Carol, who owns Finney’s in Benllech with her husband Mike, discusses the increasing demand for gluten free fish and chips and how it has led to a menu where 85% of the dishes can be enjoyed by coeliacs
We opened our takeaway back in 2009 but it wasn’t until 2016 that we moved over to frying solely gluten free fish and chips. It was by accident really, my father-in-law designed the signage for the shop, which at the time was called Golden Fry, and put the initials GF on the front. We had so many people asking if we did gluten free fish and chips that eventually we thought it was a market we should be catering for.
Since then we’ve continually been surprised by the amount of coeliacs that come in daily. Some travel over 200 miles – that’s customers that potentially wouldn’t have come here if it wasn’t for a member in their group being coeliac. And that’s the thing, it’s never just one person coming in on their own, it’s generally with three or four people that aren’t coeliacs, so we’ve gained four customers from that one.
Gradually we have extended our menu and now about 85% is gluten free as standard. I love seeing our customers’ faces when we tell them the variety of things we do. They are shocked and happy, and often don’t know what to have because there is so much choice. Some of those customers come back three or four times a week because it’s so hard for them to find somewhere they can confidently eat safely.
We make a lot of the menu items ourselves. It might sound like we are creating more work but we aren’t because we already have many of the ingredients. Our fishcakes, for example, we make from the fish trims so we are reducing waste. With the cheese and onion fritters, we have the onions, cheese and potatoes already. Even the chicken curry, we’ve got chicken for the southern fried chicken, and the curry sauce so we just put it together. And by doing it ourselves we can control the cost of an item, which is important as buying gluten free products can be expensive – although it has improved. 
If we create a gluten free version of a gluten containing product we always make it look different. For example, we’ve just done a burger pitta patty, which is a burger in a gluten free pitta bread. That way there’s no chance of products being mixed up. And our frying is range is dedicated to cooking gluten free items – the few gluten-containing products are cooked in a separate fryer out the back. We do have to keep those items warm so we have a hot box on the range for them that has no holes in so oil can’t drain back into a pan.
Going gluten free has been great, I know not every shop can do it, but it’s the way forward for us as we are creating another customer base.
If anyone is thinking about adding gluten free, I would recommend speaking to their EHO. Ours has been fantastic, she has given us a lot of pointers and she regularly comes in and does random tests on our food. I never take offence because I need to know that I’m doing it right.
Gluten Free Dining, an online directory of selected gluten free venues across the UK, is also worth getting in touch with. The lady we dealt with, Sian, was great at helping us and she will share your social media posts which helps advertise your business to coeliacs looking for somewhere to eat.
