Pascha Hansen

Chance and I were baking for Farmers’ Markets, and he became an amazing baker at the age of sixteen, making everything from; doughnuts, Danishes, fancy breads, cookies, cakes, and croissants. We were an amazing team, and we loved baking. The rug got pulled out from under me in 2010 when a naturopath, told me to get off the bread, just give up gluten. I was in shock. How in the world was I going to give up gluten? The next day was the first day I went without gluten. I had been feeling sick and nauseous whether I had a meal or not. I was so puffy and felt awful all the time with no energy. I was sick for so many years. My first day without gluten, I felt amazing. My first gluten-free meal was at McDonald’s—a couple of meat patties, some fries with a sundae. I couldn’t believe that I wasn’t sick even though I hadn’t eaten for six hours. I had energy. Chance couldn’t even keep up with me. I felt like my life had just started. I was so excited. But we were still baking. It was no big deal, I just wouldn’t eat any of it, and I didn’t. I was working with some cinnamon bun dough, flour flew into the air when I dropped the dough. Within seconds, my throat started to burn, and then I lost my voice. Within ten or so minutes, I was in the living room doubled over with incredible pain in my stomach. It was crazy. I wore a mask from then on when I panned the baking. We started noticing Chance was getting more crazy nosebleeds, in the middle of the night or even if he was just sitting there. No one could help us figure out what was going on. They all just blamed him. One day before a book signing, we went to a doughnut shop, and he enjoyed some doughnuts. It was his first gluten in a few days. The next day, at our book signing, he got a huge nosebleed. He would get three of them within two days, and they could last up to two to three hours so, we kind of put one and one together and came up with gluten. So that was the end of our baking. That was when he figured he would put all his effort into writing books and asked me to illustrate for him. Well, that was easier, but we both missed the baking. Going gluten-free felt overwhelming. It felt like a kick to the stomach, and there was nothing to eat. This was at a time when allergy-friendly foods and brands were very rare. Only health food stores had a small supply of various gluten-free flours. As we slowly figured out how to be creative, we had all kinds of good gluten-free foods to eat. I was getting pretty good at making some of the recipes, but Chance passion had died. This is how our adventure started.