food allergies and stories form food service
yeah, i know this normally goes over in
thorninthefoot 's journal (my ranting and seriously weird journal for those who don't know), but what the heck, i am bored. you can skip it if you want.
stories about food allergies, stories about Celiacs, stories about weird food stuff.....
The fact is i have allergies. weird ones. i am mildly allergic to Garlic, for instance, which makes eating out a pain in the tuchus. I am also allergic or reactive to RAW (but not cooked) onions. Combine this with a psychological reaction to mayonnaise from having food poisoning as a kid, and having no tolerance to Capsaicin, and you can see that i have a lot of sympathy for people with problems with food.
So, sometime ago, never mind how long precisely, having little or no money in my pocket and a great desire to .... pay some bills, i worked in food service. We cooked everything Fresh and most of it was Baja style, and we got a bunch of folks with food allergies coming in. Now we tried to make a point of being allergy friendly, but most of the other folks had no idea unless they had a relative with the same problem.
i on the other hand spoke allergy, so i tended to take over dealing with those folks.
the people with real allergies were usually polite. the ones that came unglued tended to be the recently diagnosed, who were hyper, or the "just picky" crowd, who tended to be rude. (not that we never had real kitchen problems, mind you, every kitchen does)
One boy came in and he was allergic to wheat. his mom was being very nice and asking if we could handle it, and all. so they called me over (i was assistant manager at the time) we had a chat about it and i said no problem, but let me look over your order and see if its ok. we advised him not to eat the chips, because even though they were corn they got cooked in the same oil with floured stuff. i also made a point of getting the beans from our back stock (the stuff that we had cooked but wasnt in the top trays) to reduce the likelihood of contamination. they were very nice about it all.
One guy would always call in an order for himself and his wife. after several problems and re cooks several different times, i happened to be there when he picked up the order. i told him i noticed that we had some difficulty getting his order right, could he talk to me so i could try to work out a good solution. turned out his wife was allergic to tomatoes. he isnt. so i pointed out that in an order placed together, with a tomato and non tomato... the odds of cross contamination are pretty high....and could he please just tell the phone monkey "i need this in two orders" and then explain the tomato free one "for the allergic person" and we could make a note... we didnt have any more trouble while i was there, so i think we got it solved!
speaking as someone who worked there... if you or a loved one has a food allergy?
order the food in batches.
tell the food prep guy/girl "hi, i have an order for two people, one of us is allergic to ____ so can you change gloves,/clean the knife/wipe the grill/whatever before you make the first order?"
then order THEIR food first (clean gloves and knife) and then yours.
once i told the families with allergic members the big secret (tell us you have ONE person with an allergy.... let us know so we can change gloves... order their stuff in a separate batch) we almost always got it right.
as someone who orders sandwiches in shops where they cut raw onions (hubby and i are both allergic to raw onions) i almost always have to tell the person "now i have an allergy to raw onions, i know this will take some extra time.... can you put down some fresh paper on the counter, and wipe off the knife/change your gloves?" and i order mine (NO relishes or pickles) before hubby's (he likes those things, ICK) so his spicy stuff doesnt get on my sandwich. i have rarely had a problem.
try to think like a kitchen prep person.... they do NOT change gloves between every food unless told to. they dont worry about cross contamination except between raw/cooked unless they are a special kitchen.
find out what you need to worry about
the first time you order at a place, go on a slow period or phone ahead.
order the stuff in reverse order of contamination risk.
(oh, and in some places the order taker can type into the computer "special prep... change gloves" we did it all the time)
lastly? if you have an allergy, and you are eating at an unfamiliar place, or food.. ASK if you see any words you dont know.
hubby ate out with co workers at a Chinese place that has vegan and meat dishes. his co worker ordered the seitan (fake meat ) from the vegetarian menu. in the course of the meal he mentioned that he had Celiac's....
hubby "doesnt that mean you shouldnt have gluten?"
him "oh yes, it makes me very sick"
hubby "then why on earth did you order the wheat gluten meat?"
"huh?!"
he had not known what seitan was made of. but he didnt ask, didnt mention the allergy, and just ordered something with a strange name 9he also didnt ask what they thickened the sauces with). end result? he got very sick, in a place that could have fed him safely.....
(bonus points for identifying the quote at the top of this post.)
thorninthefoot 's journal (my ranting and seriously weird journal for those who don't know), but what the heck, i am bored. you can skip it if you want.
stories about food allergies, stories about Celiacs, stories about weird food stuff.....
The fact is i have allergies. weird ones. i am mildly allergic to Garlic, for instance, which makes eating out a pain in the tuchus. I am also allergic or reactive to RAW (but not cooked) onions. Combine this with a psychological reaction to mayonnaise from having food poisoning as a kid, and having no tolerance to Capsaicin, and you can see that i have a lot of sympathy for people with problems with food.
So, sometime ago, never mind how long precisely, having little or no money in my pocket and a great desire to .... pay some bills, i worked in food service. We cooked everything Fresh and most of it was Baja style, and we got a bunch of folks with food allergies coming in. Now we tried to make a point of being allergy friendly, but most of the other folks had no idea unless they had a relative with the same problem.
i on the other hand spoke allergy, so i tended to take over dealing with those folks.
the people with real allergies were usually polite. the ones that came unglued tended to be the recently diagnosed, who were hyper, or the "just picky" crowd, who tended to be rude. (not that we never had real kitchen problems, mind you, every kitchen does)
One boy came in and he was allergic to wheat. his mom was being very nice and asking if we could handle it, and all. so they called me over (i was assistant manager at the time) we had a chat about it and i said no problem, but let me look over your order and see if its ok. we advised him not to eat the chips, because even though they were corn they got cooked in the same oil with floured stuff. i also made a point of getting the beans from our back stock (the stuff that we had cooked but wasnt in the top trays) to reduce the likelihood of contamination. they were very nice about it all.
One guy would always call in an order for himself and his wife. after several problems and re cooks several different times, i happened to be there when he picked up the order. i told him i noticed that we had some difficulty getting his order right, could he talk to me so i could try to work out a good solution. turned out his wife was allergic to tomatoes. he isnt. so i pointed out that in an order placed together, with a tomato and non tomato... the odds of cross contamination are pretty high....and could he please just tell the phone monkey "i need this in two orders" and then explain the tomato free one "for the allergic person" and we could make a note... we didnt have any more trouble while i was there, so i think we got it solved!
speaking as someone who worked there... if you or a loved one has a food allergy?
order the food in batches.
tell the food prep guy/girl "hi, i have an order for two people, one of us is allergic to ____ so can you change gloves,/clean the knife/wipe the grill/whatever before you make the first order?"
then order THEIR food first (clean gloves and knife) and then yours.
once i told the families with allergic members the big secret (tell us you have ONE person with an allergy.... let us know so we can change gloves... order their stuff in a separate batch) we almost always got it right.
as someone who orders sandwiches in shops where they cut raw onions (hubby and i are both allergic to raw onions) i almost always have to tell the person "now i have an allergy to raw onions, i know this will take some extra time.... can you put down some fresh paper on the counter, and wipe off the knife/change your gloves?" and i order mine (NO relishes or pickles) before hubby's (he likes those things, ICK) so his spicy stuff doesnt get on my sandwich. i have rarely had a problem.
try to think like a kitchen prep person.... they do NOT change gloves between every food unless told to. they dont worry about cross contamination except between raw/cooked unless they are a special kitchen.
find out what you need to worry about
the first time you order at a place, go on a slow period or phone ahead.
order the stuff in reverse order of contamination risk.
(oh, and in some places the order taker can type into the computer "special prep... change gloves" we did it all the time)
lastly? if you have an allergy, and you are eating at an unfamiliar place, or food.. ASK if you see any words you dont know.
hubby ate out with co workers at a Chinese place that has vegan and meat dishes. his co worker ordered the seitan (fake meat ) from the vegetarian menu. in the course of the meal he mentioned that he had Celiac's....
hubby "doesnt that mean you shouldnt have gluten?"
him "oh yes, it makes me very sick"
hubby "then why on earth did you order the wheat gluten meat?"
"huh?!"
he had not known what seitan was made of. but he didnt ask, didnt mention the allergy, and just ordered something with a strange name 9he also didnt ask what they thickened the sauces with). end result? he got very sick, in a place that could have fed him safely.....
(bonus points for identifying the quote at the top of this post.)