Chef Proudly Admits Lying To Gluten-Free Customers

[Swede]

What an asshole.

Tavern on the Green was always known more for its glitzy ambiance than for the quality of its food, so it's not particularly surprising to learn that a chef there may have been up to some shady shenanigans. Former executive banquet chef Damian Cardone is taking heat today for a Facebook confession regarding his habit of screwing customers who requested gluten-free pasta. Cardone, you see, is a gluten-allergy denier, and according to this Facebook post, he seemed to enjoy disregarding their requests:

http://gothamist.com/2011/03/31/chef_proudly_admits_lying_to_gluten.php

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. that's an awful thing to do. I hope he loses business

[Cid_B]

2. I suppose the question is...

... did the folks with the "gluten sensitivity" have all of the symptoms (diarrhea, bloating, abdominal pain, joint pain, depression, brain fog and migraines) after they ate there.

[ejpoeta]

4. are those side effects? makes me wonder if i have a problem with it. hmm.

[a la izquierda]

6. if you have a family member with it, i'd get checked.

the blood test may not find it, though. i have four first cousins with celiac's and i'm going to be tested for it as well.

[ejpoeta]

13. i get abdominal pains and diarhea a lot and migraines too. don't know about family members with it.

i'll be interested to see if i could get a test. i have a major family history for diabetes and it seems like pulling teeth just getting those tests!

[MorningGlow]

5. Well, as the article said

It takes two to four hours for a reaction to occur, and the customers figure they ate something with gluten somewhere else. So they likely did experience a reaction, but attributed it to some other meal. Psychologically, it seems, people would expect someplace as exclusive as Tavern on the Green not to be at fault, especially since they requested "gluten free" and were assured their meal was made to accommodate their request.

[Cid_B]

7. That strikes me as a SWAG

There was nothing in the article to suggest that...

[MorningGlow]

15. Sigh

SWAG-accuse all you want. People who have gluten sensitivity are, unfortunately, rather used to being ambushed (inadvertently) by gluten in food items, no matter how diligent they are at trying to filter it out. So yes, they likely had a reaction, and they likely suffered through it, and they likely didn't bother to trace it back to Tavern on the Green. And assumption though it might be, I stand by my assertion that if someone goes to a posh restaurant and are assured that their food allergies/sensitivities will be accommodated, they likely will assume they ended up with gluten from some other place.

[Cid_B]

17. All the more reason there would be a complaint...

IMO...

[MorningGlow]

21. Doubtful

Gluten intolerant people are inured to being "hit" every once in a while, and they don't bother to trace an attack back to the cause.

On edit: What's your point, by the way? Are you implying that these people might not have had an attack, as the chef said, if they didn't trace their meals, figure out the source, and complain?

[Cid_B]

26. I'm not implying anything...

I was curious if any of them did have symptoms or if the chef was right or something in between?

[KittyWampus]

30. "if the chef were right"? You seem to be skeptical that celiac disease exists. If someone w/celiac

disease ate this asshole's food, they almost certainly had a reaction.

[Cid_B]

31. Hence my point...

... if there had been a stream of people complaining of attacks it seems that it would have been included in the story.

[KittyWampus]

32. Again, you seem skeptical that celiac disease exists. Also, you ASSUME people who did suffer

would be able to figure out where the food came from and then reported it.

[Cid_B]

33. I'm just crazy like that...

... if I have a shellfish allergy and I go out to eat and get sick a few hours later, I might guess that my dinner had some shellfish.

[KittyWampus]

34. Even if you had steak?

[Cid_B]

36. Closer analogy would be...

... if I had a seafood dinner.

If I order a dish that would normally have the thing I am allergic to (gluten in pasta) and request its removal, later that evening after a reaction, I might assume it hadn't been removed.

[WinkyDink]

42. Have you ANY idea of how many food- (and non-food) stuffs have gluten?! Even pills!

[keroro gunsou]

25. swag?

what's that?

[KittyWampus]

27. Some Wild Ass Guess- I think. Perhaps that poster thinks celiac disease is psychological.

[Lars39]

29. Scientific Wild Ass Guess

[SidDithers]

9. It's not an immediate reaction...

it happens a few hours later, as the food eaten is digested.

Sid

[Cid_B]

14. Understood..

I would posit that for most people dinner is the last meal of the day (at least the last one they don't have control over.)

I would also suggest that most people who claim to be sensitive to gluten would make that A to B connection.

I'm curious as to how many people complained, the next day, about the fact that there must have been something in their dinner.

[SpiralHawk]

16. Haven't these problems erupted since GM grains began infesting the markets?

The genetically mutant stuff is everywhere now -- never labeled -- and these kinds of problems are multiplying. Is there the kind of direct connection that seems so apparent to common sense?

Ya gotta wonder.

[MorningGlow]

19. Refined flour

and way higher amounts of gluten in all sorts of food both seem to be hitting sensitive people hard. Don't know about the GM stuff, but I would like to see someone study it to find out.

[SidDithers]

3. That rat fucker!...

I hope he never works in food service again. He should be hounded out of the business.

:mad: :mad:

Sid

[Parker CA]

8. Couldn't agree more. Absolute piece of shit. nt

[SpiralHawk]

37. Another example of Republicon Family CessPool Values

so disrepectful of his role & responsibility in society, and of other people...that's republicon soul rot fer sure.

[scarletwoman]

10. I hope he is roundly shamed by his colleagues in the food service biz.

What a petty greedy mean egoist.

If he finds the notion of the existance of gluten allergies not credible, he could simply inform those people who request special gluten-free foods that he will not prepare such foods. The prospective clients could then make a fully informed decision about whether they still want to engage this chef's services.

But then he might miss out on a buck and the opportunity to get a little hate on.

Disgusting.

[Ilsa]

11. This happened to my friend's daughter. She suffered with bloody diarrhea

until it was out of her system. She's been gluten-free for four years, and any gluten sets her off and makes her miserable. Before, she was chronically sick feeling, bloated, etc.

That asshole needs to be fed something upsetting to his system for a few day. How about a bag of glass shards?

[CrownPrinceBandar]

12. Oh, one of those "It doesn't fit into MY reality, so it must not be true" folks....

Its one thing to have an opinion, its another thing to force that opinion on people, especially with subterfuge. Asshole needs drummed out of the cooking corps.

[dsc]

18. fraud is fraud is fraud

He should be arrested he promised one thing and delivered another.

[KittyWampus]

20. hahaha- next maybe he'll put some sugar into a sugar-free dish so diabetics can go into shock

[SidDithers]

22. +1...nt

Sid

[stuntcat]

39. +1

.

[KittyWampus]

23. The more I think about this, the more it seems like a criminal form of assault.

Celiac disease is an actual disease.

[stuntcat]

38. I know right

dumb, worse than dumb.

My aunt has celiac disease, I'm sending this to her.

[joeunderdog]

46. If you ended up in a hospital after dinner there, you could sue.

He just admitted to knowingly and purposefully creating risk that led to injury.

I'm allergic to wheat--if I ate there, it might have been my last meal.

[SidDithers]

55. My daughter is a celiac kid...

diagnosed by small intestine biopsy when she was 5, she's now 13.

I'm glad that gluten intolerance and CD have gotten a much higher profile in the last few years. It means that more and more food companies and restaurants are aware of hidden sources of gluten, and food labeling has improved significantly. Eating gluten-free is so much easier now than it was even 5 years ago.

Sid

[pink-o]

24. I've been a vegetarian for a million years, I know exactly how it is dealing

with these dickheads who don't respect your dietary needs. I've been told many times that certain foods are okay, only to pay the price to the Porcelain God later that evening.

It makes it difficult to go anywhere to eat, but take heart! I've always food refuge in ethnic food and for the gluten sensitive out there, you can order a lot of cuisine without rice or bread and know you'll probably be okay. What I would recommend is to stay away from anything processed, especially the stuff that comes in boxes and promises "gluten free" eating. Nothing good for you ever comes in a box, where you turn it to its side and read down the panel that looks like a chapter in War and Peace. The 4 million, multi-syllabic ingredients will never have any nutritional value.

Processed food is just evil, regardless of if you're veggie, gluten-sensitive or have any other special needs diet. Eat stuff you can recognize with ingredients you can pronounce, bake your own desserts and you should be on the right path.

[JVS]

28. What a douche

[PCIntern]

35. Gee, if he'd done that to a cousin of mine

he'd be more in need of an orthopedic surgeon than a lawyer.

[Joe the Revelator]

40. What he did isn't right, but I agree there are a lot of people claiming to need a gluten free diet..

......who really do not.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

41. Why do you not believe people with food allergies?

there are so many diseases and conditions people have where somebody denies their reality.

I have food allergies. I cannot eat tomatoes, bell peppers, red peppers, spicy food, any of those things. I am also allergic to shellfish.

The grandmother who was quite bossy and the mom kept trying to get me to eat horrible food. I refused. I would not eat the boiled to death greens, or the lousy meat or the metallic black-eyed peas cooked to mush. Or the raw onions, tomatoes, and bell peppers.

I found out later that some of this was bad cooking and some of it was food allergies.

When I was a kid I got yelled at for putting lots of sugar in my tea. The parents would put liquid saccharin in my tea and INSIST it was sweet. I said, "No, it's bitter, it doesn't taste like sugar" and they would insist right back it was sweet. That was the only artificial sweetener that they had in the sixties. I read somewhere many years later that there is a gene related to that. People with the gene can tell the difference between saccharin and sugar, and people without it can't.

Why do people insist on denying other people's reality?? Especially when that can make us QUITE ILL??

I was once in a Thai restaurant and explaining to a woman that I could not eat spicy stuff. She said "Do you have a physical reaction?" I said, "Yes, I throw up." That disgusted her enough that she turned away from me.

:rofl:

[tammywammy]

50. "Yes, I throw up."

Best answer to that question you could have come up with. :rofl:

[Manifestor_of_Light]

59. Hey, it was true.

I started to get a clue stick in high school.
I'd eat pizza with everything on it but pepperoni and it would make an "encore appearance" about an hour later.

Of course there were other things besides tomatoes that disagreed with me. Olives, bell peppers, sharks possibly, who knows....


Last week I ate some chopped barbecue beef that had tomatoes in it. I diluted it with mayo, hoping that would cut down on the acidity. Boy did I suffer. You don't want to know the details. TMI.

:shrug:

[WinkyDink]

43. And you base this ASSumption on....?

[Joe the Revelator]

44. Not bad puns, I can tell you that much.

[WinkyDink]

51. It's an oldie but goodie. Now, moving along to your actual answer.......?

[Joe the Revelator]

52. Celiacs disease affects .75 percent of the population....either I know a disproportionalley

Large number of that small group, or a lot of people are faking it for attention and/or hypochondria.

[laundry_queen]

60. I know some people who experiment

with a gluten free diet. Some have had digestive issues all of their life but haven't been diagnosed with anything and they are trying it to see if it helps. Others have children with behavioral disorders and want to see if eliminating certain things will help. I say if it helps, who cares? These people aren't 'faking' anything. For instance, I have pretty severe lactose intolerance, yet I can sometimes eat small amounts of certain cheeses without any problems (lactaid helps). And if I make sure some dish at a restaurant didn't have diary, doesn't mean I'm a hypochondriac b/c I eat some cheddar the next day.

And I'd be pretty pissed if I asked if something had dairy in it and someone thought I was making shit up and put dairy in my meal anyway. I'd be spending quite a bit of time locked in the bathroom afterwards. Likely though I wouldn't be sure what it was, since other things than dairy can set it off too (haven't narrowed it down yet!). Would I complain to the restaurant? Unlikely because I couldn't be sure what it is.

[demtenjeep]

57. yea...NOPE

In my family it is VERY serious.

Life and Death serious.


We read every label of EVERY thing we buy

[Joe the Revelator]

58. Your husband has a wheat allergy, not a gluten intolerance....

You're not even talking about the same thing.

[demtenjeep]

45. if he did that to my hubby, he would have a law suit on his hands for wrongful death

My hubby is allergic to Wheat so we follow the gluten free diet. It isn't a matter of convenience or self-choice...it is a matter of Life and DEATH

[Joe the Revelator]

47. Your husband dies if he eats gluten?

Really?

[demtenjeep]

48. he is allergic to wheat. He carries an epi pen. He will go into anaph shock

and has coded once and almost did it again last month


so yes he would DIE

[Joe the Revelator]

49. Wheat allergy is different then celiac disease

[demtenjeep]

53. seems so. He is Allergic to wheat

he will break out into hives from head to toe, his breathing will shut down, he will not be able to see, hear or talk and he would die if he didn't have an epi pen for times that someone makes a "mistake"

for example, he was at Spangles ordered a cheeseburger without the bun. They must have discovered it needed to be without the bun and pulled it off, and didn't tell him

it cost a stick with the epi and a trip to the ER where his eyes rolled back and he "coded" and would be dead had the epi not kicked in when it did

[demtenjeep]

54. and it happens within 20 minutes within eating

it is DEADLY serious

not just a matter of an upset tummy or the runs

[Heywood J]

56. What a stupid idiot.

ETA: Asked and answered.