Kate Hackett
To be entirely honest, I think people use allergies to get out of having to explain to picky chefs that they just do not f-ing like cilantro, okay? And I get that. I personally probably wouldn’t think much of it, but I suppose if I were a waiter it could start to get old when it’s just a trend.
u/michaelshing recently posted a story about dealing with the gluten-free crowd as a waiter.
OP explains that in the industry, restaurants are extremely careful about allergies. However, they hold off on being terrifically serious for the gluten-free trend crowd.
Another restaurant story from a few years ago. I cook or wait tables depending on how long it takes me to get fed up with one or the other and I need a change. We always have to be very conscious of allergies in food service as it can be life or death for some people for shellfish allergies, nut allergies, celiacs etc.
Enter gluten free trend crowd.
I personally have no idea how OP can tell the difference, but they say that a real allergy comes with someone knowing what they can and can’t eat.
While I recognize some people have a legit allergy, there are so many that are trying to be trendy. The big difference is that a person with a true allergy has an already general idea of what they can and cannot have and will start the whole process off before ordering by letting you know what said allergy is, which we appreciate as it saves time. No big deal.
OP claims that the “trend” folks take forever or don’t know what they can’t have.
The trendy gluten free peeps need to tell you three times throughout their order, and then always end up back tracking after they find out that basically everything they desire to order either contains gluten, or is potentially cross contaminated.
And that evidently gets annoying for OP.
I was waiting this time around and I started getting tired of hearing about it.
They have a regular who was loud about her gluten intolerance — everyone knew. OP tried to speed the spiel along.
We had a particular almost daily regular who would tell us every time about her gluten intolerance, tell all the people sitting near her about it, then proceed to order items that had gluten. I was having a bad day. She comes in. Does her normal spiel about being allergic to gluten, I say “Yup.” Wasn’t sufficient enough attention for her.
It wasn’t enough and this woman continues to explain. She orders her usual and OP does what they always do: tell her the fryers have been cooking food with gluten.
She emphasizes what it does to her delicate system because she’s allergic. She orders the usual. Food cooked and prepared in the fryers… which have had gluten ridden food fried in them all day. I’m thoroughly annoyed now having to listen to her graphic details about her gut and the effects from gluten. I, as usual, inform her the fryers are cooked in with items containing gluten.
She says it’s fine, but OP digs in — if you’re that allergic, they say, you have to pick another food.
As she says the normal “Oh that’s fine.” I have an evil idea pop into my head.. “Ma’am you just said you’re allergic to gluten. I cannot in good conscience put this restaurant or my job at risk by serving you food that you will have an allergic reaction to. I’m sorry but you’re going to have to pick another item.”
The woman tries to backpedal but OP stays firm.
She’s shocked. Starts backtracking. I stand firm. “No. I’m sorry, but I just can’t do it. If you get sick from the food because I was careless about your allergy then I could lose my job. These are the items you can choose from today.”
Calls manager over.
Manager even takes OP’s side and the woman is forced to order a different item. When she returned… she had been cured!
Mamager backs me up after hearing the story (manager was tired of her too).
Lady indignantly orders one of the items I listed to save face. Obviously no tip, but I don’t care it was worth it.
Still came back two days later miraculously cured of her gluten allergy.
Reddit ate it up. One person said, “It’s people like her that make life so much harder for people like me. I actually have Celiac Disease. I’ve had people not take me seriously because of this “trend” & I’ve got sick on some occasions as a result. It’s so infuriating! Thank you for doing what you did to her, OP!”
Another wrote, “I had a gluten intolerance for a while (god that sucks.) so cross-contamination didn’t bring the gluten to a level I couldn’t handle so I didn’t ever have to go to the point of not going to places due to cross. but couldn’t eat bread or pasta for like 3 years. super no fun.”
However, other people weren’t so thankful.
