Ever have someone be too %$!@ helpful?
Our son is peanut and tree nut allergic. He also reacts to soy protein, chick peas, lentils and some other legumes.
We have eaten successfully at a nice chain restaurant before. Dear son orders from the peanut free menu – a burger on a regular bun. We had checked the bun last time for soy ingredients so we did not go into all the details with our server. (This was my mistake.) We absolutely should have given them the chef card and insisted they take it back to the chef.
When the food comes out, son’s burger is on an allergy plate. The server mentions that this is the allergy meal with a gluten free bun. Gluten free bun? It looked like a regular bun. Son says he thinks he ate the gluten free bun before. But this is making him uncomfortable. So we say the burger should be put on a regular bun. Then we all start thinking about cross contamination.
So we ask to see the gluten free bun ingredients. Ack! It is based on garbanzo bean flour / chick pea flour. One of his major allergens. So we ask that his whole burger be redone.
The waiter says they don’t usually give the gluten free bun without requests since it costs $1 more. He calls it a “fluke”; we respond that the fluke would have sent us to the ER tonight.
Too many people assume food allergies mean “gluten free”. Don’t do us any favors by giving us gluten free food when we did not ask for it.
Lessons Learned
A kid with multiple food allergies should always give the server the chef card and make sure the chef receives it. Every time. Even if there is a peanut free menu. Even if the last dinner there was fine.
