Lee Tobin is one busy man. As team leader for Whole Foods Market's new Gluten-Free Bakehouse in Morrisville, North Carolina, he rarely has a spare moment to reflect on how this successful enterprise, his brainchild, progressed from idea to reality.

Tobin's journey into the world of gluten-free baking began with a visit to his doctor in 1996 when the Pennsylvania native sought treatment for a persistent and painful rash. He was diagnosed with dermatitis herpetiformis, or DH, a skin condition associated with celiac disease. "I went to a general practitioner who referred me to a dermatologist who had seen this type of rash before. I was diagnosed with celiac disease within two visits— I was extremely lucky," Tobin says.

The National Institute for Health has acknowledged that celiac disease affects 1 in 133 individuals in the United States, yet 97 percent of the celiac population has yet to be properly diagnosed. The only effective treatment is a lifelong adherence to a gluten-free diet. Gluten is a protein found in wheat, rye and barley.

"I was real fortunate that I'd worked in food service all my life," says Tobin. "When you go on the gluten-free diet, the first thing you do is read labels. I already had an understanding of what's in food. And I worked at Whole Foods in an environment where I had all the things I needed to feed myself. We were selling a limited amount of gluten-free products at the time, so I had choices at my fingertips."

He also had a solid background in baking and he began to do research to adapt and create recipes. At the time, he was working at the Chapel Hill, North Carolina, store in the prepared foods and bakery departments. An avid bicyclist with a former "loaf-a-day habit," Tobin knew he was going to miss eating bread. Despite many baking attempts, though, he couldn't achieve the taste and texture he was after in his loaves. "I got frustrated and kind of gave up." He turned to eating packaged rice cakes.

One Saturday morning, Tobin recalls, he and local celiac support group leaders conducted an in-store demonstration of some packaged gluten-free products and a couple of recipes Tobin had developed for gluten-free brownies and cream biscuits. Customers began asking Tobin to bake fresh gluten-free items to sell in the store's bakery. The store manager granted permission, and for four hours each week— after a thorough cleaning of all equipment to ensure no contamination with gluten— Tobin tested recipes and baked. In addition to the cream biscuits, he developed chocolate chip cookies, banana bread, scones and sandwich bread. "It just evolved from there," he says.