Gluten-free consulting

A Red Seal chef who ran a gluten-free program that people drove hours for.

Menu development, kitchen protocol and staff training for restaurants and food operators. Twelve years of running the program in a working kitchen, not a certification course and a binder.

What you are actually buying.

Certification

Certified Red Seal Chef — the trade journeyperson standard.

Operator experience

Twelve years as owner-operator of a full-service restaurant.

Proof

A gluten-free program customers travelled from Vancouver for, run daily through service.

Delivery

Remote or on-site. Not limited to British Columbia.

Operators, not event hosts.

Restaurants

Independent operators who keep turning away coeliac guests, or who are serving them without being confident about it.

Commercial kitchens

Production and ghost kitchens adding a gluten-free line without contaminating the rest of the operation.

Care facilities

Long-term care, retirement residences and hospitals, where the resident cannot advocate for themselves and the stakes are medical.

Food manufacturers

Small producers converting recipes and preparing for a certification audit.

Event venues

Hotels and venues whose banquet kitchens need a protocol their casual staff can actually follow on a Saturday night.

Named components, not a vague engagement.

Menu development and recipe conversion

Which dishes convert cleanly, which never will, and what to put on in their place. Converted recipes are costed and tested on your equipment, not in theory.

Kitchen protocol and cross-contamination audit

A walk-through of storage, prep flow, equipment, fryers and service, ending in a written protocol specific to your line — not a generic policy document.

Staff training

One session for the line and one for front of house, because the failure is usually a server saying yes to something they should have checked. Delivered in your kitchen, in your language.

Supplier and ingredient sourcing

Which products are actually safe, which suppliers answer questions properly, and where the hidden gluten sits in things you already buy.

Certification readiness

If you are pursuing third-party certification, preparation of the documentation and process an auditor will ask for. I do not issue certification and cannot grant it.

How the work is structured.

Engagement model

One-off audit — a half or full day on site, ending in a written protocol and a training session. Most operators need only this.
Menu project — two to six weeks, recipe conversion and testing, priced as a project.
Ongoing retainer — monthly check-ins, new-hire training and menu changes reviewed before they go on.
Remote — audits from your photos, floor plan and spec sheets, with training by video. Works well outside the Lower Mainland.

Jan's on the Beach — a gluten-free program that paid for itself.

The problem

A full-service beach restaurant turning away or under-serving a group of guests who ate out constantly and travelled to do it — and who tell each other everything.

What was built

Most of the menu made convertible, dedicated equipment and prep zones, a written protocol the whole line worked to, and front-of-house trained to answer without guessing.

The result

Regulars driving in from Vancouver and the Valley, coeliac families booking their celebrations there, and a reputation in that community that outlasted the restaurant itself.

What the program was worth to the guests it was built for.

Zebra Alwayszebra · Google review · 2021

Best menu for celiac people. Almost everything on the menu is gluten-free, it's a restaurant where a celiac person can have an appy, main course and dessert.

David Neville · Google review · 2023

The GF fish and chips are the best, don't be fooled by the batter even my non celiac friends say it's better than non gf batter.

sarahk48 · Google review · 2020

My daughter is celiac, and Jan's is the only place I truly trust eating out.

These are reviews of Jan's on the Beach — the program described above, running daily through service. More of them are on the reviews page.

The things owners ask before they commit.

Disruption

An audit runs during a normal service day — I need to see the kitchen working, not empty
Training is usually a pre-shift session. Nothing closes.
A single-location restaurant is usually ready in two to four weeks

Staff and value

Staff resist policies handed down without reason, not a chef who has run the line showing them why the tongs matter
It is a revenue exercise that also reduces liability
Coeliac diners eat out in groups, choose the venue for the whole table, and come back weekly when they trust you

Scope

I am not a certifying body and I will never claim to be
I build the protocol and prepare you for an audit if you want one
Menu conversion, protocol design and documentation all work remotely