My Story
My name is Christina Campbell and I am the owner of Chrisolyn's Gluten Free Bakery. But I am getting ahead of myself; let me start at the beginning. I have always loved baking! As a preteen I started making boxed cakes. That soon moved on to making (and sometimes failing at) desserts made from scratch. In high school I started cooking supper occasionally. I would take pleasure in planning out the menu and going to the grocery store to buy ingredients. I then would pack up my endeavors for lunch the next day at school. By the time I got to college my arsenal of recipes, techniques, and knowledge of food was fairly versatile. I graduated from University of Central Missouri with a degree in Hotel and Restaurant Management. I found a job in Springfield, MO at a bakery, not as a baker but as a line cook. That didn't mean I wasn't watching how the cakes were being marvelously decorated! It was mesmerizing to watch a cake's surface be transformed into a beautiful work of art! At that same time my aunt was diagnosed with Celiac disease. I knew plenty about food so I helped her as much as I could. I also learned a great deal about the disease. After a year at Springfield I decided to go to culinary school in Bolder, CO. I have never had a great love for school so I decided on a quick pace Pastry Arts program at the now Escoffier School of Culinary Arts, formally Culinary School of the Rockies. In five grueling sleepless weeks I obtained my Pastry Arts degree with honors. At the end of that year I decided to open my bakery called Chrisolyn's Sweet & Savory Creations. I offered all kinds of glorious desserts, breads, and savories that contained gluten. At that same time I started to lose weight. I thought that it was due to the fact that I was working day and night at the bakery. I contributed my loss of appetite to stress. Thus my main source of sustenance became lettuce salads. So it wasn't that surprising that I lost weight. After the bakery started to take off and I became busier I pushed my health to the side and ignored what my body was telling me until I couldn't function properly any more. I knew that Celiac disease could run in a family but I couldn't make myself face the truth. My mom and I spent many hours at the bakery talking over my symptoms, trying without success to come up with any other truth than that one! I couldn't have Celiac disease because I owned a bakery (like THAT fact could be my immunity to Celiac disease)! In July 2012 I finally had the blood test done that came back positive even though I had already gone on a gluten free diet two days prior. I knew it before I even got the test results back because my symptoms started to decrease and I started to get back some energy. I thought that I could still run my bakery and have Celiac; I would just wear a mask. It didn't take long for that notion to be proven wrong by the return of my symptoms when I would work at the bakery. At the end of that year I closed my bakery but promised to reopen gluten free. It has taken me four long years and a LOT of learning to keep that promise but finally I feel confident in my knowledge, recipes, and health to open once again. Chrisolyn's Gluten Free Bakery has been a labor of love and I would like to share the fruits of my labor with my customers. Happy Baking,
Christina Campbell
