About Specialgourmets

ABOUT THE GUIDE

The idea of a community-driven restaurant and hotel guide originally came about out of our own need for such a resource. In addition to having a brother with a life-threatening anaphylactic reaction to seafood, I was diagnosed with celiac disease in 2006, and have for countless times experienced the difficulties of eating out and the usual tension and fear that comes with it. Traveling also became a limiting experience, and on various occasions we have simply given up going to destinations where we could not be certain we would find suitable places to eat.

So we felt the need of a guide with which people could easily visualize suitable restaurants, hotels and grocery shops available in a given neighborhood, in a given city or in a given country, and then the idea of a searchable and dynamic map guide was born.  But more than that, we wanted a guide built with the information and feedback of an entire community, sharing the same experiences and restrictions. We wanted a guide with constantly reviewed and updated information. And so the idea of a community-driven map guide - where the community could easily add new places, reviews and share their experiences - took shape.

SpecialGourmets’ mission: to enable people with special diets to enjoy the culinary riches of the world with peace of mind.

To achieve this, the development of Specialgourmets, a community-driven and dynamic map guide, has the following goals:

1. Make eating out and traveling a safer, easier and pleasant experience for people with food allergies and celiac disease;
2. Expand their range of restaurants, hotels and grocery store options;
3. Enable people to make informed choices;
4. Support the work of Associations by helping users to find them;
5. Promote awareness on the part of the food service & catering industry.

We hope you enjoy it!
 

Cynthia, Founder of Specialgourmets

 

ABOUT SPECIALGOURMETS TEAM

Dr. Cynthia Schuck-Paim

PhD in Biological Sciences (Oxford University, UK). Dr. Schuck-Paim has also two post-doctoral degrees, having specialized in biostatistics within these fields. She has taught statistics and data analysis both in the UK and Brazil, participated as invited speaker in conferences in various countries and published a number of scientific articles. Currently she works as a scientific consultant, is responsible for the articles written for Specialgourmets Magazine, and directs the team working at Specialgourmets guide.
 

Dr. Wladimir J. Alonso

PhD in epidemiology and modeling (Oxford University, UK). Dr. Alonso is currently Associate Researcher at Fogarty International Center (National Institutes of Health, USA) and has worked and published many studies on the field of public health. He is also the Director of Origem Scientifica Ltd., and is currently a scientific and technological advisor to Specialgourmets.
 

Staff and Collaborators

Specialgourmets also has in its team a number of qualified professionals, amongst which program developers, a graphic designer, translators, registrars responsible for ensuring the quality of information in the guide, and trainees from various fields.