Do you know what gluten free precautions to look for when you dine out in a restaurant? I thought I did until I decided to call around and see how much the restaurants knew. Some were great; others were downright scary!
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Dining Safely Gluten Free to Avoid Cross-Contamination
I have been both stunned and amazed at what restaurants say they know about gluten cross-contamination.
Please don’t get me wrong. Many restaurants understand how important it is to prevent cross-contamination in the kitchen. I love talking to those restaurants. They make me feel like we are speaking the same language. Other ones scare me.
If you are new to gluten free, I have a great introduction to gluten free living article to help get you started. There are lots of gluten free resources on my blog as well.
Drum roll, please……I will start with the #10 most scary thing and work my way to the worst, #1.
10. “How long are you going to be on this gluten free diet?”
Wow, where do I start? How about for the rest of my life?? As much as I am thankful for the gluten free diet “fad” for helping get companies to put out more gluten free products, it set back those who need to eat gluten free for medical reasons.
Restaurants don’t know how to differentiate between gluten free for a diet vs. gluten free for medical reasons. Have you been asked how allergic are you? Or even better, #9.
9. “Are you allergic or just trying to lose weight?”
I kid you not. Someone asked me that over the phone. When I replied, “Yes, I really am allergic,” the staff told me I should tell my wait person when I come in that I have a real allergy so they can take precautions.
Really? So, if I interpret that correctly, this restaurant only takes safe gluten-handling practices seriously when you tell them you have a real gluten allergy. What if a gluten free diner in this restaurant doesn’t know what to specify?
8. “Our kitchen is too small to use separate pans and utensils.”
This is a common problem for restaurants in the Bay Area. I am not sure I fully understand why a restaurant would make an effort to accommodate gluten free diners if they can’t do it safely. I am trying to visualize a cook line. It would surprise me if a cook didn’t switch pans and utensils as they cooked each order.
No restaurant would use a pan to make chicken marsala, then use the same pan to make a scampi order, so I don’t understand why it is hard to switch to sterilized pans and utensils for gluten free orders. You have to switch to clean pans after each order anyway.
7. “Flour is in the air, so nothing on our gluten free menu is really gluten free.”
I understand this completely. Flour can stay in the air for up to 24 hours. Unless you make the gluten free items in a separate area, it is impossible to keep things perfect. I also appreciate the restaurant’s honesty in telling me this.
My main question is, why have a separate gluten-free menu? Wouldn’t it be better to state that you can modify menu items and have the server explain potential cross-contamination to diners? This dialog could be a valuable tool to help the diner understand the risks and make an educated choice.
6. Restaurant: “Our restaurant makes gluten free pizzas in a separate area in our kitchen, away from our regular pizzas. We have separate pans, cutters, and paddles for gluten free pizzas.”
Me: “Wow, it sounds like you know what you are doing to keep gluten free customers safe. Do your chefs change their gloves before they start to make a gluten free pizza?”
Restaurant: “Oh, I never thought of that. I should let my District Manager know.”
Well, kudos to the manager who saw value in my question. I hope this information about changing gloves makes it to all of the pizza restaurants in this chain.
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Check out all of my gluten free safe dining tips, so you know what to look for when dining out.
5. “I had a friend eat it, and they seemed okay.”
Seemed okay? What does okay look like? Many reactions happen internally hours or even days after ingesting gluten.
4. Restaurant: “We prep and cook our gluten free pizzas on a separate sterilized mesh.”
Me: “So you put the gluten free pizza dough on a sterilized mesh, and then you take that gluten free pizza on the mesh and put it down on the same counter where you put the meshes that had wheat pizzas on? Can’t wheat flour go up through the holes in the mesh?”
Restaurant: “That is why we don’t guarantee our gluten free pizzas are gluten free.”
Am I the only one who thinks this is strange? Why have gluten free pizza if you are going to contaminate it? It seems like a wasted effort on the restaurant’s part. Maybe they should put a sign on their menu next to their gluten free pizza listing and refer to #9 above. It could say only eat our gluten free pizza if you are on the gluten free diet as a fad diet.
3. “You should be safe. It is made out of wheat, not gluten.”
I will never eat at this place. They have not taken the time to educate their staff.
And now the top two scary things restaurants have said to me:
2. Restaurant: “We pre-cook gluten free pasta in freshwater. When someone orders a gluten free pasta dish, we warm the pasta back up in the boiling water on the stove.”
Me: “Is this boiling water on the stove fresh or designated only for gluten free pasta?”
Restaurant: “No, it is the same water we use for all pasta.”
Me: “You do realize you contaminate the gluten free pasta when you warm it up in the same water you warm up wheat pasta, right?”
Restaurant: “Wow, come to think of it, you are right.”
Me: “You need to change that policy. You could make someone really sick.”
I was speechless after this conversation. At least this restaurant manager thanked me. I hope this is corrected ASAP.
1. “As careful as we are, if my kids had a problem with gluten, I wouldn’t let them eat out knowing what restaurants do.”
Wow! As a parent of gluten-intolerant kids, this one scared me the most. What am I supposed to think? His comment left a LOT out there. What do restaurants do? Which restaurants was he thinking about when he said that? I need to find out so I can avoid those places.
So there you have my list of The Top Ten Scary Things Restaurants Have Said To Me. As you can see, gluten-free is misunderstood in the restaurant world.
This subject is near and dear to my heart. It is why I started this blog in the first place. Please visit my restaurant database and click on restaurants in your area. You can see what their safe gluten-handling policies are.
Use this blog as a guideline to ask the right questions when you go out to eat. And lastly, please help me get the word out. Restaurants don’t understand that misleading statements can make a gluten-intolerant person sick.
I would love to hear what restaurants have said to you! I also have 100s of easy gluten free recipes to check out!
This post was updated from an old November 2013 post with a lot more information.
I worked as a cook and sous chef in restaurants in the 70’s, before I knew I needed to be GF. Hardly anyone knew about GF at the time, but allergens and preferences were on the radar. The pervasive attitude though was, “What they don’t know won’t hurt them.” Those are the exact words given by a cook I confronted at a fundraiser. We were making vegan pancake batter (not GF) but he insisted it had to have eggs and proceeded to add a dozen to the mix.
After finding other occupations, I still thought I could go back to cooking if I had to. At age 60 in 2012 I thought I’d give it a try at one of those 24 hour national chains that sports a few gluten free offerings. Some things have changed and I was appalled.
1) They expect to do more and faster with less staff. That means even if they are trained (they’re not) they don’t have time to watch your order for cross-contamination. English is a second language for many and even if they are conscientious, the training materials are all in English.
2) The kitchens are set up for speed, not preventing cross-contamination. The fryers are all adjacent and splash oil from one to the other–if they even bothered with a GF fryer. The cabinets that hold egg wash, batters, cheese, sliced veggies, etc. are all jammed in together so everything contaminates everything else especially on a busy shift with short staff. (See #1)
3) Even though this particular restaurant chain produces their GF menu offerings safely at a company commissary, the cooks have neither time nor the physical setup to prevent their being contaminated on the wrong cooking surface or with a myriad of other substances that they are slinging about in a rush to get orders out.
Just because it says GF on the menu doesn’t mean it will be GF on your plate. As was once said of the automobile, these places are “unsafe at any speed.”
100%. I really appreciate your detailed information. It will definitely help others.
I am just finding your blog and love it! I can’t wait to try some of your recipes. Once we went to dinner at Red Lobster and I had discussed the gluten free needs before I ordered and settled on crab legs and a salad. As I had already eaten partially when I found a linguine noodle on the crab leg. I asked the server about it and she went in the kitchen see how pasta was on the crab. She came back and told me they cook the crabs in the pasta water to keep from wasting water! WHAT!!!!!!! Needless to say I did get sick from it. Who in their right minds thought that would be okay!
Thank you so much for the compliment. I am glad you found my blog! I am blown away what happened to you at Red Lobster. That is horrible and very dangerous. Thank you so much for coming to let us know so we can all stay safe!!
You’re welcome! I know I thought it was too! Take care!
Thank you for your hard work in doing you Blog, it has been very helpful. On a trip we stopped at an Asian restaurant and when we asked if they used wheat free soy sauce we were tol;d soy sauce did not have wheat in it. We asked her to read the label. Of course wheat is the first thing listed. She was the owner, so I am sure the others that worked there did not know about this problem either. Thanks again.
Wow! Hopefully she will remember this so none of her customers get sick from this mistake!
I really appreciate the gluten free recipes and information you put out there. Thank you
Thank you so much, Sharon. I am so glad everything is helping you.
The scariest response from a restaurant when my husband asked if the burgers were gluten free (there were gluten free buns available) was “oh yes, we don’t put any potato in the burger”. My husband never went back there.
The biggest surprise is how many restaurants have a dedicated fryer for french fries BUT drain all the fryers into one container, then strain and reuse their oil so the oil may have gluten in it.
Your husband has the right response. I am so sorry that happened. The shared fryer is a huge issue at so many restaurants.
I appreciate your blog and the effort you make to help us. I’m celiac living in France and speak almost no French. Going out is frustrating and frightening. Very slowly I see changes taking place. Some restaurants now list on their menu all the items people try to avoid (dairy, soy, nuts, gluten, etc). The world has a long ways to go to make it completely safe for us to eat in restaurants. BTW we were on a cruise ship last year. This particular line (Regent) has a separate kitchen dedicated to people with celiac. They requested that I order my meals the night before. I was amazed at how good I felt by the time I left the ship. It’s a slow (and painful process in many ways), but please keep up your good work.
Thank you so much for your note. I have heard Europe is getting pretty good at labeling gluten free, and having lots of gluten free options. I am so glad you found my blog.
Hi,
My grandson is dating a lovely young woman who is allergic to gluten. I am now aware of how difficult it is to cook for and make restaurant dining a treat for her. It has been a real learning curve – nothing is easy! I have always read nutrition labels but didn’t realize the number of products that contain various forms of gluten. Like sugar, gluten is in unexpected places. I always try to make something special when guests come to dinner. I have found your website and recipes to be very helpful and informative.
Sincerely,
Alice G.
Sincerely,
Alice G.
I am so glad you found my site, Alice. Please let me know if I can help in any way.