Food & Drink

Entertaining Expert Heather Christo Debuts Cookbook of Allergen-Free Recipes

Local cookbook author gets creative with alternative ingredients

By Jessica Yadegaran May 24, 2016

Pure delicious cookbook.

This article originally appeared in the June 2016 issue of Seattle magazine.

In 2014, caterer and entertaining expert Heather Christo and her two young daughters were diagnosed with severe food allergies following years of unresolved health problems.

For a classically trained chef and food blogger (heatherchristo.com), it was a strange situation. “I had built a career on goopy cakes and creamy pastas,” recalls Christo during a recent interview in her home at the top of Queen Anne. “I felt like I had to come out to my readers that I no longer ate or cooked with gluten, dairy or eggs.” Since then, Christo has redirected her passion for food into creating wholesome, allergen-free recipes that taste like nothing is missing. She chronicles her journey in her new cookbook, Pure Delicious: 150 Delectable Allergen-Free Recipes (Pam Krauss Books, $30), which debuted in May and features breakfast, lunch and dinner recipes: everything from beer-braised brisket to waffles and, yes, chocolate cake.

In conjunction with Heathermade, her line of certified gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, egg-free, tree-nut free, peanut-free and vegan baked goods available at Costco, Christo hopes to help educate her followers and make the transition to allergen-free eating as free of challenges as possible. Sounds tasty to us.

 

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