INSPIRE: Albany gluten-free baker Susan Retzlaff, the Free Range Chef, wins award for best caramel slice in WA

Wouldn’t it be nice to swap, say, a boring midweek hump day for caramel slice day? Of course it would, and that’s exactly what Albany’s star baker Susan Retzlaff has done to great effect — and her caramel slice has been named the best in WA. Her lemon and ginger slice was also a winner at the Baking Industry Employers’ Association of WA awards night, held in Perth on August 2, while her chocolate brownies came third. Caramel slice day is a day in Ms Retzlaff’s working week — there’s packaging day too, but that doesn’t sound as tasty — as she toils away in her Sandford Road unit creating baked goodies under her moniker the Free Range Chef. She is a trained chef so she has not come to baking excellence without a grasp of the foundations, but she is proving inspirational in showing that gluten-free food can be delicious and not a poor substitute for the “normal” stuff. She was diagnosed as coeliac 16 years ago and that was when her journey into gluten-free baking started. “I’m so obsessed with getting it into a place which is accepted by the gluten world,” she said. “I just want my food to be something we can all share together; I want to be able to put it in front of someone and them not know the difference. “My health problems have put me in a place I’m happy being in.” Ms Retzlaff has just three staff who move around the small kitchen with practised co-ordination. “We have a strict routine to use the oven so everything has to be timed; there’s a packaging day, a caramel slice day,” she said. “One is on bases, one uses the stove and one uses the oven. “I’ve just started doing pies, so I’ll have to fit that in too.” It’s all go, but she has a young son and is determined to work hours that allow her to be at home when he goes to and from school. Of course, it’s been even more hectic since news of the awards got out, but she’s determined to keep her business small and keep it hands-on. “It has gone crazy, everybody wants a caramel slice,” Ms Retzlaff said. “When you say it’s WA’s best, everyone wants to taste it. “I have a lovely staff, just three girls all up, because I want to keep it personal, all homemade and handmade. “It would be easy to get packet mixes and pump it out, but I think that if we try, we can be as good as anywhere else.” It’s tricky getting gluten-free pastry just right but she’s experimenting madly to get her pies to award-winning standard. “The recipe is nearly 100 per cent there but it takes more time than normal cooking,” she said. “They are handmade but gluten-free pastry uses 10-15 ingredients, because I don’t want to add the numbers, the crap. “Potato mash is my big little secret because it makes the pastry pliable — a lot of gluten-free pastry isn’t pliable and is prone to cracking. “I use it in a certain way for a better texture and flavour.” Ms Retzlaff has been a chef for 27 years, starting at the Mon Ami Cafe at Dog Rock and then heading to TAFE for an apprenticeship which she completed at the Beachside Restaurant, now Three Anchors at Middleton Beach. “The chef there said desserts were for the girls so that’s what I did,” she said. “He didn’t say it in a bad way or to be mean — he just wanted to do the steaks — and I loved it. “It was pretty much like self-training, but it gave me the basics and it meant I got to experience gluten world. “If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have had anything to compare it to when I went gluten free. “I remember what it tastes like; if I hadn’t, I think my expectations would have been lower.” The coeliac diagnosis gave her a new challenge as her enjoyment of cooking diminished when she became unable to taste the food. Starting at home, she got a council permit and sold from a stall at weekends. When that got bigger and bigger she took the Sandford Road unit and is now a wholesale baker as well as selling to the public on Thursdays and Fridays. It’s not been all happy sifting as her mother died last year, prompting sadness and reflection. “I wasn’t in a good place, and I did ask myself if I should walk away from all this,” Ms Retzlaff said. “But I concluded that I really love what I’m doing. “I’m doing it because I want to; everyone should have a job they love doing every day.”