To mark Coeliac Awareness Month, Sarah Heward, owner of The Real Food Café in Tyndrum, shares how adding gluten free has transformed her business into one of the UK’s leading destinations for coeliac-friendly fish and chips
When Sarah Heward first introduced gluten free fish and chips to the menu at The Real Food Café in Tyndrum back in 2007, few operators were aware of coeliac disease, let alone catered for it. But for Sarah, the decision was personal.
“My cousin is a coeliac and I felt sorry for him because he couldn’t really eat out anywhere in those days,” she comments. “So I said to him, I’m going to make gluten free fish and chips.”
With no commercial gluten free batter available at the time, Sarah developed her own recipe using gram flour and ensured it was fried separately in a standalone fryer to avoid cross-contamination.
“I probably sold about one every two weeks, but the people that I was selling it to, when they saw it on the menu, they were crying. And they were coming from miles for it, I’m talking hundreds of miles.”
Located in the remote Scottish Highlands, The Real Food Café is celebrating its 20th year in business. Sales of gluten free fish and chips brought in £86,000 last year alone.
“That’s 3.4% of sales, which I know sounds small, but these people don’t come alone,” adds Sarah. “They buy drinks and desserts, and they tell others. It’s probably closer to £400,000 when you consider everything.”
Sarah attributes the growth in gluten free to approaching it with the right attitude. “You can’t do this half-heartedly,” she stresses. “You must have training for your team. It’s absolutely crucial.”
The Real Food Café is accredited by Coeliac UK, with annual unannounced audits, training and membership costing the business around £1,200 a year. It’s just one of several investments Sarah has made, others include dedicated utensils, specialist ingredients and even aprons.
Seven years ago Sarah also upgraded her frying range to a five pan high efficiency Kiremko featuring a dedicated gluten free pan. “Whereas before I had a separate fryer for gluten free, this brought everything in one line, which made it so much more efficient. And the quality of our gluten free fish was a step up too because of the high efficiency pans on our Kiremko.”
The gluten free pan has a stainless steel divide, a filtration system and a dedicated hot box. “It eliminates any cross-contamination,” says Sarah. “That’s crucial because it’s all about building a reputation for safety and integrity. The coeliac community is incredibly loyal and vocal when you get it right.”
The service offered by KFE has also lived up to the demands of The Real Food Cafe’s remote Highland location. “Given where we are, service backup is critical. We’re open seven days a week, people travel miles to come to us and they rely on us being open when we say we are going to be.
“When we do have to close for something, I need absolute reliability from my suppliers, because I will tell customers well in advance that we’re going to close. KFE always give me that reliability. Their response times are always very good and if it is something major, they often arrange it overnight so we don’t have to close at all.”
Whilst Sarah acknowledges that gluten free might not be right for all operators, she believes it provides an opportunity for quieter shops looking to develop their business – but stressed it has to be done properly.
“Invest in the right equipment and training and be absolutely confident about what you can charge,” she says. “Our standard fish and chips are £14.25, our gluten free are £15.25. Costs have gone up an awful lot so if you’re adding on to your cost base, you’ve got to still create the margin.”
