Dining Out for the Food Allergic Community

This is so cool. One of the blogs I follow, Allergic Girl, happens to be a professional advocate for food allergic people. She recently did this interview for the Culinary Institute of America about how to have a successful dining out experience as a food allergic consumer, which in turn is also used to teach the chefs at CIA about food allergic diners. How awesome is that!?!?

I have to tell you that from personal experience this is an invaluable resource that the CIA is providing to it's students. My brother is a chef and when dining out at his (very fancy) restaurant a few years ago, he was quite intolerant to my needs. While the restaurant did accommodate both my little brother (who has severe shellfish and nut/tree nut allergies) and I, and my brother did work with me to find menu items I could eat ahead of time, after the meal that night brother actually scolded me for having to eat my tuna fully cooked. I can't eat raw fish, it makes my eyes and throat swell so in order to still enjoy fish I just make sure to only eat it when it is fully cooked. The reaction is worse if I eat shellfish, and I actually get hives in my throat. So when the waiter told us that we would be having a free course of seared scallop both my little brother and I immediately spoke up. The substitution was to be tuna for us and I made it clear that under no circumstances could I eat it raw, so they brought mine out completely cooked through. For my little brother, they simply seared it and left the tuna raw in the middle. Being a very cautious food allergic person (he gets full blown anaphylaxis) he refused to eat it because it wasn't cooked through. Don't blame him. Here is the kicker, everyone in my family, but me, told him he would be fine and to just eat it. yeah, that's my family. So both my little brother and I got scolded and harrassed for not eating something that could potentially harm us, and from the chef , too, our brother!

Needless to say, I could not be more excited that this video is being shown to CIA students. A sympathetic chef is priceless for us food allergic. It allows us to live like the rest of the world, safely. And there is no better feeling than that. Thanks CIA for being so proactive for the food allergic community!