When we first started, we were just steps away from opening the doors to a fresh food store and market. It was to include a kitchen and bake shop offering everything from bread and cookies to take-away meals. The concept was based on real, whole, come-from-the-ground, food; however, it was not gluten free.
The market was going to sell fresh organic vegetables, and sustainably and humanely raised meats from small, local farms. All of our suppliers were in place and we were nearly all set to open.
Just before we were set to open, Brent discovered he had celiac disease. First of all, we thought gluten was mostly about bread and pasta. Well, we did some digging, and boy were we wrong. So, two months before we opened, we had to completely change everything, while keeping true to our original concept based on real, whole, come-from-the-ground, food. Back to the drawing board, so to speak. It was certainly a challenge, but there was no way we could produce or sell food that one of us couldn’t even eat.
At the same point we knew that Brent couldn’t be the only one. Everyone seemed to have some reason to see the pharmacist on a regular basis; headache, stomach problems, heartburn, rashes, whatever the ailment, there was a pill.
The more we researched, the more we realized that, not only is there confusion about celiac disease itself, people were (and are still are) fairly hard pressed to find any real food that was gluten free.
Every label we read was full of of things we couldn’t pronounce and sure didn’t sound like actual food. At that point we knew we had an opportunity to feed people real food. As cooks, we were confident we could produce food made from food. Our goal was to use the highest quality, cleanest, road less traveled, product we could find. Little did we know that this would turn out to be an original concept in the gluten-free world.
And from there, People Food™ was born. It was a challenge, but the results were worth it.