ALLERGIES IN THE KITCHEN

I’d like to make a reservation, but could you please leave a note for the chef that we have a gluten intolerance?” “Sure. No problem at all.” “Are you sure that you’ll have things for us to eat?”

“It will be no problem. We deal with allergies every day.”

This is a classic conversation happening across restaurants, cafes, pubs, bakeries — pretty much anywhere serving food these days. And it’s not limited to gluten; add diary and the other myriad of diets that people are on.

In a restaurant such as the one I work at, our menu is designed to showcase what the season dictates, highlight the bounty of our terrain and focus on simple, great ingredients, but we’re certainly not as rigid as people might think. If you don’t want to eat rabbit, or you’re simply allergic to mushrooms, just tell us. It’s really no problem; we’ll make you something else.

At the end of the day, we just want to make you happy. We are in the hospitality business after all.

What causes us issues, as staff, is sometimes the misunderstandings.

The gluten-intolerant person who, after stating that they can’t have the bread, orders a beer. The dairy free customer who orders wants bernaise sauce with their steak.

It feels that it is getting to the stage that it’s rare to have a night where there are no requests to alter the menu for these dietary requests. I get that there are many people who have allergies and serious health complications and we will always treat the requests to the best of our ability. Diners need to be made aware that chefs will cater to all these allergies seriously and will always customise the dish to suit the diner. This huge spike in customised cooking is leading to a watered-down culture within kitchens where some cooks are becoming complacent to genuine life-threatening allergies. So, as diners, I ask – please aware of what you can and can’t eat.