Crossed Grain

WWW.COELIAC.ORG.UK 25 Since her MasterChef triumph in 2016, Jane Devonshire has been busy writing a new gluten free cookbook full of mouth watering recipes for all the family (and all checked by Coeliac UK). But creating delicious gluten free dishes is just the tip of the iceberg – we talk to her about family, food, and the future for people with coeliac disease. C hatting with Jane Devonshire is like chatting with an old friend. She’s easy going and so very personable, the conversation flows naturally. And it always circles back to one thing: food. Whether she’s talking about her cooking or the difficulty of finding gluten free meals on the go, it couldn’t be clearer how passionate she is about all things culinary. And it’s easy to see why – coming from a family of cooks, food is more than just sustenance, it’s a key part of family life. “To me food has always been so incredibly inclusive and I’ve grown up in a family that always ate together,” says Jane. “And I have taken that on with my own family. I’m a huge believer that being round the table with food is so important to family life.” That much is abundantly clear from the recipes in her new cookbook Hassle Free, Gluten Free – from movie night nibbles to quick midweek meals, there’s a dish for every occasion and enough variety to accommodate everyone’s preferences. This is no accident – only one of Jane's children is diagnosed with coeliac disease: “I have three other children who can moan like ‘why do we have to eat it, just because he has to?’” she explains, “But I really wanted to make the same food for Ben. So no one has ever walked into my house thinking ‘oh no we have to eat gluten free’, but instead they just say ‘I love your food’.” Going gluten free when son Ben was diagnosed 14 years ago was more of a relief than anything else. “People look at me askance when I say how relieved I was when we found out Ben had coeliac disease, but I was genuinely scared he had something worse. Because he was so ill and he looked so thin, and so grey. He was very young – he was two and we’d been fighting for a diagnosis. So when we found it out was something food based it was a relief to me. Because I know food.” Many people find the prospect of adapting to the gluten free diet a bit daunting. But Jane’s love of cooking allowed her to throw herself into this new way of life: “At the time, I just embraced the gluten free diet because I had to. And bless him, Ben probably lived on sultanas and fruit at first. You start with the basics and you start branching out. At the time, there were so few gluten free foods and none of them were very good so you had to do it yourself.” This ‘do it yourself’ spirit has resulted in an array of gluten free alternative recipes which wouldn’t normally be an option for people with coeliac disease. This is a result of Jane’s conviction that no one should have to feel isolated due to their gluten free diet: “It wasn’t until Ben’s diagnosis came along that I realised how incredibly alienating coeliac disease can be. Especially at children’s parties – it can be heartbreaking when your child doesn’t get an invite because they’re all going to McDonald’s before the cinema. You send them along with their own lunch pack but children want to look the same. I’d always fill it up with special treats so that he felt better about it, but even so you’re always looking different. And then sometimes there would be pizza making parties he couldn’t do and it’s very distressing, and suddenly you realise how core food is to social situations. We decided that at home Ben would never have to feel alienated or different, and that we would all eat gluten free there.” It’s not just the social isolation that comes with coeliac disease and gluten free that Jane wants to combat. “I want to campaign for the fact that gluten free shouldn’t have to be tasteless. I get frustrated at restaurants when all you get given is fruit. There’s more you can do with gluten free, but it’s an education process.” When it comes to catering and gluten free food on the go, advancements like Coeliac UK’s GF accreditation, catering training, apps and the general increase of awareness have helped, but there’s still a way to go. “Gluten free food can be prohibitively expensive,” Jane observes. ALL ABOUT JANE RECIPES