Catering for gluten-free tastebuds at Tastes and Tunes

The café/food store will showcase a diverse range of dietary options at its Allan St stall, featuring gluten-free, dairy-free and vegan delights, ensuring Tastes and Tunes caters to all food preferences and dietary needs.

Healthy Tummies Pantry owner Debi Kitt was diagnosed with coeliac disease more than 20 years ago and has always found it difficult finding gluten-free food that she enjoys eating.

The COVID-19 pandemic made accessing gluten-free options incredibly challenging, with travel restrictions forcing her to rely on limited delivery services and sparse supermarket offerings.

So, in 2021 she opened Healthy Tummies Pantry as a way to be able to shop for her own quality gluten-free products while also servicing members of the wider community.

Healthy Tummies Pantry is the only entirely gluten-free store in Kyabram and, following the success of the shop, she opened an adjoining café and started up an online store to make buying gluten-free products even easier for those who cannot drive to the town.

Eager to share her delicious creations with the wider community, she joined Tastes and Tunes with a stall, filling a crucial gap by catering to dietary needs often overlooked at food events.

Her first stall was in 2023 and her second during the blistering heat of 2024’s edition.

Once again she and her team will be returning for the 2025 Tastes and Tunes.

A crowd favourite dish, which she said was a secret family recipe and always sold out, was her lasagne.

“Nobody makes the lasagne but me — I don’t give the recipe out to anyone,” Mrs Kitt said.

It will be a busy night for her, in between selling lasagne and salads and chatting with locals in between orders.

And even though she doesn’t get to experience the festival as a patron, she said it was the community atmosphere that kept her coming back.

“Every year the crowd has been massive … it’s amazing when people come back from the year before that aren’t locals — it’s a great night,” she said.

This year Happy Tummies Pantry is a bronze sponsor of the event, a decision that came easy to Mrs Kitt.

“I think (the committee) do a great job of bringing something else to the town … they’re all giving their time for free, so it’s up to us to sort of give back to them,” she said.

While she’s hoping for the night to be cooler than last year, she knows the festival will do well regardless of the weather.

This year’s menu includes pumpkin arancini balls (vegetarian, gluten-free and FODMAP), baked potatoes (vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free), chicken mango salad (gluten-free and dairy-free), chicken avocado salad (gluten-free), assorted cakes (gluten-free and dairy-free) and Mrs Kitt’s famous lasagne (gluten-free).

She will be opening up a pre-order list to make sure she has enough for everyone who needs gluten-free, dairy-free or vegan options throughout the night.

“We try to accommodate (everyone at the festival), but we run out eventually,” Mrs Kitt said.

She encouraged everyone who wanted to try her food to pre-order.

Pre-orders can be made through the Healthy Tummies Pantry Facebook page or by phoning 0497 331 383.

For more information on the event and a full list of food on offer, please visit the Kyabram Tastes and Tunes Facebook page.