ASK-the-CHEF

Gluten-free cooking can be quite the challenge, so the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness has teamed up with one of America's Top Chefs to help you figure it all out!

Edgar Steele began his culinary career as the Executive Assistant Weenie at Hot Dog Heaven in the small town of Amherst, Ohio. To Edgar, this promotion was a huge step in his career and represented a crucial element in his quest to prove to his high school English teacher that he was not destined to be a ferryboat captain as his professional aptitude test had suggested.

Armed with a wealth of experience in hot dog handling and a newfound passion for food, Edgar boarded a plane for New York and enrolled in the Culinary Institute of America (CIA). During his two years at the CIA, Edgar took courses in pastry making, breakfast and lunch cookery, baking ingredients and equipment technology, cuisines of the Americas, Europe and Asia, food culture, specialty breads, table service, seafood and meat identification and fabrication, psychology of human behavior, restaurant law, restaurant operations, wine and food pairing, and most importantly nutrition.

Shortly after graduation, Edgar began working for Cafe Atlantico, a trendy restaurant in Washington, D.C. that serves "contemporary signature cuisine inspired by the Nuevo Latino style." The kitchen is based upon cooking traditions from Latin America and the menu displays "playfulness and innovation." To learn more about Cafe Atlantico, please visit www.cafeatlantico.com.

As the NFCA Chef Spokesperson, Edgar will help develop and test recipes for the next book in the Beyond Rice Cakes series and will create delicious recipes that everyone can enjoy at home. These will all be posted online!

Most importantly, Edgar will be working directly with all of you. So, if you have culinary questions, fill out the form below and Edgar will write you back with expert gluten-free cooking advice!!