Cooking With Restrictions

Hello World!

My name is Hailee Danner. I am a Chef, an Artist (Martial artist and with paint/pencils/etc.), a mother of 4, and the wife of a doctor.

I didn’t choose the gluten free life, the gluten free life chose me.

I had just graduated culinary school from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. Life was good. I had learned how to make incredible bread, and fresh pasta. I had eaten some of the most incredible food. I was excited to show the world what I could do! …But then I started noticing stomach issues. I went to the doctor and they suggested getting a scope to see what was going on. They thought my absorption issues might be 1 of 4 things: Gallstones, Cancer, Celiac Disease, and one other thing that I don’t remember. I would have bet my life on the fact that it WAS NOT Celiac Disease. “I eat bread all the time [it was it’s own food group in my diet] and I feel fine”, I thought to myself. Which honestly only made the stress worse. Because that gave a higher chance to cancer. So really I was just praying for anything but that. So when the diagnosis came back positive for Celiac Disease I was in denial. It took me about 6 months to finally give in and go 100% gluten free. And that’s when I started to notice a difference. I was slowly getting better. I wasn’t sick all the time. And life was good.

Or so I thought. About 3 years after my Celiac diagnosis, I noticed I still wasn’t 100%. I was feeling better, but something was off still. I was tired all the time. Hungry all the time. And just over all felt blah. I went to a specialist that would test everything. And 16 vials of blood later, I was diagnosed with a parasite, Hoshimoto’s Disease, SIBO (Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth), and 2 forms of the MTHFR gene mutation (that’s right, the “mother f-er”). We treated the parasite first, and then I found out I was pregnant. However, my thyroid was fine — so I questioned the Hoshimoto’s Disease. I tried a bunch of different diets and was still in denial about the Hoshimoto’s when a friend suggested a clinic she had seen for her Hoshimoto’s. So I figured they could at least let me know if I do in fact have the disease. It was positive and I went through their program and found a lot of really good results from that. It’s not perfect, and I still have to watch the way I eat. But I have come to find that cooking with dietary restrictions, although difficult, is necessary for many people to feel better. I can say with a surety that I feel better when I eat Gluten Free, Dairy Free (mostly – I can eat cheese and yogurt without an inflammatory response, but everything else my body reacts to), refined sugar free (natural sugars from fruit, pure maple syrup, honey, and stevia I can do) and the less processed/preservatives it is the better. Now eating like this is super easy when I am making my own food, but eating at other’s homes or out at restaurants makes this more difficult. So I either bring my own food, or just focus on gluten free and dairy free if possible.

My goals have changed.
After I originally graduated from the CIA, I wanted to get into catering and open up my own catering business. And although I still may do that, my goals have changed over the years. With all the struggles I had with my health and the lack of food options with dietary restrictions, my goal is to one day open a restaurant that caters to dietary restrictions, so that everyone can find something to eat. In the mean time, I hope to share my knowledge, recipes, and life with others to hopefully make this journey enjoyable.