Jezebel's server snark eats its own young this week ...

[Robin Garr]

I haven't posted this column lately because it turned toward a mean snide that reminded me of the defunct Eater. This one's funny, though.

http://kitchenette.jezebel.com/restaura ... 1688852466

I wondered what happened. I have missed it.

[Robin Garr]

I wondered what happened. I have missed it.

They've just been mean, Ronnie. I'll gladly share a link so you can go look, but really, as I said, it had shifted to a kind of humor that reminded me of the late, unlamented Eater kids, and I didn't care to put it on the forum or Facebook.

I watch for it every week, though, and when the snark outweighs the snide, I'll post ...

Some of those are just plain sad. I can't believe that people who work in the food industry can get away without knowing the basics of food allergies. It just goes to show that the American education system continues to decline.

The spinach thing, yes. But the allergen thing can be tricky. It's still fairly new to the culture, so it's common that people, customers and employees, are making mistakes. I still have to explain to people why rice is "gluten free" and bread is not. And so on.

But yes, some of those are head scratchers.

Robin, understood, just wasn't aware it had turned sour. If the meet muster, then please keep them coming.

[Robin Garr]

Robin, understood, just wasn't aware it had turned sour. If the meet muster, then please keep them coming.

Maybe it was just a midwinter mood thing with me, Ronnie, but I thought it had gone from fun snark to an undercurrent of meanness that I didn't want to propagate. Almost a sense of bullying the stupid for being stupid. But C.A. Pinkham was willing to turn his sights on his industry peers this time, and it still felt more like fun.

Some of those are just plain sad. I can't believe that people who work in the food industry can get away without knowing the basics of food allergies. It just goes to show that the American education system continues to decline.

There's another peculiarity that adds to the confusion. It is the number of people without allergies who cavalierly say they are allergic to things like mayo or tomatoes when ordering. I've heard multiple people use similar rationale, like "I figure they're less likely to screw up my order if I say that I have an allergy."

[Robin Garr]

There's another peculiarity that adds to the confusion. It is the number of people without allergies who cavalierly say they are allergic to things like mayo or tomatoes when ordering. I've heard multiple people use similar rationale, like "I figure they're less likely to screw up my order if I say that I have an allergy."

Marsha did a really good post on that a while back:

This is important: Please don’t lie about food allergies. Some diners think it’s expedient to claim they are allergic to a hated ingredient to ensure it doesn’t end up on their plate. We in the kitchen are trained to take such claims seriously and at face value. So, if you tell your server, “I’m allergic to mushrooms,” and then order pommes frites, you could bring your meal, other patrons’ meals and the whole kitchen “engine” to a grinding halt while a cook devotes a whole burner and 15 minutes to heating a fresh pot of oil, since mushrooms have been in the fryer at some point earlier. And your fries will end up a pale imitation of what they could have been had they been properly blanched, cooled and re-fried in the high-BTU professional grade fryer.

http://www.louisvillehotbytes.com/the-service-triangle

I stopped following the link after some food adulteration stories where added and the moderator defended the practice against people pointing out that that should never be done.

I mean really, what more do you need to know?