Some people think that heaven is a place where beautiful people, dressed in white, sit on fluffy clouds strumming away on golden harps. Well I can tell you that I’ve seen heaven and sadly there are no clouds or harps oreven a big bloke with a beard. The truth is I found heaven when I went to the Gluten Free and Allergy Show at the Kensington Olympia and its a magnificent place. Don’t believe me? Then read on and be convinced.

I am not ashamed to say that the few hours I spent at the show were filled with unbridaled joy at the realisation that literally everything on display and in the cafes i could eat. It took a while for this to dawn on me and when it did the wallet soon came out. Don’t worry unless you share with me a diet spent examining food labels, looking wistfully at cake counters and pining for a decent bacon buttie then I don’t expect you to share my joy. If you do, then i can feel your excitement from here.

The exhibition itself was a mix of stalls selling products, cooking demonstrations and educational seminars. At first I told myself I wasn’t going to spend any money and I was just going to learn about new products and stockists. How naive. Once I got there and started tucking into the free samples that promise went flying straight out the window as you can see from the photos of my purchases below. It was great to wander around and see the happiness on people’s faces as they did the simplest things such as trying a slice of white bread, taking a hearty glug of beer or in my case buying a full on, belly filling Cornish Pastie.    

Pasties aside other particular highlights for me included a company called Stewed which makes food pots like the Innocent range, a range of cereals that don’t taste like three day old scabs and slightly niche but great nonetheless a brand new membership to the IBS Network, a national charity set up to help people with IBS. Fear not I’ve listed a selection of websites below from some of the stalls that I was most excited about.

In terms of wheelchair access I was chuffed to find that the District Line on the London Underground from Westminster to Earls Court is pretty accessible. Bear in mind though that you do need to get a bunk on and off the train if you can’t negotiate a step independently in a wheelchair. Once at Earls Court the Olympia is only a 15 minute push and once there the venue is fairly accessible with lifts dotted about the place to get you up and down the various levels. There is also a loo and the ticket counter is at a decent height.

So as promised, get ready to feel your heart beat quicken and your palms to get sweaty. Some of the most exciting websites I have seen in years are listed below and unlike some sites that will provoke similar sensations these are work friendly and will not require you to delete your history if you share a laptop or computer.

http://www.theibsnetwork.org
http://www.goodnessdirect.co.uk/cgi-local/frameset/script/home.html http://www.bakedtotaste.co.uk/
http://www.steweduk.co.uk/
http://www.glutenandwheatfree.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/wagfree#!/wagfree?sk=info
http://www.glutenfreebeers.co.uk/

I’ve also included this link even though they weren’t at the exhibition. It’s for a cupcake company based in Brixton, South London and there cakes are heart wrenchingly phenomenal http://www.mscupcake.co.uk/.