For some people, going green revolves around food. Supporting sustainability and putting healthy, organic and local options on the table is often easier said than done.
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1. So what is your name?
B: My name is Elizabeth Bell Elper, but you can call me Betty.
2. And how are you involved in the restaurant?
B: I am the baker and the owner.
3. And what’s your name?
Z: Zachary Bello, and I am the executive chef here.
4. So tell me, for people who don’t know anything about the restaurant, what’s the basic premise behind the development – or the restaurant?
B: Well we are the Balanced Kitchen, and we’re 100 percent vegan and gluten-free. And we’re just, you know, trying…
Z: That really is the focus – being gluten-free and vegan and green and natural.
B: Yeah, that’s the focus. As long as everything is that, we’re all right with it. We are also trying to be very local. With the food that we use and with the amount of business we want to do, we don’t want this, a lot of gluten-free business is distance. There are not very many local, gluten-free businesses. So that’s what we’re trying to do.
5. For someone who has no idea what gluten is, how would you describe it?
B: Gluten is a protein that is found in wheat, barley, malt, rye, kaput, spelt.
6. And, so what would you say are some of the things to avoid for the normal human being if they have celiac disease or gluten intolerance?
B: Things to avoid? Anything that has those products in it. Well the obvious is bread, pasta – no traditional bread and pasta. But there are so many things that have gluten in them. Like soy sauce, which is horrible. But you can have tamari, which is good. But wheat-free tamari. And most baked goods – and also with vegan – I mean there are lots of things that you can’t eat. But it’s not really about what you can’t eat. You’re only really cutting out a few things from your diet. There are so many more things that you can eat. And I don’t know, I mean – I like to learn about new foods and explore things. And I feel like as a vegan and someone who does have a slightly restricted diet, you have to want to explore. To be excited about it.
Z: Yeah, to keep the excitement and then especially as a chef and a vegan now, who relies on protein and meat – for their flavor – I mean that’s where they get the bulk of their flavor. And they’re sort of very reliant on that product, and so as a vegan chef, now I have to explore bringing more flavors from the vegetables. You know, I have to incorporate flavor in different ways.
B: You have to be more inventive.
Z: Yeah, I’ve really had to push myself very hard to – not necessarily be experimental – because that’s very easy to just go out and try things. As a chef, I would eat anything. But to cook without those things, which are the moneymakers for chefs, has been a real challenge. It’s been a lot of fun.
7. Is Chicago progressive in the sense that more people – I mean do you think more people are turning to a gluten-free diet and that’s why they’re demanding restaurants like this?
B: There’s a slightly more – I mean especially gluten-free is growing a lot.
Z: There’s a huge awareness because diagnosis is becoming an important thing, especially for gluten intolerance and celiac.
B: And just the word gluten is out there.
Z: Yeah, and also all the people who are living a healthy lifestyle are learning about what gluten does to their body and knowing that it’s not good for their body – and deciding to cut it out because they want to be healthy.
B: And I mean a lot of people are more interested in the environment. The average person is becoming more interested because of popularized movies but it gets them excited.
