Posted by /u/gbmaulin on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/justneckbeardthings/comments/8s7tty/my_girlfriend_got_reeeeed_at_irl/
I'll copy/paste this here because I know a non-insignificant number of you are the type that would boycott reddit.
So I've been working as a chef at a rather upscale italian restaurant in a prominent west coast city. About a week ago I started dating one of the waitresses who works at the same establishment. We're having a post-shift drink with a couple of co workers when I happen to mention a customer with a baby blue fedora who had come in. My gf immediately makes a sour face and groans. Obviously our collective interest is piqued, we ask how he was as a customer. She looks visibly uncomfortable and says "I don't want to talk about him, it's mean. " I find myself a bit concerned, so I asked what happened. She proceeds to sigh and finish her drink. "He asked for a chicken cordon bleu without the ham and cheese." My fellow chef and I glance at each other, I know he's a redditor, he got me into it. "So basically a chicken nugget. When I told him we don't fry our chicken in an effort to not cross contaminate our friers he straight up shrieked at me." I'm struggling to hold back laughter as i ask what the shriek sounded like. "It sounded like a SHREEEEEE sound, it scared the shit out of me and then his mother proceeded to lecture me about being intentionally uncooperative and being intimidated by the cooks." I legit start to giggle a bit and my co worker chimes in with a "that sucks, but did he have any facial hair?" She said "kind of, he had a mustache and a lot of hair on his double chin" I seriously can't stop laughing, but she seems genuinely traumatized by the entire event. For the record, the ticket I got in the kitchen was "just a fried piece of chicken cut into strips"
Edit: I apologize for the formatting, but whatever it's my first post.
I'm not 100% sure this isn't done ironically, but @Gibby seems to think this could be a genuine sample. What do you think?
I was a chef for 14 years with numerous food safety certifications, I actually spent 2 years at a restaurant that specifically catered to people with food allergies and people on "special diets" (we catered to every fad on the planet)
Cross contamination in food safety specifically refers to the spread of bacteria.
Proteins denature at around 212 degrees most fryers are set between 375 and 450 so unless you're actually being served the seafood you're not at risk. However you would generally clean a basket and the area around it so any stray protein not annihilated by the hot fryer does not come in contact with the food.
When dealing with Celiac's (which is an autoimmune disease,not a food allergy)you basically create a whole new area with clean equipment but would not generally dedicate a whole fryer unless you're a MCDonald's type place that has such a pure volume of fries that dedicating a fryer makes sense (that's expensive and would really fuck up your volume, also since fryers have to be hooked up to the same gas line they are generally next to each other, also the exception of fries pretty much all commonly fried food has a gluten component). The owner of one restaurant I worked at's son had Celiac's so we had a protocol which basically meant creating a separate area. Generally as a rule unless the fries are handcut at the restaurant many types of fries contain a a coating that contains gluten.
Now in the story it was mentioned this was an italian restaurant, how many italian restaurants in the US don't use flour? Also it is hard to believe a restaurant would not have at least one deep fryer for preparing traditionally deep fried foods if in fact they have a deep fryer. Also chicken allergies are extremely low so it is very unlikely any restaurant would worry about chicken contaminating a fryer. Basically I'm saying her excuse for not taking care of the customer was trash.