Photo by Richard A. Huston
January 2004 | Feature Story
Wheatless in Seattle
No, it’s not a movie. Living gluten-free is a real-life choice—and becoming easy in the Puget Sound area
By SILJA J.A. TALVI
A year ago, Kris Slugg took an allergy test to try to figure out why she couldn’t shake the sense something was always wrong with her body. The test came back positive for some of the most common ingredients in the American diet: Wheat and gluten.
Slugg had already gone vegan years ago, choosing to eschew not just meat but dairy and eggs too. As it turns out, going wheat- and gluten-free was the best thing for the 32-year-old massage therapist. She felt great within weeks.
Eliminating wheat and gluten (the protein present in wheat, barley and rye) from meals and snacks is an idea that is gaining ground among health-minded individuals who eat a wholesome diet but still feel sick or lethargic. Wheatless in Seattle is no Hollywood title. It is a real-life drama that can play a starring role in improved health.
For Kaili McIntyre, it was the birth of her third daughter that kicked in a full-episode of what turned out to be celiac disease. Also known as gluten intolerance, celiac disease is an increasingly common condition estimated to affect one in every 133 Americans. The disease often manifests itself through stomachaches, weight loss, bloating, weakness and diarrhea.
McIntyre had all of the symptoms, and then some.
For two months after delivering the baby, McIntyre felt like she was falling apart. Her knee joints ached so badly that she could barely walk. Her skin broke out. She had to make constant visits to the bathroom. Every muscle in her body hurt.
When gluten (the protein present in wheat, barley and rye) was finally pinpointed as the culprit, McIntyre felt like she had a new lease on life—and a mission, of sorts, to provide others with the kind of delicious, gluten-free food.
McIntyre was the right person for the job. She is a baker by profession.
She poured all of her knowledge and skill into creating foods—especially baked products—that were completely gluten and wheat-free. The result: Kaili’s Kitchen (her name is pronounced “kye-lee”), a restaurant and catering business that opened this past October in Shoreline.
From her kitchen, McIntyre, 39, creates breads and baked treats out of rice flours, amaranth, sorghum and tapioca to create four different types of breads (including the most popular vegan multigrain loaf). Plus, she serves a host of other meat and veggie-friendly dishes. She also bakes gluten-free wedding cakes and proves custom chef services to customers from far and wide.
Her gluten-free restaurant has quickly become a gluten-free haven.
“People have visited me from Argentina, Europe and Canada,” she says. “My regular customers make special trips out from Yakima, Tumwater, Bellevue and Kirkland, because they can’t find this kind of food where they live."
The dishes are unique to Kaili’s Kitchen, but McIntyre is also a part of an emerging trend in the greater Seattle area of restaurants, stores and bakeries that specialize in or recognize these kinds of dietary needs. Already, the Puget Sound area boasts no less than 24 vegetarian restaurants, including 13 vegan restaurants that serve no dairy, eggs, or animal by-products.
Seattle’s abundance of veggie-friendly options earned recognition from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which surveyed American cities and ranked them based on the availability of vegetarian cuisine and high sales of vegetarian products. Seattle managed to beat out New York to come in second place while San Francisco ranked No. 1. says Slugg’s decision to give up all animal by-products focused on both treatment of animals and her personal health. Her digestive system has been a particular winner, she says. Plus, after suffering for years with yeast infections, Slugg noticed cutting out yeast has helped candida infections from returning.
Research bears out the decision to go wheat-free or vegan or both. Plant-based, vegetarian diets are typically very low in saturated fat and cholesterol (and high in fiber and vitamins). Individuals who do not consume meat tend to have lower rates of cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and gastrointestinal abnormalities.
Sometimes a life’s work can come from the decision.
"My father and I have been health fanatics our whole lives,” says Jennifer Dowd, 29, who co-owns the Flying Apron Bakery with her father, Bill Dowd.
Jennifer is a vegan. Her father is a vegetarian who limits his consumption of dairy. As a direct result of their own health practices and concern for the health of Seattleites, the two opened their University District bakery in May 2002.
“We wanted to open up a place that was helpful to our community and to the environment as well,” Dowd explains. “We work with organic ingredients and, in so doing, we’re supporting other organic businesses."
Along with an emphasis on organic goods, everything sold in the Flying Apron Bakery is vegetarian and wheat-free. The majority of baked products are gluten-free.
“The front-window display of pastries is decadent,” says one regular customer, who brings Flying Apron cakes to office birthday parties to the raves of meat-eaters and vegans alike. For instance, the vegan carrot cake is a particular favorite of one co-worker who orders bacon-lettuce-and-tomato on white toast for lunch with a large bag of peppercorn potato chips.
Dowd doesn’t have celiac disease or wheat allergies, but finds that she feels better when she eats products made with rice, quinoa, buckwheat, chickpea and oat flours rather than overindulging in ubiquitous gluten and wheat-flour products. She is one of a growing number of Puget Sound citizens who follow a similar instinct.
Café Flora, one of Seattle’s oldest and most popular gourmet vegetarian restaurants, made a large commitment to gluten-free dining after hearing from regular customers who aspired to such cuisine.
The restaurant still serves dishes containing wheat and gluten, but now regularly lists gluten-free dishes on the menu, including the always-popular Oaxaca Tacos.
“People are trying to be more aware of their diets,” explains Café Flora head chef Janine Doran, 40. “For a variety of reasons, including the Atkins Diet, people are trying to stay away from wheat and exploring other ways of eating."
Unlike many other vegetarian restaurants, Café Flora has always been able to draw in vegetarians and meat-eaters alike. And that’s something that Doran says that Café Flora continues to take pride in.
"I’ve had guests come in and not know that we’re a vegetarian restaurant [or that the Oaxaca tacos are gluten-free],” says Doran. “They are genuinely surprised by how much they like the food.”
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