Point taken. And a good point, too. There is always a risk when not preparing ones own food, and an even greater risk at places that specialize in cheesy foods. We try to balance that against the fact that restaurant food can be quite a bit more tasty than we can prepare, and the risk is sometimes worth it, to live slightly more "normal" lives. There are so many sacrifices that we have to make that sometimes it's worth it to us to risk exposure. On the other hand, my son is so hair-trigger allergic to eggs that we never go out to a restaurant for lunch that is still in the process of serving brunch - there's just too much of a risk of cross-contamination on the grills. I guess it's an individual thing to assess the degree of risk and to decide just how much risk is tolerable. We avoid extreme risks, and carry medications always because, no matter how careful we are, there is always some degree of risk. Both my son and I have had relatively good experiences, and find that, for the most part, Bertucci's does a good job of preparing foods dairy-free when requested to do so. Neither of us is so hair-trigger that a few molecules will trigger anaphylaxis. A good dose, though, is a problem, and that's where we would prefer some predictability in the process. In fact, that's the issue that I discussed with them, and they were quite receptive. I even asked what the baseline recipe for this item was supposed to be, and asked if it was reasonable to request a special order on this item; I said that if was not a reasonable request, I'd happily stop ordering it. It turns out that the baseline recipe does have Romano cheese on the bread. The problem was that there was not only little consistency with that recipe, but that it was our experience that it was very rarely prepared with the cheese. There was also confusion in the restaurant as to the preparation of the food, and a breakdown in their handling of special requests. All of this came as a surprise to the Risk Management person, and she appreciated these as contributing to a lack of predictability and therefore an increase in risk. In this era of growing prevalence of severe food allergies, restaurants need to have some clear means of handling them, and clear policies and procedures. Even if their policy is to say that they can't cater to these requests, or that they can't guarantee the allergy safety of foods would be better than a policy of saying it'll be fine and then having it not be. Both we and those serving us bear responsibility in preventing crises. Mark At 11:58 PM 1/17/2002 -0500, you wrote: >On Thu, 17 Jan 2002, Mark Feblowitz wrote: > > > 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. > >I've never heard of Bertucci's, but assuming is the Brick Oven Pizzeria I >found via a google search, why would you eat food prepared there if you >have a serious enough milk allergy that you carry benadryl and an epi-pen? > >All I get from a single exposure is canker sores, and I eat at Italian >places maybe once a year if that frequently. I generally avoid eating out >at any places other than a few steak places or Chinese, Japanese (sushi), >or Thai, and even at these places you have to be careful and can get >screwed since some steak places will normally dip steaks in clarified >butter before cooking them, many Chinese places (the more Americanized >ones) have at least some items with dairy in them, and the Americanized >sushi places make some rolls with cream cheese, which presents a possible >source of cross contamination. > >I used to order pizza without cheese...but cross contamination seems like >such a likely occurance, I stopped years ago. I won't even go to Subway >anymore for the same reason. Last I looked (several years ago), their >bread was safe (non-dairy), but so many times I've been to Subways where >they've managed to sprinkle grated cheese all over (the prep board, the >vegie containers, etc.) that they're simply incapable of making food I can >safely eat. > >-- >---------------------------------------------------------------------- > Jon Lewis *[log in to unmask]*| I route > System Administrator | therefore you are > Atlantic Net | >_________ http://www.lewis.org/~jlewis/pgp for PGP public key_________