r/KitchenConfidential • u/SockBasket • 6h ago
Discussion I'm going to crash out over ridiculous modifications
"Absolutely no onion I am allergic"
"The beef is braised with onions in the stock"
"Oh yeah that's fine I just don't want to see them"
IM GOING TO FUCKING BLOW MY OWN HEAD OFF
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u/thewebspinner 6h ago
I was having a beer after work the other night and chatting to a regular who eats with us at least once a week. Always orders the same due to his severe allergies, he has a medium steak, (no sauce, no pepper) sautée potatoes (no butter, no seasoning) and steamed veggies (changes week on week but we have to check what he can have).
He was saying he feels bad about being so difficult so I told him about customers like you’re talking about. The “I have an allergy to… oh wait, nevermind…” types.
I said, absolutely no chef out there is gonna have an issue cooking for someone with specific allergies. In fact it’s a particularly enjoyable challenge to cook a great meal for someone who probably doesn’t have a lot of dietary options. But people who can’t just openly ask if we can change an item on the menu because they don’t like “x” are the absolute worst.
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u/mrsir1987 3h ago
“I’m celiac” okay well you can’t have this “ a little is okay” no it’s not stop saying you’re celiac if you just have an intolerance or aversion. Crazy how ~1% of people have it but there are 4 “celiacs” at the same table.
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u/benificialengineer30 1h ago
We recently started doing an online ordering service for our take aways. A couple of times now I’ve had someone put in the notes, “can I get the Milanese gluten free, if not it’s fine” or words to that effect.
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u/queen_surly 17m ago
Oh I hate these people so much. I have known real celiacs. You know what they do? They BRING THEIR OWN FOOD PREPARED IN THEIR OWN KITCHENS OR COMMERCIALLY WHERE THEY KNOW THERE IS NO CROSS CONTAMINATION! It is impossible to keep a commercial kitchen really gluten free. You have to do more than just not add wheat products to the food.
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u/Mean-Fondant-8732 6m ago
Bingo. 2 family members have celiac. At family holidays they have special dishes, made in one of their homes, with their own serving utensils, their own wrapped cutlery, etc. They take zero chance at eating flour or cross contamination. When we go out to eat they don't eat, because they know the salad girl touched a bread roll with the same gloved hand she made their salad with. Its that sensitive.
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u/NotWhiteCracker 20+ Years 6h ago edited 6h ago
The “cheeseburger with no cheese” people are the bane of my existence. You would think an upscale place that serves burgers would weed out the idiots but I swear it attracts the mindless neurotypical drones
ORDER THE FUCKING HAMBURGER YOU DUMB FUCKS. FUCK!
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u/sseemour 4h ago
this one is actually a tricky one because it kinda falls on server but the cheeseburger probably costs more. not that bad tho as you can just laugh at it knowing the customers ripping themselves off and move on
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u/Millerhah Owner 4h ago
But I want a cheeseburger... with no cheese.
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u/thedavidnotTHEDAVID 40m ago
Saw a "Chicken soup, hold the chicken" recently and many are still suffering in response.
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u/BluesFan43 38m ago
Put a hamburger on the Fucking menu!
So many places from McD on just don't.
I want a nice juicy HAMburger, i have to pay for cheese.
I want a simple cheap, quick double hamburger? Pay for cheese or buy 2 burgers and throw a bun away.
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u/trybanningmethistime 6h ago
In my experience it's more of a dislike than an allergy. For instance, I work in diner type place. This lady orders chicken fingers and fries but can't have the garlic toast we serve with them because she's allergic to garlic. Oh sorry lady but the chicken fingers are seasoned with garlic powder and so is the seasoning salt we toss the fries on. I told the server that I can't serve the customer. She buckled and just said she doesn't like the taste of garlic.
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u/AloshaChosen 1h ago
The fucking servers have been letting the most ridiculous modifications to pizza come in. WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN YOU WANT A PIZZA WITH NO BREAD AND ADD SOME RANDOM SHIT YOU SEE ON THE MENU
If another person “allergic to garlic and onions” comes to the ITALIAN FUCKING PLACE I WORK AT, they might just simply die because WHY ARE YOU EATING HERE IF ITS A REAL ALLERGY?!!????!!????
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u/Own-Practice-9027 22m ago
lol. At a local pizzeria they’re training their customers that it’s ok to order a pizza that’s, “one third this specialty, one third this other specialty, and one third this other specialty.” The pies are 10 inches. They also allow, “this salad, but split onto three plates, and modify each one.” JFC, learn to say, “no.”
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u/Ainjyll 1h ago
There’s this lady that comes in almost every Sunday with her family after church. They roll in 3 generations deep, really trying their best to look like they’re living that trad lifestyle. She looks to be in her early-50’s, kids are in their mid-20’s and they’ve got 4 grandkids in tow. Men are in button-up shirts and trousers. Women in full-length floral dresses. Kids are running around like it’s a drunken frat mixer. Not saying this to judge, just to give you a mental image of what I’m dealing with here.
These folks have been coming in like clockwork for years. If they’re not at one location, they’re at the other. Every single time… every. Single. Time. This lady comes in she has to tell whoever’s assisting her that she’s deathly allergic to soy. She usually has an epi pen to waggle in our poor server’s direction to really drive the point home. She then proceeds to give her order and tell our poor server that she knows that we use a soy-blend oil on our flattop and “just a little soy” is fine. She just can’t have too much. She also just loves that sauce we toss the shrimp in and could she have a little side of that, too. Yes, she knows its primary ingredient is soy sauce… the chef has come out before and told her all about it… but it’s “just a little soy” and she’ll be fine.
If it wasn’t for the fact that they spend like $300+ every time they come in, the husband tips like a man possessed (possessed people are a very unrepresented demographic that tip wonderfully) and the rest of the adults roll their eyes every time with how ridiculous the whole thing is, I would have told them to kick rocks a long time ago.
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u/thedavidnotTHEDAVID 37m ago
"Possessed People that tip well" have an eloquent advocate and a pragmatic champion, in you.
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u/tdavis726 44m ago
That was entertaining to read, but sounds sucky to have to deal with; sorry for you guys! Thanks for sharing it.
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u/notananthem 1h ago
My MIL is "allergic" to things and loves to"not make a big deal" about it for five minutes every time we order food. My wife is allergic to things for real and just orders things knowing what is and isn't in them.
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u/bobandweebl 20+ Years 1h ago
I tend to go full malicious compliance as soon as the word "Allergy" is involved. Same with Celiac. It's easy with a food truck.
I deny service to people who claim Celiac. The proteins they react to contaminate through the air, the kitchen is irreversibly contaminated. Oh, you're allergic to wheat? Sorry, the grill and fryers are contaminated, can't serve you. You're allergic to (insert member of allium family), you say? The grill is contaminated because of our special seasoning salt, can't serve you. So on, so forth.
If it's a genuine allergy/intolerance, they are always appreciative. It's the fakers who get an attitude or try to compromise but I usually just say something along the lines of "Even if you are comfortable taking the risk, I (on behalf of the business) am not, and therefore cannot serve you."
Their $20 order doesn't make or break my business. It's the consequences of their own actions.
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u/Millerhah Owner 4h ago
People do this shit for the attention, and it's getting fucking old. Saturday I was working expo and a server informed me they had a customer that was "deathly allergic" to soy. I told them we would not be able to serve that customer a single menu item. They ended up ordering something that loaded with soy.
This sucks. It takes our attention away from folks with real allergies.
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u/drsquig 2h ago
I hate that shit. But we did have some weirdo come in once and pick all the onions out or our salsa, without even asking about onions. He then answered a call and dashed out saying he was at the wrong restaurant for a date. People should just ask if they can see the onions or not. I just tell servers that every damn thing has onion in it here. It'd be easier to name the shit without them.
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u/hookedcook 2h ago
Try working on a yacht. After 10 years of research, I'm completely convinced that allergies only affect rich white people from the United States and Western Europe. I was running a restaurant in the South Pacific, in a year and about 30,000 meals later we did not have 1 gluten intolerance order. On a yacht in the gluten prime years each week out of 8 guests on charter at least 1 or 2 would claim celiac
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u/Jillredhanded 1h ago
I cooked for a Sorority. Same thing, it was maddening. Switched over to a Frathouse and as long as there was a gallon of ranch on the table we were GTG.
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u/Murda_City 1h ago
I was recently diagnosed with CSID. Its like lactose intolerant but with sugar. Your body turns garlic and onion into sugar as with most carbs and starches so i have to completely avoid.
I only say this because there are people that are legit "allergic".
But also the only modification i ask for is salt and oepper only on my ribeye and im not an asshole trying to order shit i kmow i cant have
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u/TieProfessional5139 1h ago
Like mentioned above , straight up malicious compliance because most of the time it’s white people clout chasing with the allergy stuff , my favorite one is the supposedly allergic to shellfish so they modify a pasta we carry but the fold when I tell them you can’t have our French fries cause they’re fried in the same oil as calamari (stupid I know but this is corporate not mine ) then they start making excuses .
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u/Reasonable_Slice8561 50m ago
Fuck off, I literally have this exact allergy. It's real. I wish to hell it wasn't. What blows my face up is what is in allium cells, but it degrades when the cell wall is destroyed and exposed to extended heat and oxygen. Onion powder or contact with well cooked onion is safe. Intact onion or contact with raw onion is not. I get that there are assholes who make shit up, but it's not safe to decide you're an immunologist and you can diagnose what's real or not. This one absolutely can be and there's botanical reasons why it is.
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u/thedavidnotTHEDAVID 27m ago
Did this happen after the charming person bit you on the neck? Also, do you have a sunlight allergy?
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u/thedavidnotTHEDAVID 42m ago
Your allergy to modifications trumps the customer's fake onion allergy.
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u/Hallelujah33 20m ago
How about this: I dont like seafood. Yes, I've tried seafood. I dont like seafood, and I won't be ordering seafood. That being said, however, I have had people try to push seafood on me. "Just try the _, you might like it," or "that's because you haven't had ___ the way my mom/cousin/brother makes it." So I've maybe once or twice lied and said I'm allergic. Im not allergic. Is it bad to say im allergic to a dish I'm not even ordering?
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u/Cross_Eyed_Hustler 1h ago
Can you not just do the job?
Or not?
I get it people suck, they always have, they always will. They sucked before you were born, and their entire purpose of existence is to suck out your fucking soul over the period of about 70 years.
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u/EyeStache 6h ago
"I'm sorry, since you've informed me that you're allergic to onions, I can't serve this to you as it would be ethically irresponsible and put both the restaurant and I at legal liability. May I suggest the salmon?"