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[spratz]

You know, as a professional cook and lover of just about any food, pretty much the only thing that I'm persnickety about is the people that are excessively (and usually contradictory) persnickety. Well, and maybe the French stickler fascists but that's another story. Aside from the crazy things I hear in a kitchen on a daily basis, fake allergies

Comments

[joannemerriam]

Is there anything in butter besides cream? I don't know how you can be allergic to butter and not be allergic to dairy in general.

Anyway, it's good to see you!

[spratz]

There was actually a person recently that tried to tell their server they were allergic to butter. We all pretty much called horseshit on the entire thing. Turns out the person just didn't want any of their food with any butter. The person admitted to having no actual problems with dairy, but they just didn't want butter anywhere near their food. Usually when someone has a legitimate allergy they have an allergy card, especially if it's an abnormal allergy. Some people are just fussy and blame it on allergies because they think it will be taken seriously, I guess.

[joannemerriam]

Allergy card? What's that?

[spratz]

it's really cool actually. We've had some people with really bizarre allergies and it's literally a credit card sized card that essentially says, "I have this allergy, I can not have this food product, but these are okay substitutes." It's usually issued by their general practitioner, if they want one, but not everyone has them.

And Aronne, I definitely understand the fish thing. I actually work the fish station where I work and I swear once or twice a month someone with a shellfish allergy wants fish, like the two don't ever go near each other. Oh well, I love my job but people are just crazy.

[joannemerriam]

Cool. My only "food" allergies are to something in fake whipped cream (cool whip, dream whip), and the acceptable substitute is real whipped cream (homemade or readywhip), and to beer (we think the hops in the beer, since everything else in beer is in other things), and the acceptable substitute is any other form of alcohol. If I'm not in any shape to explain either of those things without a card, I don't deserve dessert or alcohol! But I can see where it would be super helpful for more complicated allergies.

My niece is allergic to peanuts (and reacts to foods that have touched peanuts) so my sister prints up a sheet for all her friends' parents saying what she can and can't eat so they don't have to try to figure out if, say, Breyer's ice cream is okay or not.