Montreal baker reinvents her art after Celiac disease diagnosis [Video]

Eight years ago, Lauren McGowan found out she had Celiac disease.

As a baker, the Montrealer says the diagnosis didn’t just change her life personally — but also professionally.

The 32-year-old says after first coming to terms with the parameters of her new life, she realized she would now have to relearn everything she thought she knew about baking.

“The intuition and the knowledge weren’t there anymore,” she explains. “Everything reacts so differently. I spent a lot of time developing and figuring out recipes.”

Celiac disease is caused by an immune reaction to eating gluten, a protein in many foods containing wheat, barley or rye.

With her newfound knowledge, McGowan says she launched her bakery, Violet Bakehouse, in 2020, dedicated to all the “allergy kids” in our lives.

“Just being, like, the kid at the party with the allergies that everybody’s like, ‘Oh, does the allergy kid have food?’ ‘Do they …