Gowanus Bakery Whips Up Yummy Treats For The Gluten-Intolerant Crowd
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A pair of bakers in the Gowanus section of Brooklyn create their goods without gluten, but they say their specialty is due to necessity rather than health fads. NY1's Health reporter Kafi Drexel filed the following report. Baking up hundreds of deli rolls at a time and more, one could say that Pedro Arroba and Bruce Bassman, who own and run the small business Everybody Eats in Gowanus, Brooklyn, came to their calling out of necessity.
"We came up with this company because I'm a celiac. I have celiac disease, it is an intolerance to gluten. Gluten is a vegetable protein in wheat, barley and rye," says Arroba.
Not only are their products, ranging from baguettes and pizzas to even brownies and cookies, gluten-free, but they are also free of ground and tree nuts, soy, seed and pod plants.
Because the baked goods do not have preservatives, they are frozen and shipped out to retail stores, restaurants and other customers. Once heated or toasted, products are ready to eat.
Gluten-free eating has clearly made its mark. While that's good thing for business, Arroba and Bassman still have mixed emotions about the trend it seems to have become.
"There's this kind of 'fad' eating thing going on. People latch on to things because they believe it will help them. Recently we have sports figures and celebrities claiming all kinds of benefits. They are not diagnosed," says Bassman. "We don't think that is much help to the gluten-free community, because it is a serious disease and should be taken seriously. If you go off the diet, you can get very sick."
"We believe that gluten is wonderful and if I could eat gluten, I would," says Arroba. "We are not experts or doctors, we are just cooks and bakers and we create this to make the celiac happier and gluten-intolerant people happier. We are not sure if people would be doing better, being without gluten."
What they say they are sure of is the quality of their products. While a lot of gluten-free products are often flat and tasteless, Arroba and Bassman work their dough up to crisp and crunchy breads.
Other than being "g-free," these bakers are not revealing their secret any time soon. The answer might be in the handiwork.