A top Sydney chef has hit out at ‘fussy’ diners who claim to have food allergies so they can make changes to the menu.
Queen Chow restaurant head chef Patrick Friesen told customers with ‘fake allergies’, as one critic put it, to “sort your s–t out”.
He shared a photo on Instagram of orders from three different tables, having scribbled out the contradictory dietary requirements.
Friesen took to Instagram 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–t out and let your waiter know. You make it really damn hard for people with actual allergies and dietaries to go out to eat.”
One user responded to the post: “As a chef for over 30 years I have had enough of fake allergies, it makes a chef’s life so hard and the life of allergy sufferers very hard. Since allergy laws have changed some customers now think this is a way of rewriting my menus.”
Another person in agreement wrote: “There is nothing wrong with having a food preference or not liking certain foods. Please don’t call it an allergy though. True food allergies are rare, but for those who have them they are deadly.”
Friesen told Australia’s Daily Telegraph his mother is a coeliac disease sufferer and he was frustrated at having to deal with customised orders from diners who don’t actually have an allergy.
“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.”
He said it “can be torture” for the kitchen, adding: “Especially when we have real allergies to be concerned about.”
Source: The Telegraph. Photo: patrickfriesen.