Food has always been part of who I am.
I am Barbara Brennen, a professional chef, baker and author, and I have lived gluten-free for more than 20 years.
Elegantly Free brings together everything I have learned in professional kitchens, through my baking business and through the very real experience of having to rethink the way I eat.
I never wanted gluten-free living to feel like a smaller life.
Food has always mattered to me. Not only because I trained professionally, but because food is how we celebrate, care for people, welcome them in and create memories around a table.
When gluten-free living became part of my own life, I saw how quickly that enjoyment can be replaced by caution, disappointment and the feeling that everyone else is eating the food you really wanted.
I knew there had to be a better way. Over the years I have learned how to make gluten-free food feel generous, familiar and genuinely enjoyable, without pretending the practical challenges do not exist.
Elegantly Free is where I share that experience with you. I want to help make your kitchen easier, your food better and your life around food feel far less restrictive.
I am not stepping away from food. I am creating a way to help more people enjoy it.
I trained as a professional chef and baker and built my career around creating food that people genuinely wanted to eat.
That path led to Bad Ass Cakes, where I created cakes and specialist food for people with different dietary requirements. It gave me years of first-hand experience of what happens when gluten-free and other specialist diets are treated as an afterthought.
Elegantly Free is the next chapter. It brings that professional food experience together with more than two decades of living gluten-free, so I can help more people eat well, feel confident and enjoy food without unnecessary compromise.
I want the food on the table to be good enough that nobody is thinking about what is missing.
Food, confidence and a little more joy in the kitchen.
Writing has given me another way to share the recipes, experience and ideas that have shaped the way I cook and live.
Baking that brings people together
A collection shaped by my love of baking, family, confidence and the simple pleasure of making something people are excited to eat.
View on Goodreads →
Gluten-free food made to be enjoyed
Practical gluten-free cooking with the focus where I believe it belongs: flavour, confidence and food that feels part of everyday life.
View on Goodreads →Gluten-free living should still feel abundant.
Confidence over compliance. Pleasure over punishment.
I want practical knowledge to give you more freedom, not another long list of things to worry about. The aim is to understand what works, make clearer choices and feel more relaxed around food.
Gluten-free food should still be worth looking forward to, sharing with other people and feeling proud to put on the table. It should feel generous, familiar and genuinely enjoyable.
And everyday life should not be harder than it needs to be. Reliable recipes, thoughtful substitutions and better systems can reduce the effort without reducing the pleasure.
Good food. More confidence. Less compromise.
Take what is useful and start there.
Explore practical recipes and gluten-free guidance, or discover the different ways to work with me through consultations, workshops and selected collaborations.