Not having to pack lunch is an alien concept to me
Gluten Free Kitchen in Stockport is offering people like me a chance to eat out without fear(Image: )
A bakery like this may leave some visitors confused. But for people like myself, it provides assurances that are continuously denied when trying to locate safe food in Manchester.
The menu at Gluten Free Kitchen in Cheadle Heath can be enjoyed by anyone. Yet in banning gluten-containing food from entering the premises, it makes it an unusually stress-free experience.
It offers a 100% gluten-free (GF) menu catering to people who live with coeliac disease, an autoimmune condition estimated to affect one in 100 people living in the UK. For those living with this condition, their body attacks its own cells in response to eating merely a crumb of gluten.
A speck of wheat flour surpasses the threshold that a coeliac’s body can tolerate by a vast measure, which is where Gluten-Free Kitchen, run by coeliac Jess Davids and her partner Elliot Williams, enter the fray. The business owners previously took artisan markets by storm before opening up their first location in Stockport, opposite the town’s newest Greggs. Shortly after, the couple noticed that gluten-free customers were being dropped off then picked up by their gluten-eating friends and family.
I have lived with coeliac disease for just over a year now and I can vividly recall the ease and spontaneity with which I used to eat on-the-go. My social life now revolves around meticulous research and planning ahead when dinner is on the cards; eating from any kitchen that contains gluten is a constant and serious risk to my health.
The ‘allergy driven’ café is on Stockport Road in Cheadle Heath(Image: Jason Roberts /Manchester Evening News)
As I left the house to visit Gluten-Free Kitchen, I did so without packing lunch – something which is now a very alien concept to me. When my friends or co-workers go out to eat, it’s a near certainty that I won’t be able to join them. Now, this young couple have given the coeliac community of Stockport and beyond, a group so used to being left out of lunchtime excursions, a safe haven to eat in.
What first struck me when I entered was the size of the menu. Gluten-Free Kitchen offers multiple variations of a breakfast sandwich, toastie, even a salad, on top of their large range of cakes, bakes and pastries. For sweet treats, customers can try anything from traditional cookies, to fruit cake variations, to lemon meringues.
I opted for a bacon sandwich, a croissant and an unusually shaped ‘snowball’ cookie. I also tried their ham and cheese toastie for better judgement on the bread’s quality (bread often being another alien concept to me). While eating the bacon sandwich, I watched as customers entered the café and saw the rapport that Jess and Elliot had built with their customer base.
The unusually shaped ‘snowball’ cookie, at £4, was a delight(Image: )
Visitors often resumed a previous conversation at the till, presumably from the day, week or month before. The team at Gluten-Free Kitchen remembered everyone, down to their usual orders, and it’s clearly this sense of community that distinguishes the bakery even beyond its menu.
The sandwich (£5) itself was a delight – soft, fluffy bread that far exceeds the typically low standard for gluten-free products. Their toastie, priced at £5.50, was no different, reminding me of a summer during my college years when our family bought a George Foreman. Bread is a luxury for those on a gluten-free diet, something this Stockport eatery knows well and is clearly committed to overcoming.
A staple breakfast classic missed in mass by the coeliac community is the humble croissant, which has been made to near perfection by the young bakers. Gluten-free ingredients often produce a crumbly texture, yielding sandwiches and bakes that could be torn apart by a soft breeze. Their take on a croissant – at a slightly eye-opening £5 – was gentle but firm, a melt-in-your-mouth option that held together fascinatingly well.
The kitchen sells a variety of cookies, croissants, cakes and pastries(Image: )
Their ‘snowball’ cookie – a hefty dollop of chocolate cream sandwiched between two lofty cookies – was also a hit. For the sheer mass of it, £4 was reasonable for a delicious sweet treat certain to fill anyone up. That value for money was evident across almost their whole menu, a lovely gesture in an industry with such thin margins, especially knowing that gluten-free products are often more costly to make.
It’s also worth noting that the so-called ‘coeliac tax’ is a documented issue that continues to persist within the food industry, and a small business like Gluten-Free Kitchen is doing their best to combat it. Coeliac UK released a report in April 2024 revealing that people following a gluten-free diet have to pay up to 35% more for a basket containing the same essential food items as in a gluten-containing basket due to the cost of not only ingredients, but also down to the need for separate kitchen spaces.
This independent bakery is an invaluable service to the coeliac community from a wonderful team who understand intimately the struggles faced by the gluten-free population. Stockport should be proud to be home to a business so necessary.
Gluten Free Kitchen is on 236 Stockport Road, Stockport, SK3 0LX.