Food Allergies, and knowing how to formulate your own spice mixes....

This week, we were running a blackened salmon with hollandaise on special.

My VERY FIRST order had a special request, "No cumin" anywhere. Naturally, I grabbed the bottled blend that our spice vendor gets for us and look at the ingredients. "Salt, spices, assorted anti-coagulants", etc. No actual listing of what was or was not in the mix.

I looked at the waitress, and told her, "You are one very lucky person. I've been mixing Prudhomme's formulation for years at home. I've basically got it memorized. I whip up a small batch and use that."

Well, the customer was very happy. I even used that mix for three days. In fact, I sold A BUNCH of salmon specials!

Awesome! And thank you from someone who has been fairly recently diagnosed with food allergies.

Way to be on point Allen...

Out of everyone in the kitchen, I probably take food allergies the most seriously. We have one little girl who has a gluten allergy. Every now and then I get someone with a seafood/shellfish allergy. One of my dishwashers has a shellfish allergy.

A lot of times people will come through and ask for "no butter" on their veggies. I will usually ask the expo to get the waiter back into the kitchen to talk to me. If they're allergice, there's butter/dairy all through the potatoes (au gratin and mashed). I even brush my bakers with butter. Most sauces have butter in it.

As a professional, I have to make my customer's needs the first and foremost thing on my mind. When I get an order from one of my "special" folks, I'm usually all over that like white on rice. It's a good thing, too, as the last time I had a dairy allergy plate come through, I caught one of the other cooks just before they buttered the veg.