So Thomas Keller (who’ll be here in March 2009 as part of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival) and his protege Grant Achatz (the tongue cancer guy) are preparing this amazing 20 course dinner with all that crazy new wave style food.
But I can’t actually believe what I’m reading in Diner’s Journal in the New York Times:
“Table Four, P-Four. She can’t have grapefruit.” (P stands for position.)
“P-Five, no pork product, no spicy chiles.”
“Where are the no fennel guests?”
“Table Seven. One guest is no sweet peppers. Ms. Cowin is allergic to peppers.”
It’s not just me that thinks this is weird is it?
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{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
It’s nuts.
Yep, bet someone had a nut allergy too Zoe.
This doesn’t surprise me in the least.
Dietary requirements whether they are preferences or allergies affect most multi-course menus.
I am especially not surprised considering the cost of the meal and that people that could afford it are more likely than the regualar Joe Blow to have these dietries usually for ‘health reasons’. The average Joe has dietaries preferences due to lack of experience at a high level of dining. ie doesn’t like anchovies, were Mr wealthy fancy diner may not eat anything from the onion family as it upsets his digestion…
Chefs and restaurants tolerate alot of crap preferences and false allergies, and it makes people with real issues lives difficult.
Jack
Not as weird as a certain restaurant reviewer having about 14 different food “allergies”…….. I think you may know who I mean.
Saw a classic “food preferencer” once, it was in a little neighborhood sushi bar in the Ginza and an Aussie ex pat was entertaining an Aussie visitor, the expat was obviously a regular and the chef was wacking out the greatest fresh sushi I’ve ever had (It was cheap as well!) and the visitor said… wait for it… “I don’t mind sushi, but I don’t want any with raw fish”. I was so happy that the only people who understood what he said was the expat and myself!
like the guy above, its really annoying that so many people pretend to have allergies. My partner has Fructose malabsorption and most place think he’s a picky, fussy, up-his ass customer coz the list of foods he’s allergic to are strange (onions, tomatoes, wheat and asparagus). It makes me angry coz its too complicated to explain to the waitress how the condition works but we also don’t want our food tampered with at a restaurant coz we’re being ‘difficult’.
One time, at Jim’s Greek Tavern, they openly disdained us and served us a green salad (which we asked for to have no onion) with minute bits of onion (less than 1/2 cm) chopped through it. I think they were trying to ‘test’ us or punish us for our ‘demands’. My partner spent the rest of the evening having cramps and gastro. I have never been back there nor will I ever. What’s worse is our waiter also kept ignoring our table whilst going to the other tables. The food wasn’t all that good either. In a word, don’t go to Jim’s Greek Tavern.
Paalo, yes I’ve heard that one about the reviewer. Like Zoe said, it’s nuts and I’m jeanie I bet it is annoying to have people with fake allergies. That’s the Jim’s in Collingwood I’m guessing?
If I were a chef it would do my head in. And you have no (legal) choice but to believe people. The consequences of ignoring a request like that are huge, even if you are convinced that it is completely frivolous.
yeap, jims greek tavern in collingwood. don’t go there. not worth it. BIG THUMBS DOWN. i’m not normally one to be overly critical of restaurants but i will take every opportunity to let people know how crap this place is!
That’s quite funny…
You can also see that some of the traffic police are allergic to the smoke.
Some doctors are also allergic to the things in their fields.
Wow, Jeanie, that must’ve been awful for your partner! I rarely go out to eat anymore because it’s such a pain in the neck to try to explain without seeming like I’m just being difficult. And it’s so much easier to say “allergies” than to explain the whole intolerance frustration. “Well, I’m not ~allergic~ to gluten; I just can’t digest it.” I hate it when people think of it as merely being “sensitive” or “picky”, because if I had my druthers, I’d eat everything on my plate, everywhere I go, every time without any question about what’s in it. Most of us don’t choose to be freaks, and those who do have bigger problems than being picky eaters.
On picky eating: Sometimes a person may seem picky when really they’re intolerant or allergic and don’t know it. I’ve never cared for plain, cooked eggs (hard boiled, fried, scrambled, whatever). It made me sick to my stomach to think about eating them, but we weren’t allowed to be picky. We ate what we were given, and it was considered rude to complain. Food allergies were considered rare and certainly no one in our family had them. I finally figured out in my 20’s that I was allergic to several things, and that grossed out and nauseated feeling I got was an allergic reaction. And now we can see that my Mother, sister and several cousins all deal with similar food issues that were never diagnosed. If someone says they don’t want to eat something, don’t give them a hard time about it. Most of the time, we don’t know the whole story.