Top Chefs Support Gluten-Free Living

May 9, 2007 — -- Picture chefs in crisp whites, competing en masse in a dizzying display of glimmering cutlery, simmering sauces, with the aroma of baked goods permeating the air.

Now, imagine this culinary ballet without wheat flour.

Although the majority of us may scoff at the idea of tapioca starch pie crust and potato flour cakes, for those with celiac disease at the recent Gluten Free Cooking Spree in Washington, D.C., it was was truly a movable feast.

My personal experience with celiac disease involved only unprovoked fainting spells that occurred periodically during my third year of college while studying abroad in London.

After numerous unexplained episodes of passing out on the Tube, at the Tower of London and while touring Trafalgar Square, I flew home for some medical tests.