Well I guess that's what I get for trying new things. I got glutened!! *huge sigh*
I had heard about this little pizza place that was now serving gluten free pizza. When I hear the words "gluten free pizza" my eyes light up and I get as excited as a kid on Christmas morning! So I finally had some time to go check out this new little gluten free find.
I went yesterday for lunch. I waited until the lunch rush was over (went about 1:30). I figured that would help lessen my chances of a mixed up order and cross-contamination issues. I walked up to the counter to order. I asked the little checkout girl about their gluten free pizzas. They had a sign up saying they "now had gluten free crusts". I asked the girl if all of their toppings were gluten free, she looked at me like a deer caught in headlights (this really should have been my clue to run the other direction). She said that she didn't really know, so I kindly asked her to see if anyone DID know. She went to the kitchen and came back with some info. for me. She said that they weren't sure about their peperoni and meatballs so steer clear of those. Ok fair enough and I ordered my pizza (without either of the offending toppings they had warned me of).
While I was waiting a Mom and her daughter came in, just as excited as I was. The little girl had celiac and was super excited to have some gluten free pizza! The Mom also did some quizzing of the lady taking the orders. She asked her about cross-contamination issues. The lady again had that deer caught in headlights look. I made a mental note that this place could use some staff training if they were going to be doing gluten free. The lady finally just took the Mom back to the kitchen so that she could look at the oven and how things worked. I did give her credit for that, if you can't answer the question then showing the Mom was a good idea. They decided to place their order and sat down to wait.
I told the little girl and her Mom that I was excited too. We had a little conversation about celiac, and I went back to waiting for my pizza. Shortly my pizza came out, it smelled amazing, looked good. I could hardly wait to dig in!
It looks really good right? Don't be fooled!
I ate a couple pieces of my pizza, shut the lid on the box and went on my merry way. About 20 minutes later I wasn't feeling so great. I won't bore you with the details of that, but I will say that I got glutened.
I should have run screaming out of the little pizza place when I encountered the first staff member who hadn't been trained at all. I gave them the benefit of the doubt. Evidently the kitchen staff hasn't been any more well trained than the counter staff. *big sigh*
So I spent the evening feeling yucky. I couldn't sleep last night at all. I think I maybe got 2 hours of sleep. I felt horrible. It was all over a dumb pizza. So now what? Monday morning I will be making a call to the cute little pizza place. I will be letting them know that I got sick from their pizza, but that I am calling so that they can fix it. I know that I am not the only person going to this establishment and coming out not feeling so great. I want to educate them on cross contamination and ways they could avoid it. I don't want them to STOP making gluten free pizza. I want them to educate their staff, research their toppings so they KNOW what is gluten free, and produce some pizza that doesn't make a person sick.
I'll keep you posted on how that goes, but for now I'll be sleeping off this gluten coma. UGH!
-Jessica
Ooooooh i know exactly how you feel. I got a pizza at the mellow mushroom in tampa ... near west chase and got glutened. i was assured it was gluten free. their servers were clueless ... i took a chance and got glutened too. it so totally sucks to get glutened.
ReplyDeletei don't think your pizza place will care when you complain ... but good luck getting through to them ... i really hope you can.
i suppose our biggest challenge is the ignorance ... hopefully it will change as time goes by.
I called the little pizza shop yesterday. I spoke with the Manager. Keep in mind that this is a little Mom and Pop type place. It is not a chain. The manager said that I am the second person that he had spoke with within a week that had issues after eating the gluten free pizza. He said that they obviously are missing something with the gluten free. I told him about my experience there. I offered some suggestions on things they could look into to find the mistakes. I told him I didn't want them to STOP making pizza...only fix it. He was very receptive and appreciative. I left my name and phone number and told him I would be happy to help if they needed further assistance.He said that the owner or himself would probably be calling me soon. I felt good about the call.
ReplyDeleteI realize that this post is almost exactly a year old, but still...
ReplyDeleteIf you'd like, I could contact this restaurant and tell them about gluten-free training. I work with a company that does online allergy and gluten-free training for chefs, restaurants, schools, and universities. It's not expensive at all and so worth it.
I have a small child that cannot have gluten so I know the frustration!
Let me know if I can help! shannon@kitchenswithconfidence.com