I’ve lived with a coeliac disease diagnosis for a better part of my life. Most if not all my memories of eating out are therefore somehow connected with making sure the food I consume is gluten-free. Finding restaurants that offer such food is not always easy. My options are mostly limited to only a few places or none at all. Sadly, for me, a lot of our social lives revolve around food and especially eating out. The lack of restaurants that offer gluten-free meals results in a few different situations for us gluten-free-folks. One is awkwardly sitting at a table, having ordered nothing, while our friends of family feel bad for eating – a situation I think we’ve all been in and dread it almost as much as the people next to us. Consequently, a lot of people on a gluten-free diet start avoiding food-related situations altogether and unintentionally socially isolate themselves. Probably one of the most common results of lack of gluten-free meal options is whole families or groups of people deciding to skip eating out for something we prepare ourselves. Expanding the network of restaurants that have gluten-free options would therefore greatly improve the lives of people on a gluten-free diet.

Of course, it is not only important to provide gluten-free food, but also to make sure it really is safe for someone such as myself to consume. With that, I would like to say that someone telling me they can’t guarantee my food is safe, is much much more appreciated than them lying and serving me something with gluten in it. Throughout the years I’ve experienced both situations as well as being provided with great safe food by an educated staff.

A positive story of eating out in Bolzano (ITALY)

My family and I are quite avid travellers. Of course Italy is known for being a paradise for people on a gluten-free diet. Even so, I was still surprised how well educated most people in the catering business there are.

During our stay in Bolzano, my family and I decided to go out for an early dinner. The restaurant we went to advertised a wide selection of gluten-free meals. The waitress explained how the gluten-free food is made and how they avoid cross-contamination. When she brought us bread, she placed the bread with gluten in front of my parents far away from me and pointed out, that it shouldn’t eat it. My bread was brought separately and packaged differently in a paper bag. We later noticed that plates on which the meals were served differed as well. The gluten-free meals were served on blue plates and had a small flag on top, while the “normal” meals came on white or brown plates.

The attention to detail and the care they put into making sure that the food doesn’t get cross-contaminated even when already on the table and that there isn’t a mix-up with the dishes, as well as the waitress patiently answering all our questions, showed that they really knew a lot about making safe gluten-free food.