Felt sorry for the chef

I don’t remember all these allergies years ago. I used to have many dinner parties.

shellfish..and ill-making as with gluten. intolerance

Gluten intolerance and coeliac disease are not quite the same.

Coeliac disease is NOT an allergy.

Bijou

I don’t remember all these allergies years ago. I used to have many dinner parties.

Food was plainer I think. I just used to say, I can’t eat nuts, when I was a guest and then my host would give me the chocolate mousse without the nuts sprinkled on top.

Now I have to question things closely. Were nuts used as a thickener. Was nut milk used instead of dairy. Was the chickpea pate roasted in nut oil.

It’s a sad fact that in trying to meet one requirement, you can make it difficult for others.

The trend to go vegan with mass catering has made life very difficult for me because nuts are used in so many vegan recipes.

Back to taking my own bacon sandwiches?

In my day - (now those are words I never thought I would write ) we ate what we were given. That may account for none of the oldies having preferences at a recent multi generational function compared with the battery of special requests from the younger generation.

I have just remembered an incident way back in the early eighties. My husband had been told by his doctor to cut out salt. We were eating out in quite an upmarket restaurant owned by Norman Parkinson's son and my husband asked to speak to the chef, told him he needed his food cooked without salt to be told "oh man, you giving me a headache". We never went back there.

My shellfish allergy started in Cyprus in 1973, I was living there at the time and one day was terribly ill and passed out.
Taken to Hospital and they did lots of tests, I remember the Doctor saying you seem to be uncomfortable eating some foods perhaps you can cut back on them. No name of the food but I made an educated guess.
It was an RAF hospital so probably not their usual customer. I have had a couple of bad attacks since, and it has always been traced back to shellfish, including people thinking that picking the offending items out of the dish makes it alright.

I absolutely sympathise with anyone with an intolerance, but where are all these things coming from these days, it seems over the past ten years this is becoming more common, does anyone have an answer.
Its nightmare inviting anyone for a meal these days, it can consist of three different dishes,if they dont bring their own!

I went on holiday to Rhodes, and duly informed the all inclusive hotel that I had a severe nut allergy and was lactose intolerant. Everything was labelled clearly which was so helpful - but it was the same choice for dessert every day (fruit or jelly) which got boring.

I spoke to the hotel and surprisingly the next day, was presented at my table with with a small but very fancy gateau, made especially for me. It was good for a couple of days.

They delivered the remainder to my room after the second evening of having it as dessert, and put it in the fridge for me to eat outside of their mealtimes. The Chef became our new best friend and asked daily, as we arrived to eat, if he could cook anything special to cater for my needs. I never said yes as the food was great and there was always a lot of choice. I was amazed - wasn’t expecting anything like that at all but going the extra mile was brilliant. They said they could do it no problem if people declared their allergies, but very few did until they’d already eaten the food and got poorly from it.

I think most of us allergics just put up and shut up in the past.

I didn’t eat out much, usually in a regular restaurant that knew me. I took my own for days out. Mostly had people round to me for meals.

Now people expect their diets to be catered for so everyone is more aware.

I think “failure to thrive” in children in the past was probably allergy and possibly a number of unexplained deaths.

But, like I said, we have to question more closely and perhaps seem to be making more of a fuss because ingredients are less straightforward than years ago when you could be pretty sure of the ingredients in a say, a slice of Victoria sandwich. ?

Agreed grannygranby, there is a world of difference between a disease such as coeliac or nut allergy which makes avoiding a particular food vital, and a self-diagnosis of intolerance, maybe based on an article the person has read which says that if you get bloating you are gluten intolerant. Avoiding animal products or sticking to plant-based only diet is a lifestyle choice which is much more mainstream and accommodated than in the past (I remember there being one boy in our year at secondary school whose family was vegetarian, and at school dinners his plate of potatoes plus the single vegetable of the day was ceremoniously brought out, must have been very boring. I remember wondering how all their family could manage on that food, but now eat plant-based most of the time myself, just not only veg!)

Jaxjacky

I’m not questioning peoples allergies at all, but I don’t recall these challenges for chefs years ago.
I used to frequently eat out with groups of work colleagues and friends through the 70’s to 90’s, no preferences expressed. Did people just suffer afterwards undiagnosed or not go out?

An interesting look at the issue from the BBC - but there's no definite answers...

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-46302780

I remember discovering my daughter- then two had a shellfish allergy. My god I thought she was gone. Thank goddess for speedy paramedics. I guessed allergy to the shellfish as her lips instantly swelled and were bright red, then her face went blotchy before she started struggling to breathe I’d called 999. They arrived just as she was in and out of consciousness. One tiny little prawn.

I think there are people who can be sensitive to an ingredients but not be allergic. Even allergies can be in different degrees. I have asensitivity to a chemical used in makeup, body lotions but I am not allergic. I di develop rashes of varying degrees but I wouldn't die. Think some people jump on the bandwagon of saying they are allergic when they have the slightest reaction to a substance. I am not denying there are those for whom exposure to substances can be life threatening. Hail the chef, absolute star.

The first thing our waiter asked when we were eating out last week was whether any of us had any dietary needs? He seemed quite shocked that a table of eight all said ‘no’.
My friend’s DiL went to live in France for a year and suddenly, miraculously, declared that the French bread, although not gluten free, was fine for her to eat. As soon as she came back here made such a fuss about her gluten intolerance. The same person, whilst in Germany, asked if they had any gluten free apple pie, the waiter came back with an apple and a knife. Are we the only nation with all these intolerances?

After loving all dairy (I drank everybody else's school milk!) I have to be non dairy now so eat vegan when out to be sure. I always check menus online and also phone ahead to check. My daughter is the same with egg and gluten chucked in as well. Having always lived in farming communities, I seriously blame the pesticides etc used on crops and livestock in the 70s and 80s which entered the food chain.

Thank you Dickens interesting. Our GS used to be allergic, epipen carried, to sesame, ground nuts and above ground nuts. He’s now 9, is tested yearly and over the years now just reacts to above ground nuts, so we are still careful.

4allweknow
I get itchy if I eat shellfish so tend to avoid them but I know how dangerous they can be for some.

I am gluten intolerant, I can assure people on here it is not fussiness or the latest fad. I am ill if I am glutened accidentally and can be ill in my bed for 2-3 days. I can tell within seconds if I have eaten a dish with gluten by accident. It is very common for people with autoimmune conditions to have both gluten and dairy intolerance. The difficulty is people inc doctors do not believe you. No one in their right mind would 'choose' to be on a gluten-free diet. So I ask everyone here, please do not make assumptions about people.

My dil and her mother both have allergies and intolerances. Some result in ‘just’ a very upset stomach and other foods land them in hospital. Apparently it’s the way things are grown/processed now that has cause an explosion in intolerances and allergies. For example modern wheat is very very high in gluten to make soft fluffy bread, which can cause intolerances if you cannot process it properly, whereas the older grains are easier on the gut. Lots of instances like this. Our diets are streets away from our parents generation.

TillyWhiz I agree!

I have a friend who has been coeliac all her life, luckily her GP spotted it when she was tiny. Yes, it was called failure to thrive when she was young. My grandson was born with eczema and also has a nut allergy. My DHs latest grandchild, born last November has just been diagnosed as allergic to cows milk. I hope the new formula suits her as they are exhausted, the poor little girl is not sleeping properly, obviously she is in a lot of discomfort.

I beet that during rationing in WW2 there were no vegans or gluten-free demands!

During WW2 folk had less chemicals and antibiotics in their food. You cannot compare then to present day. Obviously coming from someone who does not realise the agony you can be in having eaten the wrong thing accidentally. For some people it's a matter of life or death. Coeliac disease is serious, google it and educate yourself about it.

Camelotclub

I beet that during rationing in WW2 there were no vegans or gluten-free demands!

People didn’t call themselves vegan or lactose intolerant or whatever. They just avoided foods they didn’t want or that “didntsuit”. It doesn’t mean there were fewer, just that people self-managed and didn’t expect to be catered for especially.

Talk about penicillin here too. Undoubtedly there are many who are truly, dangerously allergic, but there are also a number who are sensitive…get a spot of diarrhoea or nauseous, they pass up a well established anti biotic here which can save their lives on these grounds.