Chris Waling, Cakes by Noah
Chris has been working with gluten-free flour for the last 12 years. His son, Noah, was diagnosed with Coeliac Disease at the age of 2, which meant that we needed, as a family, to adapt out diet to accommodate.
There were small changes to make to adapt ‘main’ meals – using gluten free soy sauce in Asian dishes, gluten free plain flour to make cheese sauce for a lasagne – using gluten free pasta. But the main, bigger change and adaptation required, was to how he made and ate cake.
Chris needed then (because what was on offer in the supermarkets was limited and wasn’t great to eat), to use his existing skill and experience of being a chef – of the last 40 years – to re-create cake and bakes.
Finding very quickly, that substituting ‘normal’ ingredients for gluten free flours, was not going to work well. So, with a lot of trial and error, Chris came up with recipes that were not only gluten free and safe for Noah to eat, but that generally, you could not tell the difference!
Chris continues to create and adapt recipes and amend even when there’s not much that is done twice!
An opportunity arose, for Chris to create, edit and publish his own cookbook. It felt like the next natural step in this story. An opportunity to reach more or different people; to share our story and my recipes. Cakes by Noah, Gluten Free Baking, by myself, was published in October 2020.
Currently though only available as a full digital download on Amazon, as Chris has sold out of the hardback, actual, physical book.
Chris has also been very fortunate over the last 5 or 6 years, to have been able to showcase the relative ease of gluten free baking, on stages across various food festivals. Taking to stages in Cheshire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire and Manchester has certainly been an eye opener and allowed Chris to flex his presenting and cooking skills in a very different environment.
And now being able to bring these experiences together in the more intimate environment of the Cookery School, Chris feels like a new and natural step in this continuing story.