Welcome to the Kitchen! This month’s ramblings fall more into the “food for thought” category than the normal “how to” category. They were inspired by an online discussion I recently read, discussing, among other things, food safety and allergies. The basic question discussed was essentially “What duty of care does the cooking staff at an event have towards people with food allergies (or other dietary restrictions)?”
If I was cooking dinner for a friend, I would do my best to make sure he could eat everything I served. For example, I wouldn’t invite a vegetarian to dinner and then cook a roast, at least not without providing an alternative dish for him. Likewise, if I had a friend who had a shellfish allergy, I wouldn’t cook her a dinner including prawns. This seems like common sense to most people, and they wouldn’t give it a second thought. From the point of view that cooking at an event is cooking for a group of your friends (even if you haven’t actually met all of them yet), it makes sense to make reasonable accommodations to make sure that everyone has food they can eat.
Along with the basic courtesy of providing food for everyone, there is the fact that people at events are paying for the food. It would be unreasonable and unfair to expect someone to pay for food at the event and then have to bring their own food or go off-site to eat. There are some instances where the cooking staff may not be able to meet a person’s specific needs, but that is something that should be able to be worked out ahead of time, and if the person will not be able to eat the food being cooked at the event, they should not, in my opinion, be charged for it.
Now, a cook can’t meet a person’s needs if they don’t know what those needs are. This is where the person with allergies or other restrictions needs to take some responsibility along with the cook. If you have any dietary restrictions, give as much information as possible to the event staff, along with contact information so a cook can get further information if necessary. For example, simply saying that someone is a vegetarian is not giving full information. I have known vegetarians who ate milk but not eggs; milk and eggs; or milk, eggs, and fish. When planning a menu, knowing whether someone can eat meatless dishes which contain eggs and cheese is important.
Specific allergy information is even more important. For example, saying that someone has a “nut allergy” is not very specific, as allergies to almonds, walnuts, and peanuts are all separate types of nut allergies. Someone allergic to peanuts is often fine with all other nuts, while someone who is allergic to walnuts is likely also allergic to hazelnuts and pecans, but not to almonds or peanuts. Knowing the severity of an allergy can make a difference from a cooking perspective as well. Someone who lists an egg allergy, for example, may be able to have eggs in baked goods, such as breads or cakes, but not in a quiche. Someone with a shellfish allergy may simply break out in hives from contact with shellfish (uncomfortable but probably not life-threatening) or they may have a severe reaction from breathing the air in a room where shrimp is being cooked. The way these allergies are handled from a cooking and menu planning perspective are very different.
So, what “duty of care” does the cooking staff have? I would say that “reasonable accommodation” is a good place to start with most people’s dietary needs. I won’t, for example, necessarily make alternate versions for every dish at a feast that someone can’t eat, as long as they can eat the vast majority of the food offered. I will make sure that there is a vegetarian alternative available for whatever the main meat for each remove is, provided I know a vegetarian is attending. When I am cooking for people who I know have religious restrictions against eating pork, I will make sure they know which bread (if any) has been made with lard, and I will make sure that there is an alternate dish for them if the meat offered is pork. This alternate dish, however, can be the same as is being served to the vegetarians; often, a single alternative menu item can accommodate multiple people’s dietary needs.
Allergies, however, need to be treated very seriously. Cross-contamination in the kitchen could incapacitate or kill someone. While in the kitchen, make sure to wash your cutting boards and knives with hot water between items, and do not use a mixing spoon for more than one dish without washing with hot water. Make sure anyone helping in the kitchen is also aware of allergies, and washing items between uses.
If you know someone at the event has a severe allergy, it may be safest to avoid that item altogether. Shellfish, especially , is a reasonably common, often severe, allergy to an item that is not hard to avoid during menu planning if you know you have someone with that allergy attending the event.
To finish off for the month, I’d like to reiterate that there is responsibility on both sides here. People with dietary restrictions of any sort need to be sure they are giving full and complete information to the cooking staff, and should not necessarily expect to be able to eat everything at an event. However, the cooking staff should also make sure they understand the restrictions that individuals may have, take extreme care when it comes to allergy items, and make reasonable accommodations for other dietary restrictions to be sure all guests at the event can safely and comfortably enjoy the menu items offered.
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