The Gluten Free Façade part 1 – dining out

It's been well over a year since I wrote anything in this blog. Aside from being busy, the main reason being since my last experience with Chili's written about here I've only gone out to eat about 20 times. I was ill at the beginning of the year for almost a month and nearly lost eyesight in one eye with iritis. We narrowed the issue down to being bowel related, but got no further. I take these things very seriously.

Disney to the rescue

Usually (every couple of months) as a treat I'll get food out at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom at Pecos Bill's or at the American Pavilion at Epcot. Disney really puts on a good show about making sure that you’re taken care of. They have the manager stay with the food and bring it out to you separately. They make a scene and make you feel really uncomfortable waiting. Some of the food is okay. It’s really quite bland without the spices, and even though they claim some of the condiments are safe I’ve had limited success outside of my own kitchen. The fries are awesome though. The last time I had a burger there I got dosed however. Burger with fries, no bun, no toppings. Next time I might go for the GF nuggets at Epcot with the fries. It's likely a safer bet (since they're packaged separately). They taste like chicken surrounded by rice cakes.

The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago

I sat eating my lunch I had brought from home (the only way to truly be safe). The staff was playing a song about “bitches and guns” over the loud speakers. We were surrounded by elementary school kids who were there on field trips, so I got up to complain to someone about the choice in music. When I got to the counter I noticed “GF” on their menu boards. “The food could be Gluten Free” I remember thinking to myself. I’m sure that’s what the GF was meant to communicate at some point. However upon asking the staff about the GF they had no clue as to whether or not they had anything Gluten Free, or what it meant. Their chef came out and said they weren’t sure what gluten free meant, but after I explained it, he assured me they took no safety precautions in that regard to cross contamination whatsoever.

American restaurant chains

I've pretty much given up on Chili's or any other chain restaurant for that matter. People don't care. I tried Outback Steakhouse and they do things like bring salads with croutons. The managers care (especially when you point out the salad with croutons), the wait staff care (when they’re afraid to lose a tip), the kitchen staff could care less. I mean, what am I expecting, it’s all cooked in a kitchen with everything else. Even if someone is watching it while it cooks, other people in the kitchen could contaminate something unknowingly. Nobody really wants to hurt anyone, but ignorance doesn’t stop the discomfort when someone is careless.

Olive Garden 

Olive Garden made a huge show of the hurdles they go through to make sure things are gluten free. Separately tossed salads. Steaks with no bread on the plates. I still managed to get ill. If you complain you get free food. Want to get sick again? Sorry, I'll pass.

Chipotle

These guys make a great effort to wash their hands and change their gloves. The problem is when they use their gloves to grab from the same toppings that the person in front of them just grabbed from with their gloves on it doesn't make one bit of difference. If they touch a flour tortilla and then touch the toppings that's it; game over.

IKEA maybe… no?

I found that Ikea did have a cold smoked salmon plate with veggies. I had tried it a couple of times and really liked it. It didn’t make me ill. The last visit I noticed they had stopped carrying it. Everything seemed to have bread or breading of some kind. When I asked the “chefs” if they had any gluten free items they laughed and said that even if there was anything that was "gluten free" there, that it was likely unsafe because of their handling practices.

Legoland is Danish right?

We went to Legoland. They had all of this great documentation about their gluten free products. The park was horrible and not what I expected at all. The restaurant where they carried the “gluten-free” meals had no staff on hand that knew anything about it. The grill where they grilled bread, potatoes, steaks, and burgers looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in weeks. When I explained the allergy to one of their cooks he made an attempt to “clean” the grill with his spatula scraping and washing an area in the center of the grill to make potatoes. Upon completion to scoop them up he ran the potatoes into the gunk at the back of the grill. I didn’t eat them and still got ill from the chicken. I guess if they're from a country named after a pastry I shouldn't expect anything safe right? (Just kidding.)

Sometimes it’s the dishes

No matter how much trouble people go through in the kitchen to prepare a dish without contamination, if the dishes and silverware aren’t clean there is a risk of contamination.

Maybe it's the spices

While some spice companies like McCormick make high-end spices that are supposedly run on their own lines, bulk spices come from manufacturers who have lower standards. Any seasonings whatsoever run on a bulk line could make someone ill if they’re allergic to anything that runs on the same line. Restaurants typically buy their spices and condiments in bulk, so "if the foo shits."

Final thoughts on restaurants

In my experiences with restaurants, if you don't know the kitchen staff, or you don't know a kitchen's practices you can have a very bad experience. The "gluten free" menu isn't really meant for anyone with a gluten sensitivity or gluten allergy (especially celiac disease). It's there to make people "feel" like they have a choice. To make people think the restaurant is responsible. In actuality they're not. Read the fine print on any of the menus; you're taking your health into your own hands anytime you go out to eat. So I likely will not be eating out anytime soon anywhere that hasn't been thoroughly tested.

I have to keep telling myself that to most people "Gluten Free" is a fad or a trend. They will go back to eating whatever breads they want when nobody is looking.

Check out my follow-up: the Gluten Free Facade part 2 – dining in.