meals. And if you need to make them gluten free, dairy free, vegan or low fat. I'm your girl.

Right on? Well, everyone knows if they listen to the show. Everything's in the show notes. There'll be links to the books, your social media, your website, so people can follow along. And hopefully we'll get some new fans and can continue this conversation with them.

Perfect. Thank you so much.

Thanks so much for coming on the show. It was great having you. And to all of our listeners. This has been Chris with the Chefs Without Restaurants podcast. Thanks so much for listening and have a great week. Go to chefs without restaurants.org To find our Facebook group, mailing list and Chef database. The community is free to join. You'll get gig opportunities, advice on building and growing your business and you'll never miss an episode of our podcast. Have a great week.