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I was reading Pete Wells’s comment from the per se kitchen during the Keller-Achatz dinner that when sent to inquire as to food allergies, captains reported that the first 8 tables, of 16 I believe, requested that the kitchen amend the menu for them in some way due to food allergies (I trust not simply preferences). The ninth table was probably a deuce. Pete didn’t expand on further requests. One of the requests came from the editor of a prominent food magazine.
One of my dearest friends got angry with me for sending him an article noting that so-called MSG allergies have been thoroughly debunked. He is insistent. What causes this irrational and senseless belief that our bodies react violently to any number of fruits and vegetables and livestock?
My favorite stories are from servers who tell of customers who claim to be allergic to dairy—so no milk, cream, or butter—and then order the cheese at the end of the meal.
People allergic to grapefruit? Or sweet peppers? Please. Fennel? Come on.
As Harold McGee writes in On Food and Cooking, an estimated 2% of the adult population have food allergies. I ate a handful of hazel and brazil nuts at a Christmas party last year and my arm grew hives, my head swelled up and I looked like a boiled lobster.
Seeds and nuts are common sources of allergies and can be serious, of course. Some people are allergic to gluten. Another common allergy is to egg white. And of course many have shellfish allergies.
When you have a food allergy it means that your body believes that something is attacking it and launches a response that results in everything from discomfort to shock.
But again, 2%. All other "allergies," my guess is, stem from ignorance and fear and a generally food-neurotic culture. I wonder if the French and Italians and Spanish, who tend to be so sensible about how and when to eat, report a similar incidence. Any servers reading this? I’d love to hear the best “I’m allergic to” story.
UPDATE: In comments, Anthony notes that people on statins shouldn't have grapefruit. I'll give him that–my dad was on statins and had the grapefruit issue. Another commenter notes it's possible to be lactose intolerant and still enjoy cheese; lactose intolerance isn't an allergy, though, and it's my understanding that it's usually kids who have milk allergies, though, as I'm sure is clear from my ranty little post, I'm no nutritionist.
ONE LAST THING: Many commenters are noting personal uncommon alergies (papaya, carrots)–if you do so, and know the actual substance with in the food causing the reaction, please note it.
While I generally agree with you about this, I think that often servers are unprepared to answer important questions that people have about food allergies. A dear friend of mine has a severe gluten “allergy.” I put allergy in quotes because it is actually an auto-immune reaction during which the body’s immune system begins to attack the small intestines because of the gluten. This usually results in a day or two in bed and sometimes a hospital visit.
She cannot consume even small quantities of anything that contains wheat, barely, oats, or rye. Sauces are thickened with flour, and braised meats are often dusted with flour. Most servers seem to think that Pot roast served with potatoes and carrots does not contain any flour, but it often does.
I simply think its worth noting that servers need to be more aware of the cooking process to better answer customers questions.
My mother always swore she was allergic to canned tuna, even took pride in the fact, but could eat it if it was well-washed under the tap first before going into a salad. Ick.
So when I made the tuna salad, I made sure that no one noticed that I didn’t wash the tuna. Guess what? She never got sick from it! And she liked my salad the best.
Then one day my dad caught me and boy, did I get in trouble. It didn’t matter that I had proven that she wasn’t allergic. I had been “disrespectful of my elders”! Oh, the shame.
Giving my grandmother food with MSG in it was like getting her drunk. We avoided it for the most part, but occasionally some would slip through and she’d be really disoriented.
Unfortunately the prevalence of people claiming allergies when they really don’t like the food, means that occasionally people don’t take your word for it when you have a legitimate allergy. I know people with legitimate allergies – my aunt has so many severe (possibly fatal) allergies that she has to carry around one of those giant adrenaline shots so that she can make it to the hospital in case she has a reaction.
I absolutely despise coconut, both flavor and texture. I have a few times lied about being allergic to coconut, but in each case I was offered a food with coconut, declined, and had the food practically pushed upon me. After repeated refusals, I finally said I was allergic just so that they would stop.
Of course, if Keller offered me something with raw coconut, I’d give it a shot. I’m not a culinary sissy.
But I think I still would have to decline the tobacco-infused cream. Just reading that they broke up a cigar and soaked it in cream made me want to throw up. Nasty.
I, like a few others on here, am lactose intolerant – my digestive issues mostly manifest when I’ve consumed milk or cream. However, most cheeses don’t have the ill effect, so I have no problem ordering it for dessert when I want to indulge.
As for the Starbucks “test,” yes, it does take me more than 3 words to order my drink (tall sugar-free vanilla soymilk latte — OMG a whole six words), but Starbucks provides this service and these options to me, and they are happy to charge a fee to do so.
@Ruhlman
Your blog post mentions your hope that people at the dinner did not request changes to the menu simply due to preferences. If I’m reading you correctly, I kind of see your point, but at the same time, if I paid $1,500.00 for a dinner, I think I’ve got a pretty good argument that I should be able to avoid raw coconut just because I hate it.
I know many people with very serious allergies, but I can’t imagine any of them going to Per Se. Let alone going to Per Se during the Keller-Aschatz dinner. That seems to me to be incredibly selfish. Like you, I’m fairly skeptical about whether those people really have the allergies they claim. I think a quick test would be to take them to Starbucks and see what they order (I’d rather go support my local coffee shop, but Starbucks works better for the test). If it takes them more then 3 words to order their drink then their just being jerks who feel entitled to always have things their way. If you don’t like what’s on the menu go somewhere else or make it yourself. You’re annoying the workers, the people in line behind you, and in this case the people who would have loved to take your place at the table.
While indeed the incidence of food allergies is increasing,
-I’ll bet the common customer’s use of the word “allergic” is a response to their food preferences not being taken seriously by restaurant staff.
When one is paying for the service of having food prepared, one would assume that their food preference would be honored. When that doesn’t hold true the trump card of “I’m allergic” can be procured.
Unfortunately, calling ‘wolf’ with allergies has brought about this reaction evoked by your post: other allergies are not real, except the ones I have.
I am mostly on your side in this, except lactose intolerance is real but lactose disappears as cheese ages. Hurrah for cheese eaters!
Melon and it’s relatives can cause some embarrassment and nightshades as well.
far be it from me to call cookeatfret a culinary sissy, as I know for a fact she is not!
but claudia, what in papaya are you allergic to?
I spent my entire childhood claiming to be allergic to eggplant, because I couldn’t stand the bitter soggy sponge-like things I found in the hippy stirfrys people made (Northern California in the 1970s, what can I say? The food sucked).
A summer in Greece “cured” me of it, however. Hallelujah!
The more I live and learn about food and health, the more I realize that everyone has an entirely different operating system. I’ve seen serious reactions to MSG; just because I don’t get them doesn’t mean they’re not true. I’ve been tested as “intolerant” to dairy, sugar, eggs, and beans. Can I eat these things? Yes (and do, in small amounts). But I feel better when I don’t.
That said, I’d eat whatever the hell Keller-Achatz wanted to put in front of me. Those with serious allergies/intolerances need to call ahead and make sure they can be accommodated. You can’t make requests like that on the spot and expect to be taken care of. Whether it’s true or not, it’s just poor form.
well, i am deathly allergic to raw papaya. certain other raw fruits and nuts make me itchy and sneezy and swell up but it goes away in 20 minutes or so. but cooked fruit or roasted nuts? no problem.
but raw papaya? just get me to the emergency room… first i get giddy, then sneezy, then i turn into the elephant man and can’t breathe. lovely…
We dine out with a couple where the wife is allergic to a great many things. As I knew them when she went into the hospital for an extended period of times when they found these issues I can’t fault her for being unwilling to take any life and death risks.
When we go out with them we get around this very simply, we go to places that are local, chef driven and know every component that goes into every dish. We in turn, since we are getting them to some of our favorite places, make sure that we make a reservation in person and send a full printed list back to the kitchen(during a slow period of course) to validate that the kitchen will be able to accommodate her allergies.
We have done 7+course chef’s table meals with this couple with only minor issues (in part because a printed copy of the allergies is given to the kitchen when we arrive for reference).
What I don’t understand about this dinner was if these people had all of these allergies why didn’t they send a polite heads up to the chefs in writing, before they got to the restaurant. Anything else seems sort of rude to me, but I am probably being insanely practical again.
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It’s worth noting that there’s a physiological reaction that the body has: if you’ve eaten something and then are sick shortly afterwards, your body will associate the one with the other, even if it was not the cause. This is the body’s way of protecting you from poisonous things you might have eaten. However, what it means is that things that you are not ‘allergic’ to can make you sick, just from the psychological association. The brain is a powerful thing…
I’m horribly allergic to unmodified soy & bean proteins. I can eat tofu, but any other soy or high-protein bean is right out. Cooking generally isn’t enough to denature the protein to make it safe for me. I was literally born this way.
I’ve developed an allergy to crustaceans. You notice, NOT seafood. I can eat lobster & bivalves, but I can’t eat calamari, shrimp or crab without having the beginnings of a serious allergic reaction.
After spending a night in a hotel bathroom drinking Benadryl every two hours, thanks to discovering that the combination of a white beans & calamari in an otherwise luscious soup had given me an allergic reaction that left my tongue purple and my lips blue and me having to work hard to breathe, I now carry an EpiPen and avoid either beans or crustaceans.
Ultimately this is an issue of saying one is allergic to something being the easiest way out of eating that thing. If one says “I don’t like onions” then scorn and incredulity are sure to come (at least from some people). However, if one says “I am allergic to onions” then others may bend over backwards for fear of making one sick (and, perhaps, being liable for hospital bills).
There are two things that come out of this:
1) People need to buck up and just say that they don’t like something. Certainly at Per Se or Alinea the chefs will gladly accommodate a preference even if it isn’t to avoid a visit to the E.R.
2) More importantly we need to recognize that eating can be an adventure. Sure, you don’t like something when it’s prepared one way but give the chefs (again, especially at a place like Per Se or Alinea) the benefit of the doubt and _try_ what they prepare. If you don’t like it, again, they will surely be accommodating – but try it first!
@Kristi,
Thanks for pointing out that link. I have actually had small reactions to practically everything in the birch list (but I figure that if all that happens is my mouth itches, and I like the taste, it’s okay as long as it doesn’t escalate). I am EXTREMELY allergic to birches. I’m just lucky that my allergies manifest in the non-deadly form.
I can’t imagine being a professional cook dealing with the carrot allergy. I can stand very, very cooked carrots in things like stock, but I have to wear gloves to cut/peel/etc.
In my experience most people claiming allergies really just have aversions, however, there is often a conflation of a food allergy and a food intolerance. Food intolerance, such as lactose intolerance is more common than allergies, and is another way food can make people sick — however it is a digestive system response — cramps, heartburn, stomach ache, etc. Allergies, on the other hand, affect the immune system — thus the hives, chest pain, anaphylaxis…
I’m a professional cook working in a restaurant in France, have worked here and in private service for five years. The French are not nearly as bad as the English/Americans I’ve worked for when it comes to ‘allergies’ – the word has now replaced the phrase ‘I don’t like’. So when a group sits down to herb-crusted cod, one diner says she’s ‘allergic to cod’ but would like another fish instead. Like Monkfish which is twice the price.
English people are much worse. Women are ‘allergic’ to just about anything you can think of. No one, ever ever ever, just says ‘I don’t like that, can I have something else please?’ It’s attention-seeking behaviour. ‘Look at me, I’m special, I’ve got a MEDICAL condition, if I eat cod I could DIE, pity me!’
Now my wife and I have our first child, Scarlett, we get the same sort of rubbish in advice – don’t give her this food or that, don’t use those baby wipes, plastic baby bottles will kill her!
All nonsense. As Mr McGee says, 2% are really allergic, the rest are attention seekers, nothing more.
my dad decided to introduce us to his soon-to-be new wife and my new step sister(16). so we had a huge family getting-to-know-you dinner. when they arrive i offer my new family something to drink and they are all up in arms that there is no diet soda because they are both deathly allergic to corn (which was news to me, my dad had never mentioned it before this dinner). i told them that i have jones soda which doesn’t contain any corn syrup… blah, blah, blah. i then spouted off and told them i thought it was funny that for being allergic to all things corn they should know about jones soda and maybe they shouldn’t have eaten the tortilla chips and salsa a few minutes before because the torilla chips were made out of corn and i was sorry i didn’t have a epi-pen ready. needless to say, it was a very uncomfortable night and my new step-mom and sister hate me because i called them out on their supposed deathly corn allergy.
next time just say you want a diet soda instead of making up a crazy lie.
My mother made her meatloaf with MSG so up until the first time I had a bad reaction, it didn’t disagree with me. First bout came in 1977, before restaurants, mostly, stopped using MSG. It was after a dinner at a Chinese restaurant in NYC just BEFORE going to a late show at a rock club. Both my friend and I ate the same thing. He had no adverse effects. I was struck almost blind by a migraine (had never had one before) followed by much nausea. Incapacitated for about an hour but made it to the show!
Most recent incident kind of funny. New boyfriend, trying to impress me, made jambalaya for dinner. In the middle of the night I woke with splitting head followed by nausea. Asked if he’d made the meal from scratch, he confessed to help from Zatarain’s. Dig the box out of the trash. Oops! Featured ingredient (back then, don’t know if they’ve changed) was MSG. So I don’t buy that MSG is a head allergy. Perhaps both were high doses? All I know is that the reaction was very real.
If I don’t like something I’m not shy about asking to have it omitted. But I also like to think I’m a little adventurous. Eating at Chez Panisse last year (dream come true) the menu included roasted beet (eewww!) salad. What can I say? I tried them. I love them!
I have a long list of allergies, though I know, and if pressed will admit and explain, that not all are allergies.
I’m allergic to salt. Not actually to salt, to iodine. I break out in hives, so it is a real allergy. I’ve spent my entire life not eating salt because it wasn’t until I was 27 that a doctor made the connection for me about my aversion to seafood, salt, and my iodine allergy. I have a strong taste aversion to salt though, and salted foods are unpalatable to me. I’ve been learning to eat salt though, by avoiding iodized salt. It is a long and slow process.
I say that I’m allergic to soft dairy. I know I’m not actually allergic, what I have is an enzyme problem. Soft dairy makes my intestines bleed and causes such intense pain that I can’t walk; I leave puddles of blood on chairs. From a social standpoint, it is just better to say that I’m allergic to soft dairy. Hard dairy, such as grano cheeses are fine, and daily consumption of them actually helps if I do ingest soft dairy. Buttermilk is fine, but sour cream has to be boiled to make it safe to eat. Yogurt is fine as well. The merest hint of milk taste causes my body to violently vomit, but I grew up eating goat-milk ice cream and the taste of ice-cream doesn’t make me vomit, so the vomiting appears to be learned. Milk doesn’t tear up my intestines they way soft dairy does, so I can consume it if the taste is covered up enough to avoid the vomit reflex. I love soft dairy by the way.
I’m allergic to almost all tropical fruits, but I’m only afraid of pineapple. If someone asks if something mysterious in a dish is pineapple I can usually tell them just by touching it.
I’m allergic to sulfur. It impacts me the most in some egg preparations and antibiotics (I’m also allergic to penicillin). Mayonnaise and hard boiled are the two main offenders.
I don’t often eat shrimp because the sight of them makes me want to vomit. Shrimp sometimes taste good (the iodine thing I suspect).
I guess I’m upset on both sides of this issue.
I have an uncommon food allergy (carrots), which, despite your apparent disbelief because it’s not in the big 8 allergens, does result in anaphylactic shock, for which I carry epipens.
I used to work as a catering chef — and I don’t think of myself as a culinary sissy. I had to have others taste my food for me if it had carrots and had to wear gloves to work with them or my hands would swell.
However, I do know that there are people who claim to be allergic to something and are not, and it is exactly your reaction that makes me loathe that people do this.
Also, supposedly allergies are on the rise, and are not necessarily that well understood, so McGee’s claim of 2% may be outdated.
If you are at all interested, which I’m sensing you’re not, you might want to take a look at information on what is called Oral Allergy Syndrome, for which there are many cross-reactions … fennel is on the list for those with a problem with birch pollen! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_allergy_syndrome.
I’m sure Pfizer will have a new anti-food allergy pill out any day now, and we’ll all be cured.
For years my father has claimed that he’s allergic to chocolate, because he believed that eating chocolate is what caused his acne decades ago. My father is insane.
Certainly not on the same culinary level, but I worked at a McDonald’s many years ago. I remember one customer who ordered a Big Mac with extra sauce and no onion. He repeated several times that there couldn’t be any onion on it because he was “deathly allergic” to it. Can you guess what’s in Big Mac sauce? Onion.
Actually, I’ve lied about having a food allergy. I have a horrible, visceral aversion to tomatoes. It’s awful, and probably my biggest failing as a person, but after years of getting over every other food issue (and I was a VERY picky child), I still cannot eat any sort of tomato product besides pizza and barbecue sauce. I had to claim to be allergic to tomatoes once when, in college, a friend’s godfather took us to a super traditional homestyle red sauce Italian restaurant, where every single option (of which there were only a dozen or so) came with tomato sauce. I felt horrible about it, but I was not about to say that I just really don’t like tomatoes. So, there, claimed an allergy when it was actually just an aversion. Feels good to admit.
A key issue here is people interchanging “allergic” and “don’t like”.
My brother is a chef at a high-end Italian restaurant in Boston that features a tasting menu. Guests ordering the tasting menu are always asked about allergies and preferences, and he has told me that many people tell their servers they are allergic to onions – at which point the chef must go to the table and explain that almost every dish in the restaurant (ok, not dessert) probably has onion in it. Most guests will then admit they don’t like raw onion.
You don’t have to tell your server you are allergic to it to not eat it.
I find the use of the term “allergy” to mean “dislike” very irritating. My son is allergic – as in possible death could occur – to peanuts. This doesn’t mean he’s a “picky eater”, it means he is trying to stay alive.
The incidence of food allergies in kids is growing at an alarming rate, and it does need to be taken seriously.
Couldnt agree more. I would much prefer someone tell me that they just dont want to try something on mine, at least that gives me an opportuntity to explain the process and/or food better. With the ole “allergy” you’ve got no where to go..which is likely the point.
So I guess I’m thinking anyone who uses the “allergy” route..well you probably dont want to waste your good stuff on them anyhow
Cheers!
Brian
I generally agree with you, but I wanted to speak up and provide a bit of a counterpoint.
I am genuinely allergic to carrots and parsnips. They probably won’t kill me, but in fairly small amounts, they give me a rash, make my eyes watery and red, and make my mouth and throat feel like they’re coated in ants. I am by no means a picky eater. I don’t even bother to order salad dressing on the side. And I understand that my allergies are very weird (especially in the US). But it’d be nice if more waiters gave me the benefit of the doubt, rather than insisting that I can pick around the carrots or rolling their eyes at me.
I’m just glad we’ve found some better restaurants in town that are not so lazy as to use pre-mixed salad greens (with carrots).
W.R.T. lactose intolerance: Those who cannot eat dairy products can still eat many types of cheese because the lactose is broken down by the aging process.
In general, however, you’re right.
I’m guessing some people claim an allergy to sweet peppers because they don’t want to say to the Per Se server that they give them painfully, embarrassingly excessive gas. Ditto the lactose intolerant. So, have a heart.
I know a handful of people with real, documented, dangerous allergies. I don’t know anyone who claims an allergy when they have an aversion.
I think at the end of the day each person has to genuinely listen to the reactions of their body. My mother after 70+ years on the planet suddenly developed a severe gluten allery . She wasn’t being a sissy after weeks of toxic reaction that affected her liver and has removed many of her favorite foods from her plate for the rest of her life. I have had a series of of ‘odd’ allergies all my life, in part because being autistic supposedly increases the sensitivity of my body’s reactions to perceived toxins, one of which is indeed MSG. I’d love to rely on external studies, but when I lose several hours of a day to explosive migraines, muscle weakness I kinda have to say studies be damned and just avoid the triggers. I have a friend who is allergic to pineapples, her face swells up and she gets red spots, should she wait on a study to decide if she is a sissy or not? My bf after his bypass can literally not stomach foods that his palate genuinely loves. He will hurl almost immediately. One of these dishes is salmon. Although not an ‘allergy’ it is an unfortunate physiological reaction and he will at times use the allergy response when asking for certain omissions. Not a 100% honest but at the same time he doesn’t always feel the need to get into his medical history every time he wants to order a meal. It really isn’t anyone’s business to presume or judge why people are making the omissions that they are making, not to determine that they are sissies because of those omissions.
I could not agree with you more Mr. Ruhlman. I don’t comment much, but this I had to chime in on. I was pretty amazed by those allergy needs when I read that same NYT blog entry. I can’t imagine having the privilege to be at that Keller/Achatz event and then asking for changes. Unless you’re going into anaphylactic shock, eat the food.
This is about as dead-on-the-nose as you can get, Michael. Our entire nation has been sissified. And as a home cook, it’s a real pain in the ass when we’re having dinner company, then find out that one of our guests has an aversion to onions, or bell peppers, or “anything with garlic.”
Guess who’s not coming to dinner next time?
Ugh, seriously. And I say this as someone with what I call a “sensitivity,” since I hate to claim an allergy when in fact instead of a histamine reaction, shellfish makes me very, very ill. It only emerged after eating a dodgy lobster salad when I was 20, but my dad has always been very, very sensitive (2 days in bed sensitive) to both bivalves and crustaceans, so I count myself lucky to have only inherited the crustacean side. And actually, after 8 years of being really careful following a series of nasty incidents, I accidentally ate a shrimp california roll a few months ago and felt no ill effects. Time to try a careful trial?
Ahem. Anyway. I have a friend who has such a long list of “allergies” (including cooked fruit. COME ON.) that I had to keep a list in my planner for a while to make sure I didn’t accidentally give her carrots or tomatoes or tree nuts or….chicken. Though she cooks chicken, so I’m not sure when it’s off-limits. Perhaps with cooked fruit?
The shellfish thing breaks my heart; I am a journalist and used to dream of being a restaurant critic. Oh well, I can still be a food writer!
You should know that people on statins, not an uncommon class of drugs, can not have grapefruit. There are serious side effeccts from combining the two.