Friday, November 2, 2007

Gluten- Free Pizza at Aurelio's-UPDATE

UPDATE_ Please read response by Kris in the comment section. I will forward all info to Team Aurelios"s. What Kris and her husband discovered is scary-so please be aware that if you choose to eat out at ANYWHERE, there is ALWAYS the possible (and probable) cross contamination issues! I have eaten the GF pizza at Aurelios, and did not have any outward reactions, but that doesn't mean that I didn't ingest gluten due to cross contamination issues.

All Aurelio's locations now carry a gluten- free personal size pizza. I have had the gluten-free pizza in Frankfort, IL, and was told by fellow celiacs that other locations were now carrying them. I recently wrote to Aurelio's and "John" from the Aurelio's Team told me that all locations now serve gluten - free pizza.

It has been rumored that a member of the Aurelio's Team has a relative with Celiac Disease and that is why they developed a gluten- free pizza. The pizza is good and the crust is thicker than what I like. If Aurelio's could use the same thin crust that Foods by George uses for their pizza, they would have a real winner.

I am not sure how each location handles cross contamination issues. Are they using a separate spoon and sauce bowl? Do they change gloves or wash their hands before they make the gluten -free pizza? Can they assure us that all ingredients are safe and have not come into contact with any wheat (gluten)? These are issues that I think we need to think about and share with the restaurants that we patronize.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

My husband is celiac and his whole family lives in Chicagoland. We were excited to learn about the GF pizza at Aurelio's but out of bad past experiences and suspicion, we called both the store in Crete and (sorry) Frankfort to get more info.
They use all the same prep surfaces, all the same pans and the same pizza cutters as the gluten pizzas. They were totally clueless about anything. Of course, my husband spoke with the managers at both locations informing them they need to either provide a clean, GF area for the pizzas or they'd have to post a disclaimer that their GF products are definitely contaminated and the risk of illness or death was the customer's risk.
I think the seriousness of celiac may have gotten through ... a little bit.

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www.YourDinnerSecret.com

jenn p. said...

i leave near the chicago location of aurelio's and have had two friends bring it to my attention that they have a gf pizza crust. do you know if there has been any improvement? should i even bother going in and trying to talk to them and eat their food? i'm sure you know that sometimes the hassle isn't even worth it compared to cooking a kinnikinik crust in my own oven.

Knitting is Gluten Free said...

I had the GF Pizza at Aurelio's in Schererville, Indiana two weeks ago -- no problems, and I am highly sensitive.