Guest with specific diet told to bring something they can eat for passover

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It’s quite obvious to anyone with hotel or restaurant service experience who has self diagnosed.
Gluten free became trendy not only for attention seekers but also because people would often lose weight when cutting out the carbs.
 
Even full-blown celiacs can have a "bit of gluten". They will suffer afterwards of course, but that one instance isn't likely to kill them.
Also a true sufferer is highly unlikely to chance an episode in a restaurant or a seminar. I've a friend who is celiac and has maybe 20/30 minutes to react after ingestion. I can't say or other sufferers but that is not long.
 
I was eating in a restaurant a few weeks ago, and I heard the mother of a little girl interrogating the server regarding what the foods contain and her daughters allergy to the point where the server had to call the restaurant owner ( who wasnt there at the time) to get answers. Im not sure what the kids allergies or conditions were, but with the amount of questions she asked , as a parent , I wouldn't take the risk. No matter how careful they are , there will more than likely be cross contamination . Just not worth the risk. Contamination happens I operating rooms, let alone restaurants that serve nuts, dairy , gluten, sea food ....( actually, it was a vegan restaurant, so likely no sea food :P )
 
Enough to service a 600 person guest list? Yes, I agree true sufferer will have their own with them. But they are very expensive, at least here they are.
No, not close to 600 covers 🤣
But in our hotel, we had first aid cabinets in every pantry on every floor, every restaurant, all the function rooms etc. And they all had epi-pens as an item on the stock list.
 
Wow... have no idea what the criteria is here. That's a lot of pens, especially considering their cost and their short shelf life.
 
Yes, very expensive. There was no legislation to force us to have them, but definitely “strongly advised” by the health department. A small restaurant probably wouldn’t have them, but our bigger international hotels absolutely do. We were seen as having multinational corporate chain dollars and as such, a bit of an easy target for litigation.
 
It's sad but people like that are asking to be banned. Many places will just apologize and say sorry we do not have a gluten free menu. Or the gluten free menu is on page 3, that's all we have.
People who are celiac know and understand this. Morons don't.

LOL - the servers should have refused to serve them something with gluten in it. LOL or have them sign a waiver saying that they would not be responsible for reactions incurred.

I just googled and about 1% of the U.S. population has celiac disease. Compare that to 1 in 10 who have type 2 diabetes.
The people demanding gluten free and then having gluten with dessert aren't just asking to be banned. They are making life harder for people with gluten intolerance and coeliac disease.

When I go to a resto and ask for no tomato with seeds or any of my other sensitivities, I make it clear to the server that it is not an allergy and minor contamination is not an issue.
 
Yes, this is also true. Many of the older chefs (and some of the younger ones too) would roll their eyes and mutter something obscene when an order came through being gluten free/vegan/air intolerant.
But I and others would take it as a challenge and make sure the quality was equal to anything else on the menu.
The most annoying part was how the special meal would interrupt the flow of the line. But you deal with it.
For those people who really ARE intolerant of gluten, it can make them very sick, so I would never want that for anyone eating my food. I can handle a few band wagon customers who will inevitably return to the bread basket before long.
 
But I'm not talking about a few random individuals, I'm referring to a 600 strong convention were everyone was submitting their whimsical whims.
They never considered the fact that these whimseys would make it a more likely hood of error for an overworked staff to accidently injure someone who was truly at risk?

I know I know - in a perfect world.
 
Hence the GM banning all supplements companies. The sales person who booked the event did some research after the fact and other function venues all confirmed that this industry sector was full of employees who were entitled and demanding with their dietary demands.
 
LOL, well sure hope he sent a little memo to fellow booking agencies for other hotels. Could save them a lot of heart ache and $$$ loss.

Another way is to just add on the $$ as extras for this and $$$ for that and then $$$$ for that one!
Anything other than your regular venue is extra.
As in, you have a gluten free menu - anything over and above that is extra.
 
Yes, this is also true. Many of the older chefs (and some of the younger ones too) would roll their eyes and mutter something obscene when an order came through being gluten free/vegan/air intolerant.
But I and others would take it as a challenge and make sure the quality was equal to anything else on the menu.
The most annoying part was how the special meal would interrupt the flow of the line. But you deal with it.
For those people who really ARE intolerant of gluten, it can make them very sick, so I would never want that for anyone eating my food. I can handle a few band wagon customers who will inevitably return to the bread basket before long.
Yeah, when on the line cooking as the chef calling out orders, and then a server comes in with an allergy situation it must be taken seriously simply because it's not a debatable situation, you can either deliver and be able to cope with the situation, or you can't, there simply is no time for debates or personal opinions.

On the other hand, a large percentage of these requests are totally made up and mostly by women, not sure why, but that's what I've observed over the years. I worked in a high end spa in the Canadian North 2 days a week to give their main chef a break, with a maximum capacity of 20 guests and they had a white board divided into 20 sections in the kichen which allowed for the guests health issues and preferences, so I know first hand the fuss people make all for the sake of vanity and self awareness it seemed, funny really. I mean the cost was absolutely ridiculous to stay there and 95% of the guests were women and it was a challenge to say the least.

Anyway, back to a regular situation in a regular restaurant. It was New Years Eve and a server came up to me saying their table of 4 were all allergic to onion, so no onion please. I can't really blame the server, they were young and it was a very busy night and they had no opinion and was just relaying the information. i asked the server to go back to the table and tell the guests that the chef could not guarantee cross contamination considering the kitchen uses many pounds of onions a day and really can't take the responsibility of that cross contamination and the only option I could offer was desserts because the kitchen that made pastries and desserts was a different kitchen altogether, which was true. Anyway, as suspected, the server came back and said that onion was ok as long as they didn't see onion on the plate. That gave the staff a giggle for sure.
 
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I know it’s been said by detractors over the years, but I can honestly say that the health supplement guests were the sickliest looking people I’ve ever seen.
 
Great! Break out the onion powder and go to town! 🤣
My "inside voice" screamed this! :LOL:

I would be sorting allergies. Instead of a carving station, seafood station, etc., I'd be making the gluten-free room, keto-room, no nut room, etc. If I had to have fifty little rooms rather than a central dining hall, I think I would. What a headache! I cannot even imagine it.
 
After we had all been to therapy and returned to work, the floor manager told me that he had spoken to the client at the event.
“How do you cope with all this at your staff canteen?”
“Oh, we don’t have one. We couldn’t keep everyone happy.”
 
That's amazing - separate the dining rooms! Genius! Might put paid to a few allergies and whims, eh?
This is why I could not do food service. "No, you cannot go to this dining room. You have a dairy allergy whereas this room is for those with nut allergies. I realize your friend is allocated to this room, but safety first! No, you cannot join your other friend in the gluten-free room. Perhaps you have friends in the vegan room that allows no animal products....no, you cannot take honey with you." Yeah, that pretty much sums up what I would do. :winkiss:

Yes, I would adhere to those with valid medical needs. If they are working with their doctor, who am I to say they could not endure a room with peanuts and still be okay with working within for their dairy allergy? Medical documentation required.
 
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