SC - Wake up and smell the fish

[DianaFiona at aol.com]

In a message dated 97-07-15 12:32:04 EDT, you write:

<< 
 
 So to get this back to a sca-cooks topic:
 What degree of seperation is reasonable for preparing foods for which
 people are allergic:
     1. rinse out the container
     2. wash the container with detergent
     3. wash the container with bleach
     4. Use totally seperate containers (as in kosher sp?)
     5. not even in the same kitchen
 
 
 
 in service,
 filip
  >>

     *Sigh* My turn to vent on this topic--and I just know that I'm going to
sound more insensitive than I intend to. In fairness, I do have some
experience in dealing with food allergies, since my mom is allergic to a
great number of foods, BUT....... 
     Most of the folks we are talking about are adults, and as such, need to
realise that they are responsible for their own health. If they have such
severe allergies as to be life-threatening they need to either bring their
own food or stay home.Yes, we cooks must be as clean as we can in the kitchen
in general, and yes, we hate for folks not to be able to eat all this
wonderful stuff we are making....... ;-) But it is NOT fair or reasonable to
expect us to be responsible for the safety of one extremely allergic person.
Kitchens are chaotic, at best, and no matter how hard I might wish to try, I
could not guarantee that a few molecules of the problem item would not find
it's way into their food. 
    Milder allergies are a different matter, and I don't mind dealing with
those--and have done so fairly often. The really severe allergies scare me,
though, and  I would definitely resent someone expecting me to ensure their
safety in that case. It is their own responsibility, as I said above.
    That said, and to try to answer the question I started out to reply
to........ ;-) Considering how often containers tend to get used in feast
prep--and how often the hot water runs out in the middle of your biggest time
crunch!--I would tend to think that anyone who would have severe problems
with, say, a bowl which had contained onions, and had then been rinsed fairly
well before it was used again, would fall into the catagory of someone who
should *not* expect to be able to eat the feast. For that matter, I'd
probably be worried if someone had a bad enough allergy that the onion juice
from a UNrinsed bowl would bother them. It is just way too easy in the heat
of the moment to dump one veggie out of a bowl and start filling it again
with the next thing that's being chopped. And even if you are very careful to
wash between uses, can you be sure that *every* casual helper will do the
same? Or that a bit of onion won't fall into another dish?
    I really do sympathise with the folks afflicted with bad food allergies.
It can be very difficult, indeed, to live with, and I know that they end up
missing out on many things because of them. But at the same time, cooking a
feast for a large group of people is sufficiently difficult and complicated
that it is not reasonable to expect the cooks to take extreme measures for
one individual. If the cook is comfortable enough with their schedule to
offer to do so, fine. But as others have said, the guests have no right to
expect it, and to raise a fuss over the lack of prefferential treatment  goes
against all the ideals that the Society purports to uphold.
      Whew! I feel better now........ As I'm sure you can tell, this subject
managed to hit a hot button or two! ;-)

     Ldy Diana
Vulpine Reach, Meridies
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