SC - Re: allergies & chivilry

[Kiriel & Chris]

Wow, it seems I really opened a can of worms. 

I am finding this discussion fascinating, and this very night had a face
to face discussion with two fellow cooks about it. 

They agree with me. I am sorry so many people feel so strongly about it,
but I am afraid that not one comment has persuaded me that I am
unreasonable.  I have stated that I cater to allergies that I am told
about, and quite a few dietary quirks as a matter of course. I actually
really enjoy the challenge of catering to an allergy; the delight on a
friends face when she had pancakes for the first time in years because I
had made some dairy free wheat free ones especially for her will always
stay in my mind.  If someone tells me on the night what their allergy
is, I will try to cater to them then, and I will tell them what dishes I
have cooked that have ingredients they can't eat.  "sorry you can't eat
the x, y and z". 

Sometimes I do not know exactly what ingredients I will be putting into
a dish until I have made it... I am sure that this is the case with most
of us - as a good cook you adjust flavours continuously. A touch of
lemon juice here, worcestershire there. A list of ingredients would have
to be written after everything was cooked, which is when it is being
served!

If I go to a restaurant, the menu does not list the ingredients.  I do
not expect it to, why would I expect it from a feast?  If I have an
allergy, I will ask whether x dish has that ingredient in it.  I expect
a truthful reply, but I don't expect a list of ingredients, just a short
answer. Do you? I dont consider it discourteous that the restaurant has
not listed every ingredient on their menu - seems entirely reasonable to
me, or the menu would be more like a novel!

I am sorry, but I refuse outright to take the responsibility for other
peoples allergies without notification. I think that a menu with the
dietary quirks I have catered to listed is far simpler, more effective
and more sensible than listing out the 25 ingredients to each of the 25
recipes that I have cooked for the feast. It also allows the person to
know exactly what allergies I have catered to and what I have not. If
you have told me what your allergy is, it will be listed there.  It is
also far closer to what might have been done in period - a single list
of the dishes of the feast. 

If I have an allergy, I will either notify the cook, or not expect them
to cater to me.  MY responsibility not theirs. If I have not told them
beforehand and I get sick, that is MY responsibility. 

Have courtesy yourselves; think of a lone cook, catering for 80 people,
with 16 different dishes, having to sit down in the middle of their prep
and write out their entire ingredients list just because you are too
lazy to tell them what you cannot eat either before or at the event....
the responsibility for your diebetes, colitis, honey allergy, asthma,
anaflactic (sp?) shock is YOURS, not theirs.

Kiriel
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