Just wanted to tell you what happened with me and Bertucci's this week.

My boss ordered us all dinner. I requested the Bruschetta, and, having been
burned there before, I asked him to make sure the it had NO CHEESE ON IT. I
even told him to shout it, because he would have to, to get the message
through. He did, three times, even telling them that the person eating it
had a serious dairy allergy. He was told "we don't make our Brucschetta
with cheese." Still, he insisted that it get recorded on the order.

Well, you guessed it. It came, I ate some after a cursory check for cheese,
and the symptoms started to appear. Fortunately, it's off-season, so my
symptoms take a little longer to overwhelm me. I downed the Benadryl and
the Albuterol, and readied the  EpiPen (which, fortunately, I didn't need).

I called the manager and asked what happened. He told me that the
Bruschetta isn't made with cheese, but the bread that they use to make the
Bruschetta often has Romano cheese sprinkled on it (!). After explaining to
him that that's not really a valid distinction when you have a
life-threatening reaction, I suggested that he talk to his order takers and
his chef and try to straighten this out before somebody dies from their
confusion. He offered to send me more food, but by then I really wasn't hungry.

I sent a message (almost a nasty-gram) to Bertucci's Corporate offices, and
got a pleasant surprise. Rather than a form letter telling me they'd look
into it, their Risk Management person spent the next day trying to get in
touch with me on the phone to find out if I was ok, and to tell me what
they were doing to reconcile the problem. They talked to the manager, sent
a bulletin to all of their franchises, and started a review on how to
prevent this kind of thing from happening.

Rather than me blasting her (what's the point, really?), we spent a good
long time talking about the problem and trying to find a way to improve
matters. I explained that I understand that getting food from a pizza place
is risky. The problems are really twofold - consistency of message (I can
never tell which chef will sprinkle cheese on something, even though it's
not supposed to be prepared that way), and of delivery of message (how to
get through to the orderer and the kitchen that this is a special order, or
be told that such an order is not possible). She listened, understood, and
took notes. This will be the subject of much discussion.

All in all, I'd have to say that this is the most productive food allergy
crisis I've encountered in a while. Not only did I recover with only a
modicum of itchiness and grogginess (and no ER visit), but the result may
change at least one chain's handling of food allergies.

I'm neither holding my breath, nor will I let down my guard, but I am happy
with the outcome.

Thanks for letting me share.

Mark