Appetite For Awareness

Last night was the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness's cooking spree in Philadelphia. The spree, called Appetite for Awareness, has major restaurants from Philadelphia and the surrounding area compete to make the best gluten free dish. Attendees can go around sampling gourmet food from over 20 restaurants. Also, at the door, people are given Wegman's reusable grocery bags to fill up with goodies from vendors also participating in the event.

The restaurants included The Capital Grille, Maggiano's, Pasta Pomodoro, and Casona. Some of the vendors were Boar's Head, French Meadow Bakery, Schar, Gluten Free Dreams, and Gluten Free Naturals. And these aren't all of them, only the ones I can remember off the top of my head!

The event was great. I know my Aunt promised to take me to at least one of the more expensive restaurants because she was absolutely in love with the food. They had everything from simple pasta dishes, to duck, to ribs, to a "risotto falafel," to my favorite: chili. I also got to try the food from vendors that I would normally have to mail order products. French Meadow Bakery's products, for example, aren't carried in any of the stores in my area. I read online that they had great gluten free tortillas, and I also saw that they had white sandwich bread, which I tried at Appetite for Awareness. I'm definitely going to buy one of each after tasting their sandwich bread.

The Foundation itself deals with all aspects of Celiac disease. Besides the cooking sprees in various cities (the one in San Fransisco is on October 30th by the way), the NFCA holds workshops for doctors so they can better watch out for an diagnose people with Celiac disease, and they also have a restaurant training program where they train the staff of restaurants how to cook and maintain a gluten free kitchen. The NFCA also puts out a monthly newsletter, as well as a "recipe of the week." Their website also has a ton of reliable resources.

Oh and, cooking sprees are hosted annually, so make sure if you miss this year, to check it out next!