Working in hospitality with food allergies

The challenge of working in hospitality with food allergies is very real, and there are quite a few chefs who have food allergies.

How on earth does that work? I hear you thinking.

There was one chef I knew who was allergic to fish, yet he was the Fish Chef.

Well, it was like this: the allergy was only triggered when the fish was in contact with his skin, or if he ate it. Gloves were used during preparation, and he never ate any fish.

When working as part of a Brigade (the term for the team of chefs in hospitality), it is often necessary for another chef to do the ‘taste test’ to check the seasoning.

There are always other staff who will be able to taste a sauce or soup when needed.

When you know that you have an allergy, and what causes the reaction, it is not too difficult to avoid many ingredients. It may lead to having to adapt recipes, and carry out experiments with alternative ingredients. These experiments often lead to a lot of wasted food, and disappointment.

It was a bit like that for me.

All through my training, and in every post I held as chef, I avoided eating any food that I had caused me any kind of allergic reaction.

At first I was only allergic to egg as whole egg, when it was incorporated in cakes or as mayonnaise it didn’t seem to cause much of a problem. That changed as time went on, and eventually, I couldn’t eat eggs at all, in anything.

It’s not only the 14 allergens.

As time went on, there were reactions to other foods. There was burning in my mouth when I ate chocolate. My hands swelled like balloons when I prepared butternut squash. Stomach pain when I ate oats. Food started getting stuck in my throat because of inflammation in my oesophagus.

At one point I came out in hives head to toe, and the GP took one look and said, ‘You’re allergic to strawberries.’, and sent me away with antihistamine pills.

In 2014 I had a reaction to black pepper. I was covered in hives for a fortnight, as one faded so another came up next to it, then they developed into bruises. The GP I saw that time said, ‘It’s only and allergy.’, and sent me away with double dose antihistamines and calamine lotion.

‘The onion incident’.

I had noticed that when peeling and cutting onions my throat increasingly felt itchy, then swollen, then it happened……I couldn’t breathe. It wasn’t even me who was slicing the onions! It was another chef at the other end of the kitchen, but it was enough to stop me in my tracks and get out of the kitchen. Everyone thought it was because one of the onions was extra strong, but it wasn’t, my eyes were not running, nor were anyone else’s.

Strange as it may seem, I can still eat cooked onions, but if there is someone near me eating raw onion, or they come sliced on a salad, I have to take medication and/or get out.

For me, it was just getting worse and with reactions to different foods becoming apparent, and more intense. I tried front of house, but as I still had to go into the kitchens, that became untenable too.

Time to get out

The time came when I had to accept that my career in hospitality as I knew it, was over.

There are just too many risks in the commercial kitchen, that it is unsafe for me. Even at home, if my husband is preparing onions, I have to stay out of the kitchen until they are cooked.

Now I am unable to even walk past a curry house without using my inhaler.

What next? An adventure into training and a new business helping hospitality to Cater Allergy Safer

Find out more at https://caterallergysafer.co.uk