[Sca-cooks] food allergies, life choices, issues

[Antonia Calvo]

>My query is:  How do you attend to people with food allergies, issues, life
>choices?  Also,  how often do you make a dish you can't stand just because
>it is a good/period dish and you know others will enjoy it?
>  
>

My guiding principle is to make sure there is a good, varied meal 
available for everyone.  If someone's food issues are such that I can't 
ensure they get a good, varied meal, I don't take their money.

Slightly less generally, the "big three" food groups that this tends to 
involve are meat, dairy products, and gluten.  If someone doesn't eat 
one of those groups, I can pretty much always cater for them.  If they 
don't eat two, I may not be able to.


>If I know someone has an allergy (gets sick, could die) I am very careful to
>label any dish containing the offensive ingredient and I will try to go out
>of my way to warn the person directly if it is a small gathering.
>  
>

I provide ingredients lists, and, if it's necessary in order to ensure 
they get a good, varied meal, I might also offer alternate dishes.  In 
practice, this has never meant making many adjustments.  In my 
experience, the people with real, life-threatening allergies are usually 
the most sellf-sufficient, polite, and non-demanding of all the people 
with dietary restrictions.

>Vegetarian/Vegan - I always have at least one, usually more than one
>vegetarian dish available.  As for Vegan - I try but I cannot always
>promise.  I will often use vegetable broth instead of chicken if the rest of
>the dish is all vegetables.
>  
>

Vegetarians-- relatively easy to provide for.  My feasts are usually 
loaded with non-meat dishes, so 2-3 alternates for vegetarians usually 
takes care of it. I don't do vegans, because it's usually just too complex.

>Silliac/gluten:  See allergies above.  We have several Silliac sufferers
>here and one is quite adept at cooking so sometimes I ask her to make bread
>or a dish she knows is safe.
>  
>

Celiac/gluten free isn't too big a deal.  Once again, they may require 
one or two alternates.  I *am* rather annoyed by this issue, not by 
people with celiac disease (which I wouldn't wish on anyone), but by the 
fact that this is the trendy allergy-du-jour.  I used to be annoyed by 
the dairy-free for the same reason, but they mostly seem to be drinking 
their milk again.  I'm really hoping that next year, they'll forget 
gluten and become tripe and brussels sprout free.


>Issues - meaning someone is not specifically allergic but does react badly
>to an ingredient - we have someone who cannot eat onions if there are any
>cell walls remaining - for this person if I know they are coming to feast I
>usually pulverize the onions where it is appropriate to do so.  If not I
>warn them.
>  
>

That is... bizarre. 


>The "I don't like" people - well, if it isn't going to kill someone I'm not
>inclined to make changes although I do label things so people can stay away
>from stuff they don't like.
>  
>

If people don't want to eat the delicious, varied food that I provide, 
that's their own problem.  I run a feast kitchen, not a restaurant.  


>I try not to rule out any dish just because of my own personal taste.  That
>said, if I make it I have to find someone else to taste it to make sure it's
>right.
>  
>

I don't make dishes that I hate because... well, because I like a 
*large* variety of stuff, and there's not that much that most other 
people like but I don't.


-- 
Antonia di Benedetto Calvo

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Habeo metrum - musicamque,
hominem meam. Expectat alium quid?
-Georgeus Gershwinus
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