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I just got back from a fantastic 2-week vacation in Europe.  I will go 
into more detail of which restaurants you can eat at while visiting Rome, 
Sorrento, Pompeii, Edinburgh and London in the next e-mail, but in this e-
mail I just wanted to share with you the most welcoming and endearing 
hotel and restaurant a celiac could ever stay and eat in while visiting 
London.  Please feel free to send this e-mail to any celiac website you 
wish to.  That is how great the Hilton Metropole Hotel is.  If I ever go 
to London again, this is the ONLY hotel I would consider staying in!
 
We had booked a Globus Monogram London tour and the Hilton Metropole Hotel 
was the hotel that our touring group would be staying in.  I e-mailed the 
hotel about my dietary requirements, and they forwarded my e-mail to their 
head chef, Nigel Frost.  Chef Nigel e-mailed me that I would not have to 
worry at all, and that they would even have some gluten-free bread and 
muffins available for my stay.
 
We had toured Italy first before going to London.  Unfortunately, my 
experience with restaurants and g-f food in Italy was not the best (even 
with all my research!).  I was pretty depressed food-wise by the time I 
got to London (I will explain in a subsequent e-mail).  When we entered 
the Fiamma Restaurant in the Hilton Metropole Hotel for dinner the first 
night, the waiting staff and chefs had already been informed of my dietary 
needs.  Within 5 minutes of seating, Chef Michael Pascal appeared at my 
table asking me what I would like for dinner.  I am embarrassed to say 
that I started crying!  I had been denied quite a few wonderful dining 
experiences the entire week before in Italy, and it was like a dream to 
have this smiling chef in front of me asking what I would like him to make 
me for dinner!  I was so overwhelmed and that is why the tears came so 
quickly!
 
Chef Michael was an absolute sweetheart.  He understood the cross-
contamination issues, the marinade and sauce issues, etc.  We decided on a 
roasted chicken with mashed potatoes and GRAVY (a reduction sauce with no 
flour in it!) and vegetables.  I had a salad and used my own Kraft ranch 
dressing individual packets that I had ordered before my trip. These 
individual salad dressing packets really came in handy during my trip.  I 
know he would have made a salad dressing for me, but I really liked these 
salad dressing packets.  This hotel also had a dessert buffet every night 
that included the most exotic desserts (the cost was 5.95 pounds).  My 
husband would enjoy the dessert buffet while Chef Michael whipped me up a 
creme brulee for my enjoyment.  Another chef, Chef Vivian Pedrihina, was 
also there on the nights that Chef Michael or head Chef Nigel wasn't.  If 
you bring your g-f pasta, they would gladly make you spaghetti.  They will 
do anything for you there!  One time at breakfast, I saw a gentleman at 
the breakfast bar with the same g-f bread that the restaurant offered me.  
When I asked about the bread, he said he was celiac also and loved staying 
at their hotel.
 
Breakfast was included every day in our stay.  Their breakfast buffet was 
incredible.  Of course there was all of the pastries you could imagine - 
very nice to look at and my husband sure enjoyed them.  They also had tons 
of fruit and yogurt, cheeses and meats, and a hot breakfast, including 
eggs, bacon, ham, potatoes, etc.  Chef Michael had fresh oil set aside for 
me so I could have fried potatoes at any time I wished.  There was a cook 
who made fresh eggs any way you would want them.  They had also ordered 
gluten-free bread for me and toasted it somehow without any cross-
contamination (I brought my little toaster bag but they didn't need to use 
it).  The thoughtfulness of them ordering the gluten-free bread for me 
touched me deeply, however, I didn't like the taste of the gluten free 
bread.  I had brought with me my Kinnikinnick english muffins and they 
toasted those for me every single morning instead (I put two bags of 
Kinnikinnick english muffins in my suitcase and had the hotel restaurants 
in Rome and London put the bag in their restaurant freezers).  Chef 
Michael would also have the foresight to take a Kinnikinnick frozen 
english muffin out of the freezer the night before so it would be 
defrosted for breakfast for me.  Also, they gave me TWO gluten-free 
individually packed muffins with my breakfast every day!  Everything from 
poppyseed, lemon and chocolate muffins!  The breakfast chef who was in 
charge of me in the morning - his name is Chef Ulli Halufe.  He is the 
most sweetest man in the world.  He would come out every morning to see me 
to make sure I was taken care of.  On our last day, he even came out and 
walked my husband and I to the door as we left the hotel. 
 
When we went to Paris for a day, I picked up four little gifts for these 
chefs that made my London trip a trip I will remember for the rest of my 
life.  The chefs names again are:
 
Chef Nigel Frost (head chef)
Chef Michael Pascal
Chef Ulli Halufe
Chef Vivian Pedrihina
 
Just e-mail either Chef Nigel at [log in to unmask] or Chef Michael at 
[log in to unmask] that you are coming to stay at their hotel.  
Tell them that Sue recommended that you eat at their restaurant.  I 
guarantee they will take care of you.  I do not know how much I paid for 
the hotel because it was part of the tour package.  However, I asked the 
front desk, and they said that it really varied - it could be anywhere 
from 95 pounds a night to 200 pounds a night, depending on the season, etc.
 
I will send another e-mail later regarding other restaurants that I ate in 
and little hints I picked up while traveling.

Sue

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