Anyway… Eric is one of the only people I know who has a food allergy and isn’t a dick about it. I’ve seen him ask the servers about the cooking situations as they pertain to him. He then calmly awaits their response and then orders based on the verdict from the kitchen. Eric understands that it’s not the cook’s fault that he’ll die from shellfish, as he acts accordingly.

My thoughts on cross-contamination are simply that too many people anymore take NO pride in their work. This is not everyone, but I’m sure that it is the vast majority of people cooking, serving and then cleaning up food. How many of those people are working in restaurants because they want to? Probably not too many. That leads to apathy and general disenchantment with the job when in reality, that is someone’s food. That is something that someone is paying for and then subsequently consuming.

As for the tipping deal, I start at 15% and go from there. I do, however, tip on the entire bill; taxes, drinks and so on included. I also tend to be the one to encourage the leaving of more money for better service, nice personality or whatever strikes my fancy that day. My sister is a server, so I have heard the lectures from her about the ins and outs of the restaurant world. I also make sure to never walk out with the server’s pen. That’s a big no no.

Heck, you could certainly eat in my restaurant because we don’t cross-contaminate, except that you wouldn’t be able to eat any fried food because we have fried calimari. Plus, we are pretty knowledgable about what goes in our food and we cook a lot of elemental things like steaks (no shellfish ever hits the cutting board that they use to “oil” the steak) and steamed green veggies (our veggies can be steamed or sauteed in garlic and olive oil). If you can afford it, you might try your local steakhouse (I’m talking Capital Grill, Palm, Ruth’s Criss, Morton’s, etc.) The servers there can assure your safe dining and it’s pretty easy to build a meal that just about ANYONE can eat, even those with such esoteric allergies like garlic, which is a tough one for many restaurants. The food is pretty simple in general and don’t have a lot of “exotic” ingredients, plus, the line cooks and broiler personnel have pretty high standards and are well-trained and can comply with most reasonable special dietary requests. Even vegans can eat in most high-end steakhouses, if their moral compass allows them to do so. Of course, most vegans would never be caught dead in one…

Neither is comprehensive but hopefully points servers in the way of accomodating people with certain dietary needs. You might find them interesting:

http://teleburst.wordpress.com/?s=gluten+free

http://teleburst.wordpress.com/2009/11/20/accomodating-vegetarians/

I would devote a post to allergies, but there’s not a lot of practical info that I can give waiters because, as you pointed out on your blog, this is more of a kitchen cross-contamination issue than a food knowledge thing, although some menus might have some things that a waiter might need to know about in regard to unstated ingredients in recipes that could cause a patron to have problems (something cooked in peanut oil might not be immediately obvious, for instance).

But you have gotten me interested in exploring the topic of allergies, so I’m likely to come up with something that might be helpful to both waiter and patron.

Actually, that’s the best explanation I’ve heard on tipping. Usually it’s a “just because” kind of answer. I generally tip 20%-ish but I thought that was above good. I now see that it’s just plain good, so I will try to tip more.

I see you’re taking my rants in good humor, and again… this is an incredibly well written blog. I am admittedly naive about the inner-workings of a kitchen, and would gladly observe a place in operation.

Laurel, a good friend of mine who has worked more than a few waitressing jobs, and I have this conversation once or twice a year. I will always and forever be wrong in my opinions to her. I’m OK with that.

I do see that it’s not the server’s job to talk to the chef about implementing allergy awareness… but shouldn’t that be taught in school or handed down by the owner or something?

@Nat… not sure on Charity’s take… but I see no animosity towards me… and I hope to not come off that way. My stuff is more like thinking out loud, in an apparently idealistic way… ha ha ha.

I guess people writing blogs are trying to provoke some kind of reaction anyway, right?