Slovenian Chemist Makes Gluten-Free Food For Celiac Disease Sufferers

It’s often said that baking is just chemistry. Katarina Cermelj took this more literally than most when she completed her inorganic chemistry PhD and became a recipe developer and cookbook author.

Photo Insert: Slovenian Chemist Katarina Cermelj holds up her first book, "Baked to Perfection," published in 2021, focuses on gluten-free baking

Her first book, Baked to Perfection, published in 2021, focuses on gluten-free baking, Rachel Brazil wrote for Chemistry World.

Cermelj not only presents an array of delicious gluten-free goodies, but unlike your average pastry chef, provides the scientific rationale for the baking methods and ingredients used. Up to 1% of Caucasians cannot digest gluten, which makes them allergic to wheat.

Cermelj grew up in the Slovenian countryside, with a childhood full of fresh produce. But she was a talented chemist and was selected to participate in the International Chemistry Olympiad in high school, which allowed her to visit her local university.

”I actually got to experience a proper chemistry lab [and] I immediately knew I wanted to [study] chemistry,” says Cermelj. She was accepted as an undergraduate at the University of Oxford and secured an inorganic synthetic chemistry doctorate, researching new layered materials for photocatalytic applications.

Due to health reasons, Cermelj had to eliminate gluten and dairy from her diet and started to experiment with gluten-free baking as she began her studies. “I’ve always been interested in baking because my mom’s an amazing baker,” she says, recalling the spectacular 3D animal-shaped birthday cakes her mother would make.

Cermelj was sure her chemistry knowledge would help to improve on the disappointing commercial gluten-free products available and the recipes she found online.

“That’s what made it super interesting and what started this whole thing.” Gluten in wheat forms from a reaction between two proteins, forming an elastic polymer, but finding replacements that can create the same texture in bread and cakes is not easy.

“You need to find a way to get around that by using binders, which are for the most part xanthan gum and psyllium husk,” explains Cermelj. These are both hydrocolloids that absorb moisture to form a sticky gel. Cermelj is a big fan of psyllium husk, a fiber found in the seeds of the herb Plantago ovata, which provides more springiness.

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