Dear Restaurant Owners, Please Train Your Staff!
Dear Restaurant Owners: Let me start by saying, I am a big fan. I have tremendous respect for the creativity and the passion it takes to operate a restaurant. You have a distinctive sense of hospitality and a love of food. My husband and I share that love of food, and we love dining out. It’s kind of our hobby!
But when I discovered that I needed to remove gluten from my diet, I thought our dining out days were over. Soon I learned that with a little information and knowing what questions to ask, I could still eat a meal outside of my home.
Since then, we have dined at many restaurants from coast to coast. We’ve learned the gluten free knowledge of wait staff can vary greatly from restaurant to restaurant. I have had the pleasure of dining at places with exceptionally well educated wait staff. Unfortunately, I’ve also driven home from dinners doubled over in pain, because our server was not well informed.
So, if I could make a request of all restaurant owners, it would be to educate your wait staff to be well versed in the gluten free items on your menu. I make this request on behalf of the entire gluten free community. With a basic knowledge of what ingredients go into the food you are serving and understanding which ingredients contain gluten; your staff can direct us with certainty.
There is a level of comfort to me, as a restaurant patron, knowing that my server understands what gluten free means, and that he/she can guide me through a menu. And when I am comfortable, I become a regular patron.