ANDRE BEGIN

For anyone living with a food intolerance or allergy, to enjoy the simple pleasure of a take-out meal and a night off from the kitchen, we need to be extra careful with our choices. We need to ensure that the ingredients are safe for us and that proper care is taken to prevent cross-contamination.

It’s not always easy, as there is homework involved. But once we have identified an establishment that is willing to work with us, sometimes it’s a two-way street.

When my partner and I moved to the country, we accepted that we wouldn’t have the same variety of restaurants and take-out places as we did in the city. The headscratcher was how our village ended up with four pizza places. You’d think that the owners would have checked with each other first.

However, just because a pizza place offers a gluten-free crust does not mean that I am in the clear. There’s the matter of the pepperoni. Not all pepperoni is gluten-free. We need to check first.

Among our pizza places, three out of the four offer gluten-free crust, but to this point, none of the three offers gluten-free pepperoni. For a fan of pepperoni, mushroom and olive pizza like myself, that was a bit of a let-down. Back in the city, gluten-free pepperoni was becoming increasingly easy to find.

I have called around a couple of times to see if they had any plans to bring in gluten-free pepperoni, assuring them that if they did, I would be interested in ordering from them. However, this hasn’t proven fruitful yet. I gathered that given the limited rural population in our delivery area, this may not have been an offer that put dollar signs in their eyes.

In the absence of pepperoni options, I decided to compromise. Just for the fun of it, why not try other varieties of pizza not dependent on pepperoni? Who knows, in trying something new to me, I might find a new favourite.

It turned out to be a fairly enjoyable pivot, exploring and tasting different variations, such as vegetarian and Mediterranean styles of pizza. A basic Margherita pizza also presented a wonderful change for me, allowing my taste buds to fully appreciate the establishment’s signature sauce formulation and cheese blend.

As a result, my exploration into different varieties of pizza offered me a new opportunity: to be able to ask myself, “What am I in the mood for today?” when the question of pizza comes up, rather than going directly to my old standby. Change can indeed be good!

However, despite these great epiphanies and taste sensations, pepperoni, mushrooms, and olive pizza still remains my favourite.

One day, I was going through our grocery store and noticed in the deli section a bag of gluten-free pepperoni. A glimmer of inspiration struck as I thought I could simply order a mushroom and olive pizza and add the gluten-free pepperoni myself. That being the case, I bought the pepperoni and the next time we ordered pizza, I tried it and was beyond delighted with the result, as I savoured every bite.

More recently, my options opened up a little more when a visit to the family-style restaurant in a neighbouring town revealed that they offered gluten-free pepperoni on their pizza. Also, on a recent trip to the city, I found personal-sized gluten-free pizza crusts, which meant we could make our own at home.

Even though such opportunities do make life a lot easier, I accept the inevitability of the research and the homework still needed to keep myself safe.

To the establishments that have embraced the challenge of food intolerance and allergies and have worked hard to provide solutions, you have my deepest congratulations and thanks! Your efforts are most appreciated, as is the freedom of having a night off from the kitchen!

Did you enjoy this post? If you did, your likes and shares are most appreciated.
If you haven’t already, please check out the rest of my blog at andrebegin.blog. From there, you can click on the “Follow” button to receive future posts directly in your inbox.

Sincere thanks for reading!

Have a great day,

André