AT 5 A.M. THE SUN is nowhere near the horizon, but the wild roosters crowing outside the window of Sweet Marie's Hawaii Bakery in Kauai don't seem to notice.

Marie Cassel is bent over a polished stainless steel counter filling the oversize muffin tins spread out before her. A cool breeze blows through the screen door, and when the traffic on the main road dies down, the ocean can be heard faintly in the background lapping at the rocky shore. Cassel may be a long way from her Philadelphia roots, but she's right at home on this remote Hawaiian island.

Cassel, 47, started her professional culinary career in the Reading Terminal Market. Now she owns and operates the only gluten-free bakery in Hawaii.

Although gluten-free may sound like the newest food trend, it has been working its way into the mainstream for the past five years, as the number of people diagnosed with celiac disease has risen.

From Wegman's to Trader Joe's, alternative flours are popping up on grocery store shelves. Even baking matriarch Betty Crocker put out a line of gluten-free mixes this year.

A recent event sponsored by the Ambler-based National Foundation for Celiac Awareness attracted more than 1,200 people, 50 vendors and 25 area chefs to the Wachovia Center. Local interest in gluten-free eating should be well served when a new gluten-free bakery opens this winter at Broad and South streets.

Though it's the only known treatment for the disease, living a gluten-free lifestyle does not come without a few obstacles.

"Educating the people is the most important thing," Cassel said. "People often think gluten-free equals sugar-free. People don't really understand that gluten-free is a necessity."

That feeling you're not

in Philly anymore

 

The route Cassel took from Philadelphia to Kauai (the most northwestern and remote of the four major Hawaiian islands) was not exactly direct.

She was born and raised in Ridley Park. The fifth of seven children, she started her love affair with great food at a young age. In the early '80s, it brought her to Café Olé in the Reading Terminal Market, where she also did a turn as caterer for the American Ballet Company.

"I miss all the hustle and the bustle and the people that used to come to the café," Cassel said. "We had a great following. It was a fabulous place to work."

Cassel packed up her knives in 1985 and headed cross-country to attend the culinary arts program at the University of California- Los Angeles and try her hand at catering to the stars in Hollywood. But soon enough, the Pacific islands were calling her name.

In 1992, just a few months after Cassel arrived on the island, Kauai was devastated by Hurricane Iniki. In the true spirit of aloha, she stepped up to the stove and ran one of the island's Red Cross kitchens as it prepared 3,700 meals a day for homeless residents.

"Iniki was my introduction to the community," Cassel said. "When I was out there doing something for the community, that's when everything came together. Cooking for all those people was awesome.

"I can't tell you how many pallets - and I mean pallets - of Spam I went through," she recalled with a laugh. "It was a trip."

Ten years ago, Cassel took two monthlong trips to Asia. She noticed that the intestinal and skin-related issues that had plagued her would subside while she was away.

"When I was in Asia I felt great!" Cassel said. "I would literally be doubled over in pain here. I went to Asia, and I was eating an Asian diet, and all those symptoms subsided and my skin started to heal."