Revisiting a touchy subject (tchef's food intolerance thread)

[rat]

I do my best to accomodate people as we all should but what gets me boiling is the people who lie about it and thus put people who truly have food issues at greater risk or inconvienience. I have alot more respect for a customer who will say they don't like something what can I do for them compared to a guest who will just lie to get what they want.

For example I had a customer who stated she was allergic to chocolate ice cream which is fine but them proceded to get vanilla IC with chocolate sauce.

[izbnso]

Being a caterer it is easier to accommodate food allergies and sensitivities. For the most part we get advance notice. However, I am particularly mindful of allergies because I grew up with them. I had a few that I “out grew”: a protein allergy to raw milk (not to be confused with lactose intolerance), chocolate and bananas. Those are gone now. Then I had allergies pop up that I didn’t have when I was little: seafood, peppers and artificial sweeteners. The seafood is the really bad one.
But, the big boogey man of my childhood was my brother’s peanut allergy. The neighbor lady’s opinion that it was a farce (she gave him some peanut butter candy to prove her point) almost killed him. He is not as sensitive as he was in childhood (when we were little trace transfer could have us in the emergency room) but eating something cooked in peanut oil will still kill him. Anaphylactic shock is no fun at all.
Years ago people (like the neighbor lady) were told by doctors that food allergies were a myth. If you didn’t have allergies you probably weren’t aware that some actual doctors didn’t believe. Non-belief was so bad my mother actually carried with her at all times a photograph of my brother she took in the emergency room after a neighbor kid washed his peanut butter covered hands off with our outside faucet and my brother came by later that afternoon and used the same faucet to splash water on his face, he looked like Rocky Balboa after a bad fight and that was just external contact. She used this picture at any restaurant we ate at to make sure the staff knew that she wasn’t kidding, and that a “white lie” for the sake of convenience could kill.
All that being said, from a business standpoint special needs diets are the largest growing market in the food industry. I read an article a few months ago that talked about it in depth. Keep in mind that “food industry” includes products marketed at grocery stores, etc. The restaurant industry is part of the food industry, so I’m not sure how this trend will play out for restaurants.
The trend is not so much due to growing numbers of new allergies but a greater awareness of them.
There is big money in accommodating special diets. How to tap into it in a restaurant situation, I don’t know for sure.

[tchef]

Ta Kuan,

Yes I’m still around, and the thread I started was closed, for which I’m thankful!, “much knuckles wrapped by admin guys”

With the greatest Respect to everyone who took part in the thread, I do have empathy with sufferers of any ailments, Special needs blah blah blah……and to answer your questions will be my pleasure.

I have received a number of comments from my web site, and to be honest with you I took of some blog not because it was offensive to some “public do Gooding ********” but it was jamming up my in box.

When I have an Idea, my kitchen is the first place I want to be no matter the time, it could be 3am, I will drive there and develop, work on it at make it precise, and unless I think that it will not deliver to my paying customers it will appear on my MENU…

I go down and spend time with some of the greatest people on earth my suppliers. We drink tea, smoke cigarettes and talk about life, at the same time I am in their environment, do I question them? Say, “ Jim you know that outstanding smoked haddock you do? Well did any Tree suffer in the smoking process? Or perhaps can you let me know if any members of your staff, their children and other persons you come into contact with have been eating NUTS.

“Hi Dennis me again, sorry to be a pain I know it’s the 10th phone call today but, the pea shoots and the Micros you delivered are the containers you grow them in, Bio, toxin free blah blah blah……..No I don’t, instead thanks for delivering the best produce when I need it.

“ You see my Craft involves a lot more than turning on the Cooker!!!!,

Yes my Employers back me 100% "its my cal Dummy"

No I’m not rude…but lack some patience with other beings “wouldn’t you”

MY kitchen is precise for the Dishes it provides on My Menu, no room to carry excess stock………”its all fresh”
Off course I can adapt:

1. Why should I
2. Adapt is a word for failing restaurants!!!!!
3. Consider other diners
4. Choice “Take it or leave it”
5. “I know your special, however you might consider that all my guests are…. they all work just as xxxxxxx hard ....go home your not WELCOME"


Kiss , Love & regards.
<edited to remove inappropriate language>

[Home Grown Chef]

All of you should watch the independant film, "I Like Killing Flies" with Kenny Shopsin. This guy knows what to do with customers....

[LogghiB]

In my mind, it is pretty ideal when customers are able to voice what they want to the staff. I definitely encourage them to ask about things they want, or better yet just to voice their tastes so the server can link them up with what they'll like best. The worst that can happen is that we have to say "No, sorry."

Some people may strive to execute their product exactly the way they envisioned and that is the most important aspect to them. If that business model works then good for them. I endeavor to try to make people happy and get them to come back. I want them to be the regulars who will be adventurous on the menu. I want people to come in, have a couple bottles of wine, eat some choice food and enjoy the time spent with their friends and/or family. Impeccable food is a really key element to a great restaurant experience but I feel, in the end, it is more about a great social experience than it is a gastronomical one. The customers who I see returning on a weekly (or more) basis are the ones who know us all by name and can walk up to the kitchen after their meal and ask about the curing process for a leg of pig, or where we buy our rabbits from, or what farm sold us the parsnips they had.

I try to make the best food I can. I definitely adapt (75% of the menu changes based on product availability, so by nature it is in constant flux)
to the whims of the kitchen, the whims of the customer. I try to use sustainable, ecologically friendly products. Why? Because there are more important things in life than food. I'd rather serve someone a happy experience than a flawless one (although the two aren't mutually exclusive, of course) and above all else I strive to respect my staff and my customers as regular people and not judge people by their dietary requirements.

If someone has needs that cannot be met maybe we should go out there and explain why like reasonable human beings instead of being snotty and condescending as if they are incapable of understanding. That way they'll know better for future restaurant excursions and heck, maybe they'll tell all their friends about how awesome your restaurant treats people.

[tchef]

Maybe put one notice on your Menu, "Welcome to order from my Menu if you have one special requirements , but sorry Please leave and give the table up for one Normal person" have one nice day.....


kiss, love hugs

[foodnfoto]

OK TCHEF!
We get it!
We all understand what kind of regard you hold for your customers.

Give it a rest and let's move on to a more edifying discussion.

Sheesh!

[Psycho Chef]

Originally Posted by tchef

Maybe put one notice on your Menu, "Welcome to order from my Menu if you have one special requirements , but sorry Please leave and give the table up for one Normal person" have one nice day.....


kiss, love hugs

I don't even understand what this means...Maybe a couple of single malts and a cigarette will get me seeing tchef's perspective.

[kuan]

Originally Posted by Psycho Chef

I don't even understand what this means...Maybe a couple of single malts and a cigarette will get me seeing tchef's perspective.

Think if you visit him you can probably try plenty of single malts!

It's OK. He has his perspective, and it works for him. It doesn't work for some of us who live in, uh, "different" markets.

[Psycho Chef]

Hey foodnfoto, don't be annoyed, just imagine Dudley Moore from that movie "Arthur" every time you read one of tchef's posts and it all becomes very funny!

It works for me.

[foodnfoto]

Yeah, I suppose you are right Psycho Chef.

He kind of reminds me of the acting work Al Pacino has been doing for the last 15 years-two notes and two notes only.

Note 1=quietly menacing with a slight hair and jaw quiver.
Note 2="The Yell" with wider eyes and large hair and jaw quiver.

[tchef]

tchef, this mean's......Tea Total, sorry to ruin your fun, are you understanding Professional Chef's Forum, but hey iv'e been arround and what you lack in one Kitchen, you make up in your HEADS.....thats Ritchards heads, ps whos dudley?


No Kiss this time

[Jim]

This thread has deteriorated, yet again. Fellow ChefTalk members, please refrain from bashing, lambasting or otherwsie taking stabs at other members. It is called the Professional Chef's Forum; let us all be professional. Thread closed, again.