Did you hear the one about the Melbourne-based food reviewer with some 14 food allergies? Don’t laugh.The story has been doing the rounds for months now.
And further from my previous post check out the ones that crept out of the sick bucket after Michael Ruhlman’s provocatively titled post A Nation of Culinary Sissies.
We though we had a food allergy for a while after I puked because of a bad one in Hervey Bay. Then again after some Oysters from the Butley Oyster Oysterage.
Jak did as well at both places. Then she puked so hard after Oysters Kilpatrick (I know. why the fuck would you eat those?) at the Marriott in Surfers Paradise that she broke her rib. A month later she had pneumonia and coughed so hard she broke a rib on the other side.
What was awkward was that we were about to go to Africa and canoe down the Zambezi. She couldn’t paddle. It turned out that although I was physically able I couldn’t paddle either.
She assumed she couldn’t ever eat oysters again and had an allergy but I was okay.
Then just over a year ago Heston Blumenthal’s science man Peter Barham was over talking at Ray Capaldi’s old place Fenix.
Barham brought up allergies and told us most don’t exist that many people who thought they had them don’t. She cornered him and he explained to her that she wasn’t allergic and that it was all in the mind. Now when she concentrates and she’s feeling mentally strong she can eat oysters.
But I’m still allergic to whisky.
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{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Are you allergic to whiskey in the way that my dad claims that Cognac is the sole cause of hangovers?
What a heap o crap, “most allergies don’t exist”.
Some self-diagnosed allergies are erroneous. Sure. But allergies, food intolerances and anaphylactic reactions are an increasing fact of life. They are just inconvenient for chefs.
But they do exist.
I think the concept of a restaurant reviewer having food allergies is very interesting, not quiet akin with a blind art reviewer or a deaf music reviewer, but getting there. In the very least they should declare their handicap/interest. For example if they had a shellfish allergy should they review an oyster bar?
and
the power of the mind! It took me two years to overcome my “allergy” to red wine. Yes it was similar to the oyster episodes but involved several bottles of cheap red one night in my uni days!
further more,
“most allergies don’t exist” attributed to Peter Barham is a little out of content, what I understood him to say (and I was there), was that most people who think they have an allergy are incorrect. The power of the mind, check the meaning of psychophysiological or psychosomatic as it was called in my day while studying Psychology at uni (yes the same time as the red wine incident).
While it may appear that allergies, food intolerances and analphylactic reactions are an increasing fact of life, an alternative explanation may be that we are encountering these more due to our society’s affluence.
We drink more milk hence there is more lactose intolerance.
There are more allergies because there are more survivors.
and as for “They are just inconvenient for chefs. ” I’m leaving that one alone! Well at least for time being.
Alex, everyone knows hangovers are really caused by red wine.
AOF/Paalo, forgive my laziness in what I wrote and I’ve updated the post. Paalo is correct.I’ve just dug up my note book. He was talking about food preferences at the time and that they are decided pre -pubety. He also said as people age with very few exceptions they become allergic to certain foods.
The food reviewer with many intolerances is not a joke, even this persons co-editor I think is unaware of the full extent of it but most Melbourne restaurateurs do.
So how do you review desserts if you don’t eat sugar?
Review by proxy?
Interesting. Must remind my 2 year-old whenever he barfs after drinking cow’s milk that it’s all mind over matter..
its the inconsiderate people who claim to have food allergies to cover up the face that they simply dont like the taste of something that gives genuinely affected patrons a bad name… so as long as you pick an easily recognizable allergy to have then you should be fine! (end sarcasm)
…and it all played out with a tedious inevitability.
I have serious food allergies to peanuts and seafood (I have anaphylactic reactions and have to carry and EpiPen everywhere I go). As jeanie just mentioned - “inconsiderate people who claim to have food allergies to cover up the fact that they simply dont like the taste of something that gives genuinely affected patrons a bad name” - I couldnt have said it better myself! I hardly every eat out because I’ve had some bad experiences by people who just have no idea how bad it really is (life or death) and pass me off as a “fussy eater”!
Really Interesting…
Hi from the other side of the world!
Food allergies are alive and well and living in Ireland too but the most people claiming food allergies coming to Ireland are Americans who have changed the way Irish cater to culinary needs.
i think it is because most people don’t actually know what an allergy is, they think it is just something that makes you a bit queasy (which can be psychosomatic) but an allergy is actually an immune response.
I think anna is correct, we are talking about 3 or 4 different things. Allergies, Dislikes and Intolerances (real and psychosomatic).
To be simplistic, allergies will result in symptoms such as swelling and rashes and can be life threatening. An intolerance will probably produce queasiness, bloating, vomiting and/or diarrhea. A dislike will produce any of these depending on the psych, usually verbal diarrhea.
I could also say that we all have dislikes, most of us have at least one intolerance and a unlucky few have allergies. I am one of the unlucky ones who have all three, luckily it’s a very rare allergy so easy to avoid while eating out, and a very common intolerance, so also easy to manage.