When chef Carol Nardello was diagnosed five years ago with celiac disease (an allergy to the gluten contained in wheat and other common grains), she thought she might starve: “I love bread, I love pasta. I didn’t know what I would be able to eat.”

Today, Nardello, a cooking instructor, private chef, co-author of the “Sweet Dash of Aloha” (the latest cookbook from Kapiolani Community College and Watermark Publishing) and in the process of writing “The Gluten-Free Chef,” is no longer worried about starving.

She isn’t even worried about one of the most central traditions of the holiday season: the Christmas cookie.

Nardello is fortunate to live at a time when gluten-free commercial products are more available.

But, more importantly, she’s learned to use alternative grains — including brown rice, amaranth, cornmeal, ground nuts, beans and sorghum. And though there have been many failures and much to learn, she can now turn out cookies that — in the old cliché — “if you didn’t know, you wouldn’t know.”

At her Lanikai home the other day, the three versions she prepared — salt-topped chocolate, lemon sandies and gingersnaps — would have fooled anyone.

“When I think about Christmas,” she said, “I think about ginger, citrus, chocolate.”

The photographer and I felt like we were at a Christmas party. I fed leftovers to my husband before I told him they were gluten-free, and he was astonished. (He’s been the victim of a few gluten-free experiments in the past.)

The understanding of all this begins with the understanding of the term flour. Flour is ground grain, seeds, beans — pretty much anything dry and grindable. It isn’t wheat. How wheat became our dominant flour is another story.

Thus, if you, or someone near you, can no longer tolerate wheat gluten (the spongy protein that is prevalent in wheat and some other grains), your baking days are not over. But your learning days have started.

Having a daughter with gluten intolerance, I’ve been learning the hard way myself. Results are unpredictable. You don’t know which mixes to trust. Without gluten, breads don’t rise much. The products all cost more than Gold Medal.

“You can be an expert baker and fail; the flours don’t perform the same way,” Nardello said.

One advantage Nardello points out: Here in Hawaii, where so many treats are made with rice flour, a gluten-intolerant person has a real advantage.