Chef Admits Lying To Gluten-Free Diners

Foodista:

Chef Damian Cardone, claiming to be the former executive banquet chef at the now-closed New York City restaurant, Tavern on the Green, admitted on his Facebook profile on March 10, 2011, that he has on multiple occasions misled his gluten-free customers.

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Comments

[cookerman45]

11:29 PM on 04/12/2011

punk.

[ChristopherWB]

03:05 PM on 04/10/2011

Just want to dispute the "chef's" basis for his belief: that bread and flour have been staples for thousands of years. This may be true, but NOT the flour and bread we are eating today. The manipulation of wheat and other grains by agribusiness is frightening.
As Melinda Beck brings up in an article in The Wall Street Journal, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704893604576200393522456636.html, the gluten content of wheat has been increased.
Imagine if you thought you were drinking vodka, and instead were drinking pure grain alcohol.
To say nothing of the manipulation to create tolerance to cold or herbicides or resistance to pests.

[Melpomene42]

11:57 AM on 04/07/2011

Who's the idiot here? Google this guy's name and all you get are pages of results about him intentionally "poisoning" diners. Great rep for a chef, indeed!

[GF PATISSERIE]

03:44 PM on 04/06/2011

Not nice, Chef.

Time to start your own gluten free bakery.



http://www.gfpatisserie.com/#!__licensing

[JacksonJones]

06:15 PM on 04/05/2011

The fact is that people who are mildly sensitive to gluten, as in it doesn't provoke an acute, life-threatening reaction, can have reactions that only occur hours later, and may not be noticed until the next morning. Moreover, given the pervasiveness of gluten in the food available to consumers in the US, even people who try to be careful end up eating it in unsuspected ways. As a result, if you had eaten in a fine restaurant where you'd made a special request and thought you'd been honestly accommodated, given the number of ways you can end up eating gluten without knowing it, you probably wouldn't even suspect that it was the nice, expensive restaurant that was the culprit.

As for Mr. Cardone, well, I am sure enough has been said, most of which is richly deserved.

[bigdaddyvike]

04:46 PM on 04/05/2011

He also worked at the Sopris restaurant in Glenwood Springs, CO, which is now closed. I highly doubt he was the Exec Chef at Tavern on the Green.

[gemini68]

03:47 PM on 04/05/2011

Some people are DEATHLY allergic to gluten. To say that he gave people fresh pasta when they specifically asked for gluten-free is despicable. He could have every easily sent someone to the hospital. And honestly if he's claiming to have worked at the Tavern on the Green and someone got sick while he was working there he could have a huge lawsuit on his hands- and they would win because he's already admitted to doing it.

[scdumbfounded]

05:29 PM on 04/05/2011

Who?

[JacksonJones]

06:10 PM on 04/05/2011

People with Celiac Disease.

[gemini68]

08:31 PM on 04/05/2011

Its called Celiac disease. People who have it have varying forms of reactions to gluten. Some get an upset stomach ache, diarrhea, skin rash and some even have to go to the hospital. A friend of mine has it and if she ate gluten she would be bowled over in pain.

[MXL]

02:32 PM on 04/05/2011

Why would he even post that? Can you say, "career suicide"?

[RielDeal]

01:45 PM on 04/05/2011

This is despicable. It is unbelievable how ignorant this "chef" is. Food allergies and intolerances are VERY serious! As someone with multiple food allergies - including gluten intolerance (Celiac's Disease), I can tell within hours that I have come in contact with a food that I'm allergic to and it has serious, health-threatening side effects. It is a REAL ILLNESS.

Misleading people about ingredients or preparation practices is unacceptable. This chef should be reprimanded. Food allergies are very = significant issues that many deal with and for this man to suggest that the pain and sickness experienced from those issues is fictional is absurd and upsetting.

[Beth Alexander]

12:26 PM on 04/05/2011

This guy should never be allowed in a restaurant kitchen again. Celiac is not something made up. There is medical proof that in those affected, their body actually attacks their small intestine when gluten is ingested. I used to suffer with chronic constipation, anemia, b vitamin deficiency, severe stomach pain that felt like a kniffe jabbing me DAILY, severe depression, joint pain, absolutely no energy or focus, omg i could keep going and I am only 28. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THESE THINGS COMPLETELY WENT AWAY on their own within four months of eliminating gluten. Before some of you choose to make light of those like me, remember what you are saying is in someones head is a SERIOUS medical condition. It hurts me to hear people say that the years of pain and tears and frustration that I had to go through before discovery is something I made up. You wouldn't tell someone dying of cancer that their suffering isn't real or would you you jer k s?

[anytimecowboy]

11:22 AM on 04/05/2011

This whole Gluten Free movement is a bunch of..... Gluten is bad ONLY if you have celiac's disease

[Beth Alexander]

12:18 PM on 04/05/2011

And nearly on percent of the population does. That's still a lot of people. I STILL BENEFIT FROM IT!!!

[Dubs077]

12:50 PM on 04/05/2011

actually, conditions like autism, autoimmune disorders, and thyroid disorders represent a small portion of the population that benefit from a gluten-free diet so people with celiac's are NOT the only ones that are affected by the consumption of gluten.

[Beth Alexander]

01:47 PM on 04/05/2011

Very true. For example I have a friend with RA that needs little to no medication if she avoids foods that cause inflammation, gluten being a major one.

[mzrecycle]

08:27 AM on 04/05/2011

This guy should NEVER be able to cook in any restaurant ever! I'm not Celiac, but have a sensitivity to gluten, didn't know for a long time. Had a blood test that listed several (ok, many) foods that I was sensitive to. I'd always been thin, but at that time, I'd gained 45 lbs, and in spite of dieting, didn't lose.
Not easy, but when I followed the elimination diet (no reduction in calories), I lost the weight quickly. Avoiding wheat, dairy, eggs, sugar, chocolate (ouch!) and others was challenging. I'd eat a huge bowl of popcorn drenched in clarified butter every evening. What really sold me was that the joint pain, low energy, low grade headache and brain fog--gone. Every once in a while, I'd try to fudge. In done several times in a row, I'd feel about like I had the flu, but without the fever.

Because I don't have abd. pain or bleeding, it took a long time to discover this. The small intestine should look sort of like a shag carpet on the inside. Mine is more like berber (maybe linoleum). Some people won't recognize any ill effects from eating gluten once, but with repeated ingestion of it, the absorbing capacity of the small intestine is greatly reduced. Permanently.

He is incredibly ignorant, & his distain for the public is awful.
Yes,wheat's been around almost forever, but until fairly recently, there were many strains of wheat. Now only 2-3 used.

[idonteatwheat]

08:02 AM on 04/05/2011

There is a lot of incorrect information being stated here. People react to gluten in various ways. There are people with true allergies to wheat, they have an anphylactic response. Others are intolerant, they get GI symptoms and feel better not eating gluten. Then there are celiacs, if they ingest a microscopic amount it triggers an autoimmune reaction. It can damage the intestines so they have greatly impaired absorption of vitamins, minerals, proteins and other nutrients. Their brain and nervous system can be attacked as can their skin. It isn't just a GI issue.

You cannot train your body to tolerate gluten if you are a celiac. That bit of info is negligent. The only solution for a celiac is total avoidance.
I am the person who first posted about this chef. A friend told me about his posts on FB and I posted to celiac.com. This discussion is long overdue, 1 in 133 people have celiac, most do not know until they are severely ill, are dx'd with another autoimmune disease or never learn why they feel so poorly.

Restaurants should realize they lose more than just a fraction of customers they also lose friends and families too.

[European1919]

07:14 AM on 04/05/2011

Oh you naughty man!
So it's not just politicians, bankers, the military or captains of industry lying to us ... shock, horror ... it is humble kitchen chefs, too.

Now what happens?

[1kant2]

05:33 AM on 04/05/2011

While the chef's lying was immoral, the point i think he was getting at is that so many people just make up their supposed gluten intolerance. The number of people who really have celiacs disease is extremely small, much, much smaller than all the fools on the blogs claiming to be gluten intolerant, blah blah blah. people can make themselves believe anything, like how magnets can cure diseases.

[Beth Grierson]

10:32 AM on 04/05/2011

Oh bull. People don't "make up their supposed gluten intolerance" - sure, some people are incorrectly diagnosed. Some by themselves, some by their doctors. A friend of mine was told she was gluten intolerant after a long testing process. Later, it turned out that what she really had was an ulcer. Either way, eating certain foods, including those that contained gluten, made her symptoms worse.

[1kant2]

12:29 PM on 04/05/2011

Sorry to disappoint you but I work in the ICU, and yes, people make up their diagnoses all the time, self prescribe themselves bizarre, useless, and sometimes harmful remedies to cure diseases they do not have.

[catsanon]

01:43 PM on 04/05/2011

I'm aware that some people falsely claim to have diseases and/or medical conditions - but I'm also aware that anyone can claim to have non-existant credentials in an anonymous forum such as the HuffPo comment section...

There's no way someone working in a restaurant kitchen is capable of diagnosing any customer who walks into that restaurant. I've learned the hard way that eating at unfamiliar restaurants can be a cr@p-shoot... literally. For me, it isn't worth the pain of letting someone else gamble with my health because they're convinced it's all in my head.

And I tend to take commenter's claims about their qualifications with a more than a grain of salt. Those of us who have celiacs are not the only ones with a gluten intolerance.