Cook and Nourish
MasterChef finalist, Claire Syrenne invites you into her kitchen where the cook matters more than what's for dinner. This is a place where home cooks are celebrated for being flippin' amazing and getting people fed no matter what else life throws at them. Each week Claire shares ways to make your cooking life easier, simple recipes for real meals and kitchen stories to make you smile. If you're feeding people then pull up a chair and feel the love.
Cook and Nourish
Allergy-Friendly Cooking Made Simple
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Food allergies can turn the simplest moments into a risk assessment: a nursery treat, a party buffet, a quick lunch on a day out. I’m joined by recipe developer and author Lucy Parr, who has spent over 20 years creating food that her children can safely enjoy despite severe allergies. We talk honestly about the early shock of diagnosis, the lack of clear guidance many parents face, and the determination it takes to make sure your child is included rather than singled out.
Lucy shares the practical reality of living with allergies day to day: the loss of spontaneity, the importance of back-up snacks, and why “speaking up” in restaurants is not being difficult, it is staying safe. We also explore how allergy advice has changed, including early introduction, desensitisation, and the milk ladder approach that can help some families build tolerance. Along the way, we reflect on the impact of better labelling and the vital work of Natasha’s Allergy Research Foundation, plus the community support that charities like Allergy UK and online allergy parent groups can offer.
On the cooking front, Lucy’s method is refreshing: she designs allergy-friendly baking that does not depend on odd substitutes or hard-to-find ingredients. We chat about newer dairy-free products that make life easier, simple meals that can be adapted for guests, and crowd-pleasing bakes like chocolate cookies and cinnamon buns that everyone actually wants to eat. If you’re cooking dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free, or sesame-free, you’ll leave with safer habits and a lot more confidence. Subscribe to Cook and Nourish, share this with someone cooking for allergies, and leave us a review with your best question or tip.
Welcome And Why Allergies Matter
SPEAKER_00Hello, lovely cooks, and welcome back to Cook and Nourish, where home cooks of all abilities are welcome. As we tackle making dinner with recipes, strategies, mind shifts, and lots of love. I'm your host, Claire Serene, and I want to make all home cooks feel supported, but there are times when I need the help of someone's lived experience because I don't have it personally. And so today my guest is recipe developer and author Lucy Parr, who is an oracle on food allergies. For over 20 years, Lucy has been learning, developing and tweaking recipes that her children could enjoy despite their severe allergies. Lucy's hard work and creativity ultimately became her beautiful book, The Friendly Baker, which is filled with delicious allergy-friendly recipes. And today she's a creator behind Lucy's Friendly Foods, which you might have seen me sharing left, right, and centre on my socials because they're brilliant. These are recipes without milk, eggs, nuts, or sesame, some of the most common and difficult allergies to navigate. So today I think we're in safe hands. Thank you so much for taking the reins today, Lucy. I know for lots of people they'll think that awareness today around allergies is really commonplace, but that wasn't the case for you, was it? What was it like when your girls were born?
SPEAKER_01Well, to be honest, before they were born I had very little understanding of allergies. I think like most people, it wasn't after my world. And so when I was a young mum and my eldest daughter was diagnosed, I was a bit lost, I guess. There was very little information from the doctor. I just got sent home with a small pramplit of uh recipes which were free from egg and dairy, and off I went.
SPEAKER_00That would be so daunting, but I mean, how familiar were you with cooking at that time? You've got to reinvent your cooking. How familiar were you with cooking to begin with?
SPEAKER_01Well, actually, yeah, I was very familiar. Um, I've always been a keen cook. I went to the Cordon Bleu after university, which was amazing.
SPEAKER_00Incredible.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I didn't go into the food world and I was always very keen uh at cooking. And so suddenly I was having to um cook things which were totally different to what I'd learnt. Obviously, everything in French cooking is butter and eggs, particularly petisserie, and then suddenly it's no, you can't use those. And where where do you start?
SPEAKER_00And where did you start? What was
Pancake Day Sparks The Journey
SPEAKER_00the sort of first replacement or adjustment you had to make?
SPEAKER_01When I really started was when my daughter was a nursery and they said, Oh, we're going to have pancake day. Everyone will have pancakes, but there's nothing for your daughter to have. And oh, that just, you know, hits you in your heart, doesn't it? Yeah. Uh I was on a mission. I was going to make something she could have and a bit of trial and error. We got some okay pancakes. She took them in, and everyone was like, Oh, these are quite nice, actually. And that that was really spurred me on. And then, you know, birthdays came along, and the birthday cake is so important, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00It's so important. You can remember them for a lifetime. So I can understand you just you had to have that iconic moment.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, everyone else has these beautiful princess cakes. And uh, to be honest, mine initially weren't that great, but at least she had something, and it was made with love, and it might have not looked amazing, but but she liked it and she had something, and that was really important.
SPEAKER_00So I
From Blog Posts To A Cookbook
SPEAKER_00know that you started blogging about the the recipes that you made. Was that just sort of an activity for yourself, or had you planned? I thought, well, I want to share it with other people. How did that come about?
SPEAKER_01To be honest, it was when my youngest daughter went to school and suddenly, you know, the house is a bit empty, and I thought I needed something, a project to fill my time. I realised the recipes were getting better as I was practicing and making new ones, and I thought maybe maybe others would benefit from them. So yeah, I started my WordPress blog and remember the having one one view. So exciting. Exactly. And yeah, I mean it's really uh grown since there. There there's obviously a need for recipes where if you're looking for a a recipe that is free from certain ingredients, you really need that recipe, don't you?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you're not looking for it arbitrarily, there's a real reason why you need it.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. And so yeah, it went from there and carried on until the cookbook, which uh you know opens a new audience and it was something for my daughters to take off to university and into their into their lives.
SPEAKER_00How wonderful that they have something tangible about what you did for them as a mum at that time. You must have been quite a lone voice in the wind at that point in terms of talking about allergies and food replacements and adjusted recipes. Were you surprised at how quickly it took off?
SPEAKER_01I was surprised that there was the interest, I suppose. But you know, I myself was in that position. I was also there, you know, looking for recipes and ideas and support. So I totally understood where where those people were coming from and and their delight at finding something that they could, you know, suddenly they can make their son some cupcakes to take into the school bake sale rather than nothing.
SPEAKER_00You must have known the relief of other parents to have a solution.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You knew what it meant to have an answer just for simple things in life. And what
Planning Ahead When Spontaneity Goes
SPEAKER_00do you think that cooks navigating allergies have to consider or anticipate that other cooks perhaps don't have to do?
SPEAKER_01Well, you always have to be prepared. You you do lose spontaneity. So you can't just go on a day out and find lunch. You've got to have, you know, a backup. You've got to have uh a handbag stuffed full of snacks that are safe because you might stop somewhere and there might be nothing. Or you might go to an event and we you know, we've been to events where people have very kindly said, oh yeah, yes, everything will be fine, and then you get there and it's maybe not, or it could be, but you don't want to risk anything in that situation. You don't want to, you know, have an emergency in someone's lovely day.
SPEAKER_00Did your girls outgrow their allergies? I know that can happen for some children. What happened for your girls?
SPEAKER_01My eldest outgrew her egg allergy, but she still remains allergic to milk. And my youngest hasn't outgrown any. But yeah, most most do and uh a lot do very early.
SPEAKER_00How has that changed sort of the understanding of what people outgrow and what they don't?
SPEAKER_01Things
Outgrowing Allergies And The Ladders
SPEAKER_01have changed a lot in the last 20 years. When it started for us, it was all about just avoiding. Um these days it's about introducing things as early as possible, a lot of uh emphasis on desensitization, on what you call the ladders. So you gradually add very small amount and then a a bit more and a bit more, and it will start, say, with milk, very baked milk.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01And then it gets more and more to the unmodified. And so you start to tolerate a bit more. That unfortunately hasn't worked for us, but for lots of people it really does, and it's a way out of the situation.
SPEAKER_00But that wasn't available when your girls were very young, I imagine.
SPEAKER_01Not when they were very young, and since it hasn't worked when when we tried. Um, and it only works if your allergy isn't so severe as well.
SPEAKER_00I can only imagine what that was like, Lucy, when you had the first diagnosis of saying we've got to change the way we eat, and then you get a second diagnosis as well.
Labels Natasha’s Story And Support
SPEAKER_00What advice would you give to a new parent finding themselves in the position that you were in all that time ago?
SPEAKER_01It's better now because there is so much out there. They support, you know, charities like Allergy UK and Natasha's Foundation.
SPEAKER_00I think it's important to clarify that we're not talking about not liking foods here, the severity of food allergies. Can you tell people a little bit about the Natasha Allergy Foundation?
SPEAKER_01A food allergy is a really serious thing. Um, very sadly, Natasha died because of she ate a prep baguette and it had sesame baked into the bread and it wasn't on the label. And so she didn't know it was there. So her very sad death was totally preventable. And luckily, you know, her family have been so brave and they have made it their mission to make life better for allergy sufferers. So now you have to have the ingredients on things like packaged sandwiches. So that has made life better for every allergy sufferer out there.
SPEAKER_00Couldn't agree more, dispelling that illusion that it's just a picky eater and it's not. I remember the story about Natasha so clearly and her parents relentless advocating after her death, which takes enormous courage to be able to say, let's never put another family through this.
SPEAKER_01Also, the online community, uh, particularly allergy parents, that they're so supportive. There's loads out there all going through the same thing, all you know, rooting for you, and reach out to people and they will understand.
SPEAKER_00Food is such a community experience to begin with, and then you layer on the allergy aspect, and that has got to be a really powerful community that you can turn to because they understand the importance of what you're trying to overcome.
SPEAKER_01At the end of the day, no one wants to miss out, do they? And whether it's you, your child, to be that person who can't take part of, you know, the party, the Christmas lunch. Because all our emotional events have food in them, don't they?
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. Our milestones in life are often guided by food, and you don't want them to miss out. And I think your approach has been so much about getting involved and being included in the activities rather than putting your girls in a bubble. Yeah. You could have very easily just wrapped them up and you didn't do that. How has that come to manifest itself now that they're adults?
SPEAKER_01I
Independence Travel And Self-Advocacy
SPEAKER_01guess my my youngest, uh, she's 19 and she's an example now that she's on her gap year before university, and she really didn't want to be held back. She she's got multiple allergies, and you know, eating out is almost impossible sometimes. Yeah. But she she didn't want to be held back, and she's always wanted to travel. So this year she's been backpacking to Australia. She worked on a conservation project in the wilds of the limpopoe in South Africa. She's currently in Montenegro. Uh, she's home next week, though, because it has been nerve-wracking. I can imagine. But you know, you have to believe that you you've taught them and trust them. And you know, she doesn't want to not be well. Um, she doesn't want a reaction. So she will do everything she can to be able to do what she can, but in a safe way.
SPEAKER_00And that's absolute concrete proof that your approach has not filled your girls with fear. It's equipped them with skills to be able to go out into this world, be brave, enjoy, and take care of themselves, look after themselves so they don't get a reaction. You must be so proud of you and your girls.
SPEAKER_01Yes, I am.
SPEAKER_00I can't imagine the amount of trial and error you have had to endure to find recipes that would work for your girls. Um, what did you learn in that process?
Baking Without Strange Substitutes
SPEAKER_01I make recipes which don't try and replace things. I make recipes which don't contain the allergens. So I'm not relying on egg replacers or weird chemical thickeners or or or just unusual ingredients. I want things to be accessible. I want everyone to be able to make them easily with few ingredients, but they still taste great.
SPEAKER_00I think people worry that um they're going to have to look for really obscure replacements, and you don't do that in your cooking. Your recipes are full of totally recognizable ingredients.
SPEAKER_01That's being purposeful because I want it to be friendly because it's easy, and because anyone can get the ingredients and they can make something lovely that more people can enjoy.
SPEAKER_00What products do you think are really useful that weren't around when your girls were young that you use today, and you're like, really, oh, I wish I'd had this 20 years ago?
SPEAKER_01Well, things like dairy-free creams that you can whip up, you can get those, and they they're ripping you can start doing, you know, some fancier stuff with that. In the past, you you just got dairy-free margarine, but now you get different types, so you can use different aspects. So I really like dairy-free flora, so plant butter, I think it's called. Yeah, you can make croissants with it, and you can make better pastry and stuff because it's harder. Chocolate has come on a long way. It was so boring, and now it's accessible, it's nice flavours and more child-friendly, which is really nice.
SPEAKER_00Wonderful. Oh, now that your girls are grown and they're going out into the world, what about young adults? What advice would you have for young adults going out into the world who have to manage their own allergies now?
SPEAKER_01I think it's really important to speak up. You've got to advocate for yourself. You're in a restaurant, you've got to mention it, you've got to speak up. And you've also learned to cook. You know, you become the most popular person if you're you're the cook. Everyone wants to come to your house and you can guarantee you have nice, safe food.
SPEAKER_00Couldn't agree more. I think learning to cook for anybody, any young adult, learning to cook is one of the greatest skills you can give yourself, and no more so than when you're dealing with allergies, like you say. You get to have a great night, you get to hang out with your friends, and you get to not go to the hospital with a horrendous little allergic reaction.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and you eat nice, nice food that you want to eat as well.
SPEAKER_00Have any of your butter-based cordon bleu recipes crept back in now that you don't have to navigate? Or are you still with your flora butter?
SPEAKER_01Well, the funny thing is, because I do eat those myself, and I'm a I'm a judge for the Great Taste Award, so I will taste them judging. But actually, I prefer my bakes. Good for you. I think they're a bit lighter. You never get that eggy taste that you can have in some cakes.
Easy Family Meals And Safer Hosting
SPEAKER_00I know that for a lot of grandparents, Lucy, this whole world can be a bit daunting, and they might have grandchildren who have allergies, but they won't have had any knowledge growing up of how to cook for them. I have friends whose children have allergies, and I have to think more carefully when they come over for dinner, and I have cooking knowledge, obviously. Are there meals that you think are universally friendly or familiar that you could recommend for a cook who wants to accommodate their grandchildren with allergies or friends coming over? Any meals that you would recommend?
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. I think there's loads of things that can easily be made allergy friendly. I mean, look at something like spaghetti bolinades. Just make sure that you don't use parmesan, that if you need gluten-free pasta, you could use that. Things like sausage and mash can very easily be made.
SPEAKER_00Say sausage and mash should rule the world, Lucy. It's so good. You just make sure you don't have any dairy in the mash and you're stinging.
SPEAKER_01And as an allergy parent, I think one thing that we love the most is when someone's looking after your child and they have a query, send a photo and say, Is this okay? And you know, it it really puts you at ease to know that that person is double checking and that's great.
SPEAKER_00That's a great tip for friends and family. If in doubt, shoot me a picture and we can sort it out in a flash. Absolutely, yeah. How far do you think supermarkets and restaurants have come in providing allergy-friendly recipes compared to when you were trying to take your family out 20 years ago?
SPEAKER_01Well, to be honest, it it comes and goes really. There was a few years ago, vegan food was really popular, and that made having a milk and egg allergy a little bit easier. There were more products, but now things are more on the high fibre, high protein vibe, and so those vegan products have disappeared. On the whole, it's still quite difficult to buy things, so make your own. It's it's easy and often nicer as well.
SPEAKER_00Cheaper, nicer, guaranteed that you know what's in it. There are a lot of wins for cooking at home, aren't there? Absolutely, yeah. Are there any things about allergies that you just wish the general public understood that you don't feel they do?
SPEAKER_01It's not about being difficult, it's not about being fussy. You know, when you go to a restaurant and you you're asking, can you clean the grill before using it? It's not because you're giving them more work, it's just because you want to be safe.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01It's just about people trying to keep themselves safe.
SPEAKER_00I think that's a really good point though, Lucy, that um it's not just about the ingredients themselves, it's about the prep, it's about the area that things were made in. You're not being difficult, but the care has to take place right from the beginning to the end of the food process.
Crowd-Pleasing Bakes And Closing Links
SPEAKER_00What would be your recommendation for the ultimate? Take something in for bake day or for work when it's somebody's birthday. What would be a crowd pleaser you'd recommend?
SPEAKER_01I put a lot of my crowd pleasers in my cookbook. There's what I call best ever chocolate cookies in there. They are always really popular. Everyone has always loved a cinnamon bun as well, I realize. But whatever makes people happy and put the smile on their face, that is the best, I think.
SPEAKER_00Your cookbook is absolutely stacked full of all of those wonderful treats. I cannot thank you enough for coming today and sharing your brilliant tips for families, for friends, for grandparents, for anybody who's trying to navigate those allergies. But also, it's just a joyful book full of yummy things. Please come back again. I would love to talk to you again, Lucy.
SPEAKER_01Thank you, Claire. It's been an absolute pleasure.
SPEAKER_00Thank you for spending this time with me and Lucy at Cook and Nourish Today. If you want to book a one-to-one virtual cookery lesson with Lucy, then head to her website, Lucy's Friendly Foods, and all the details are there. I'll pop a link on my socials to purchase Lucy's book, The Friendly Baker, because it is stacked full with easy recipes that would help you cook allergy friendly food for someone you love. Remember to click subscribe and come back again for more cook friendly tips. So until next time, happy cooking!