Food Allergies, and knowing how to formulate your own spice mixes....

[AllenOK]

This week, we were running a blackened salmon with hollandaise on special.

My VERY FIRST order had a special request, "No cumin" anywhere. Naturally, I grabbed the bottled blend that our spice vendor gets for us and look at the ingredients. "Salt, spices, assorted anti-coagulants", etc. No actual listing of what was or was not in the mix.

I looked at the waitress, and told her, "You are one very lucky person. I've been mixing Prudhomme's formulation for years at home. I've basically got it memorized. I whip up a small batch and use that."

Well, the customer was very happy. I even used that mix for three days. In fact, I sold A BUNCH of salmon specials!

 

[PieSusan]

Awesome! And thank you from someone who has been fairly recently diagnosed with food allergies.

 

[PanchoHambre]

Way to be on point Allen...

 

[AllenOK]

Out of everyone in the kitchen, I probably take food allergies the most seriously. We have one little girl who has a gluten allergy. Every now and then I get someone with a seafood/shellfish allergy. One of my dishwashers has a shellfish allergy.

A lot of times people will come through and ask for "no butter" on their veggies. I will usually ask the expo to get the waiter back into the kitchen to talk to me. If they're allergice, there's butter/dairy all through the potatoes (au gratin and mashed). I even brush my bakers with butter. Most sauces have butter in it.

As a professional, I have to make my customer's needs the first and foremost thing on my mind. When I get an order from one of my "special" folks, I'm usually all over that like white on rice. It's a good thing, too, as the last time I had a dairy allergy plate come through, I caught one of the other cooks just before they buttered the veg.