Kind people are always offering to get us a “gluten-free pizza”. Local pizza parlors are offering “gluten-free” pizza. The problem is that pizza, more so than virtually any product besides bread requires that flour be aerated as part of the production process. If that flour is wheat flour then quite honestly none of the gluten-free pizzas are going to meet my standards.
So I was very excited to read that California Pizza Kitchen is rolling out at new process that will make truly gluten-free pizza a reality.
CPK has made a lot of accomodations from special gloves to using rice flour for rolling out and tossing all of its pizzas so flour will still be in the air, but it will now be rice flour and not wheat flour.
The composition of the crust appears to also avoid cornstarch which is an unfortunate staple in many gluten-free foods. I say that because there is some evidence that many celiacs are also intolerant of corn and because over 90% of the corn grown in the USA is genetically modified. In addition the crust is dairy-free.
I am going to have to check it out myself before we take my son in for some pizza, but even if the stuff is cheese free I think just the whole idea of eating at a chain pizza place will make him smile. I am very hopeful that by the time he is in high school and looking forward to eating out with friends that he will have choices.
Oddly when I checked the allergen menu ever single pizza including pepperoni contained soy. I don’t know if they use some soy based cheeses or how the soy gets into everything (soybean oil in the crust is my best guess) but this product is unlikely to be safe for those with soy allergies.
If you want to read more about the pizza and the process which has been blessed by GiG, the best article I found on it came from the Restaurant News Network.
http://nrn.com/food-trends/cpk-offers-gluten-free-pizza-safe-celiac-sufferers
