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A chef has launched an attack on diners who fake food allergies as a lifestyle choice, claiming it is putting real allergy sufferers' lives at risk.
Patrick Friesen of the Queen Chow restaurant in Sydney, Australia shared some of the typical requests he receives during any given service in an Instagram post. As you can see below, the kitchen has to deal with a heap of dietary requests, but Friesen suspects many diners are simply on special diets, rather than being genuine allergy sufferers.
This is what he had to say:
"Can people with dietary requirements start knowing what you can and can’t eat? Shellfish allergy but loves oyster sauce. Gluten free but loves gluten as long as it’s not a piece of bread. Vegetarians that love a chicken wing. Pescatarians who eat chicken. Sort your s*** out and let your waiter know. You make it really damn hard for people with actual allergies and dietaries to go out to eat."
A post shared by patrickfriesen (@patrickfriesen) on Jul 15, 2017 at 4:21am PDT
Friesen is especially riled, as his mother is a coeliac sufferer, meaning she can’t eat wheat, rye, barley or oats. He feels the number of allergy requests could lead to chefs getting complacent, putting genuine allergy sufferers at risk. “You have these people who come in on a first date and they say ‘I’m allergic to onions’ because they just don’t want to have onion breath,” Friesen told The Daily Telegraph. “And we say ‘well, it’s an Asian restaurant, you know there are onions in pretty much everything’ ... or shallots or onion powder or whatever. And then they say ‘oh okay it’s fine. I’ll just eat everything’. So clearly it’s not an allergy at all.”
Reaction to his post has been largely positive so far, though some allergy sufferers have pointed to how the manufacturing process for something like oyster sauce can actually destroy the proteins that trigger allergies, hence why someone with a seafood allergy can eat it.
What do you think, was this chef right to call diners out? Let us know over on our Facebook page.
