When I first wrote about food allergy etiquette at Weddings, I talked about how I would make my own wedding food allergy-friendly.  I came up with the idea that I would include an option for people to write down their dietary restrictions on the reply cards that they use to RSVP.

Here is what I came up with:



This is a trick I learned from planning conferences at work, where we allow participants to make their dietary restrictions known through online registration.  While this works pretty well for finding out what dietary restrictions we have to work with: gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan, vegetarian, kosher, halal, etc;  making sure the person with the dietary restriction ends up with the right food is another story.  When I was in Hong Kong last year for work, we decided to request that separate menus be created for each diet and then pass out the menu to the person as they entered the restaurant.  The problem was, that people took vegetarian menus or gluten-free menus, even if they hadn’t requested the special meal.  So, those with the real dietary restrictions sometimes ended up sans special menu.

Once I know what dietary needs I’m dealing with when the reply cards come back, how will I make sure these people get the right food?  It may not be the most efficient way, but I think the most effective way will be to tell the caterers that we have a certain number of vegetarians, nut allergies, or kosher folks (to name a few special diets) and then liaise directly with my diet restricted guests to let them know to tell the servers that they have a special dish.  We could even remind people to do this on the menu that will be at each seat.  For example, after listing each dinner option it could say, “please let your server know if you have requested a special meal.”

Does this seem like it could work?

It’s the end of March now, and that marks our 4 month countdown to the big day.  We’ve hit the three-quarter mark of planning.  While I do feel that we’ve gotten a lot done in terms of big stuff, I have a feeling the devil is in the details.

One thing I’m excited to be able to check off our list is deciding on our cupcake vendor.  I am excited to announce that we will be working with Donna Marie Gluten-Free Bakery.

Although I was pretty psyched about the vegan bakery, Eco Bella, Alex wasn’t.  He just didn’t love the dairy-free frosting and preferred Donna Marie’s traditionally sweet, moist, and creamy cupcakes.  This was also a moment where I put the guests wants before mine.  I wanted my guests to have the best possible first gluten-free experience.  That meant to me, not knowing it was gluten-free.  Donna Marie delivered on this point, where Eco Bella’s more hearty, whole-grain cakes would definitely have raised some eyebrows.

Glad to be done with the hard part, it’s time for the fun part: cupcake flavors and decor.  Even though we’ll be having cupcakes, we still wanted them to look like a wedding cake.  Enter the tiered cupcake stand:

LIke the image above, we’re having a small cake to cut into as well.  When Donna Marie asked me for decorating ideas, I just sent her a bunch of my inspiration photos and an explanation of what the decor theme would be.  What I should have done was look for images of cupcake trees and send those because when we chatted to talk about her ideas, I wasn’t entirely prepared to be commenting on them, I mostly just said, “yeah, that sounds great.”  Right afterwards, I regretted not doing my homework here.

Here’s what we decided via our phone conversation.  There would be four flavors of cake: lemon, red velvet (squeee), chocolate and vanilla.  We’d have 100 mini cupcakes and 100 regular cupcakes.  I had the idea of having each flavor be decorated different to identify the flavor.   The regular cupcakes be frosted in off-white, with accent frosting flowers in coral, robin’s egg blue, pale orange, and a coffee-colored brown (for the chocolate).  The mini cupcakes would be frosted entirely IN these accent colors.  The cake on top will be frosted in off-white and the focal point will be our lovebirds cake topper.

That sounded great in the moment.  Now, I’m not so sure.  My main concern is that it will be too colorful, as most wedding cakes are white.  My other concern is that it won’t be formal enough and won’t match the overall look of the wedding, which is more subdued in the color palette and natural/rustic in the feel.  One thing I’m not concerned about it them being delicious.  We’re meeting with Donna Marie in May, and hopefully it will all come together then!

I scour the internet and keep my ears and eyes open for gluten-free news, but its possible I miss something.  Please send any relevant information this way!

Paul Taylor Dance Company Celiac Disease Fundraiser – Wednesday, March 2 at the New York City Center

Tickets are still available for this great event.  The show starts at 7 pm but gluten-free refreshments including Pala’s Pizza will be served from 5:45 pm.   I’ll be attending with my gluten-free roommate.

NYC Celiac Meetup Group Pasta Night – Monday, March 7 at Cafe 82

This month’s pasta meetup features lasagna.  The feast starts at 7:30 pm.  RSVP via the Meetup.

NYC Celiac Meetup Allergic Girl Launch Party -Tuesday, March 8 at Heather’s Bar

You are probably already familiar with her blog, “Please Don’t Pass the Nuts,” but now Sloane Miller has written a book!  Come celebrate at Heather’s bar which serves two types of gluten-free beer.  RSVP via the Meetup.

Specialty Gluten-Free Cereal now at Dean & DeLuca

Custom Choice Cereal, an online based made to order gluten-free cereal company is now selling their products at select Dean & DeLuca locations in NYC.

Trader Joe’s sells Udi’s

The most popular gluten-free bread brand is available at Trader Joe’s in white, wheat, and bagel form.

Gluten-free Restaurant Certification Program Launches in NYC

Soon, you will be able to see “Celiebo Certified Gluten-Free” in windows of your favorite NYC gluten-free eateries.  Celiebo, a gluten-free and celiac advocacy group is launching this program to help make dining a safer experience for gluten-free folks.

I have new favorite gluten-free cookies, “My Dad’s Cookies.”  I found them, surprisingly, at Mozzarelli’s, which I recently visited.  One wall of the pizza joint is littered with boxes of gluten-free cookies.  While waiting for my pizza, I had nothing better to do but stare at the 10+ different varieties, wondering what each would taste like.  Luckily, I didn’t have to wait long to find out as the cashier offered me three (!) samples, baiting me to go for their 3 for $15 promotion.  Although I would normally scoff at a $5 box of cookies (even Girl Scouts don’t charge that much), these were good.

I picked out my three varieties: black & white, to pay homage to the New York city treat; chocolate fudge because, it reminded me of those magical Keebler Elf cookies; and linzer,because its origins are Austrian and so are my fiance’s.  Each was delectable in their own way, having different textures and flavors.  My favorite was the raspberry linzer, whose gooey fruity filling paired perfectly with the light crunchy sugar cookie.  The most telling judgement came from Alex later that evening, who asked me with concern, “Are you sure these are gluten-free?”

I’ve only seen My Dad’s Cookies sold at Mozzarelli’s but you can order them online, which I recommend you do, like, now.

Flash back to summer 2010.  Mozzarelli’s and I were acquaintances then, their frequent free pizza samples were the highlight on my 15 minute walk home from the subway.  The food was nothing special, in fact the only thing that set them apart from the other pizza joints littering 23rd street was a sign advertising gluten-free products.

Flash forward to November 2010 and my diagnosis.  That sign carried a whole new weight.  Mozzarelli’s was the first establishment I knew of in New York City that sold gluten-free products.  One day, when the fridge was empty and I was in need of a quick, inexpensive meal, I called Mozzarrelli’s to place an order for a pie.  Not only did they not deliver to my apartment even though the boundaries were less than a block away, their prices were outrageous.  I hung up the phone, swore that I’d never give them business, and never looked back.

Flash forward again to Tuesday.  I was on my way to my food writing course at the Institute of Culinary Education on 23rd street (more on that later) and needed a quick bite to eat -what better than a slice of pizza?  Even though it pained me slightly, I bit the bullet and bought a $4.95 slice of gluten-free artichoke and spinach pizza from Mozzarelli’s.  I was hoping to be transported back to the time before gluten-free when I tasted the most unusual but delicious combination of foods at Artichoke Pizza.  I wanted so much for this slice to be creamy garlicky goodness, but it fell seriously short.  Mozzarrelli’s artichoke and spinach pie looks like the famous 14th street midnight snack, but that’s where the similarities end.  My pizza was lukewarm and bland.  The only flavor that came through was the slight bitterness of the spinach and artichoke, which was overcooked. The cheese was a confusing mixture of mozzarella and mystery dairy product.  The only good thing about this pizza was the crust, was was in fact, great.  It was crisp on the edges and firm in the middle, without a trace of xanthan-gum’s trademark bitter aftertaste.  A great gluten-free crust is nothing to sneeze at.  Had the flavor and toppings been better on my slice, this pizza could have been magnificent.

Was I disappointed?  Yes.  Was it a bad experience?  No.  Mozzarelli’s is perfect for the gluten-free New Yorker who desperately misses being able to simply, grab a slice of pizza.  I am that New Yorker and if you are too, Mozzarelli’s is your pizza joint.  Heck,  I’ll probably even return to sample another mediocre  slice just for the novelty.

How about you?  Do you miss participating in the quintessential New York eating experience?  Would you eat mediocre pizza just to relive it?