I have food allergies (tree-nuts and salmon), and food intolerances (wheat, dairy and soy) and I love dining out and trying new restaurants. (I even blog about what restaurants are allergen-friendly and food-allergic-diner friendly.) Over the years I have refined my strategies for communicating with restaurants and servers about my allergies and what I can and cannot eat and have dined well all over the world.

 

A few months back a friend asked me: why don't you combine your  coaching practice with your relationships with restaurants and your ability to dine safely? What a natural fit!

Thus, after months of planning, Worry-Free Dinners was created. It's a membership dining group for people with manageable food allergies, food intolerances and celiac disease to dine out together. The goal is to dine safely at a restaurant I have pre-screened and prepared an allergen-free menu with the chef; to learn how communicate with a restaurant about your food allergic needs; how to increase your confidence about dining out of your safety zone; and to get the true sense that there are others who understand your fears and frustrations about eating with food issues.

 

Our first Worry-Free Dinners event was April 1st and it was incredible. I had contracted for a gluten-free dinner at a Chinese restaurant that had been certified Gluten-Free by the GFRAP program here in New York. Before I had gone to this spot, I hadn't had fried rice in 20 years! What a relief to find a restaurant that had been trained about cross-contamination and had created a completely gluten-free menu (using gluten-free soy sauce) for its diners. Each WFD diner had a custom printed menu delineating multiple choices for appetizers, entrees, and sides. People were so happy to be able to choose from a list of dishes rather than just having to make do with what they hope would be one safe dish.

 

 

As soon as we all sat down, there was an immediate, and I mean immediate, sense of belonging and camaraderie amongst the diners. People were laughing and sharing; bonding over diagnoses and medications, cosmetics and new food products. The food arrived to exclamations of, "This is wonderful!" and "I haven't had Chinese in years!" which, of course, I totally understood. We spoke with the woman who created the gluten-free menu for the restaurant about what restaurant owners need to hear from diners in order to make the safest meals possible. We talked about safe dining strategies; looked at books that talk about how to dine out safely; and chatted about the efficacy of chef cards. Most of all we enjoyed each other's company, dining in a safe, supportive environment that was allergy-free. I can't wait for the next one!