Yesterday I spent the day at a work-related conference, held at a nearby hotel. I had packed a lunch the prior evening, knowing almost instinctively that I wouldn't be able to eat what they would be serving: sandwiches and potato salad.
(*BTW, potato salad is not safe because mayonnaise typically contains gluten.)
I'm used to bagging the ole brown bag lunch for conference days; I learned the hard way.
Many times I would call a conference planner, or the site's caterer, requesting a gluten-free lunch substitute. My meek request was always met with a "No problem! We'll have at least a salad for you."
Never happened. There has always been a surprised server -- someone obviously caught off-guard, telling me that no one had been informed or that they had simply forgotten.
I've learned not to rely on the sometimes-good-intentions of others. People simply do forget, communications are lost in the chain, or they're not used to thinking about "special" dietary needs of others. There has been some progress in the vegetarian world, but the word "gluten" remains a foreign term to most -- even people in the food industry.
So anyway. Back to the conference lunch, where there were slices of flourless chocolate cake -- especially appealing after my boring P&J and celery sticks. Something told me to ask the server if this flourless cake contained gluten. The server, dressed in heavily starched maroon-colored attire, knew that it had gluten because she had helped make it. "We add a little bit of flour" she said matter-of-factly.
The flourless cake wasn't really flourless, after all.
Don't assume that anything marketed as "flourless" is truly so, and do bring your own gluten-free lunch to conferences, if you can.
That said, may I recommend this:
Whole Foods flourless cake recipe
http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/recipe.php?recipeId=753
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