Tysons Corner-based property manager Are Andresen loves the fresh-baked aroma of cinnamon rolls, but until recently he could not indulge. After a series of unexplained illnesses, he was diagnosed with gluten intolerance in 2010. “I would go crazy when I went by Cinnabon,” he says. “That smell. My mouth watered and I was depressed.”
That’s what prompted Andresen’s wife, Liezel D’souza, to found her baking business, CeliaC (celiacbakery.com), which produces gluten-free cinnamon swirl pastries and breads for people with celiac disease. Baking headquarters is the spacious, state-approved kitchen in the couple’s townhouse, which they share with their 3-year-old son in the Idlewood neighborhood of Falls Church.
“I saw the isolation that people fall into. Eating is one of the few things that brings people together, so to be excluded from it is very hard,” says D’souza, a native of Mumbai, India, who also serves as a firefighter with the Great Falls Volunteer Fire Department. “I want to make a difference for people.”
“Still wetting my feet,” she says, her current output is three dozen cinnamon swirls per week, which she delivers to The Local Market (246 West Broad St., Falls Church, 703-536-6123, www.localmarketva.com). Each pastry is rolled out and cut by hand in a labor-intensive process, before it is baked and topped with a cream cheese-based icing. With the exception of egg whites, all ingredients are certified gluten-free. Her long-term plan is to open a small bakery and increase production to 1,000 swirls per week, supplying food stores, restaurants and special-needs schools. “My goal,” she says, “is to deliver fun food that makes people feel well.”