124 replies to this topic

[idonteatwheat]

In contrast you have Ming Tsai, a chef with a child with food allergies who is active with education for food service in this area. I wonder how he feels about this debacle. He should be encouraged to speak out for better training and education.

[Jestgar]

...........As many of our gluten intolerant patrons know, we take extremely thorough and careful measures to insure the quality and edibility of our products to all of our customers............
....Our procedures for preparation are designed to prevent cross contamination, are strict and they are followed by our kitchen staff...........

This is good to know.

[kareng]

Mr. Cardone is not employed at any Beau Jo's restaurant. Our Glenwood Springs restaurant, where Mr. Cardone was briefly employed in early 2008, has been closed for almost a year. During the short time that he was employed at the Glenwood Springs restaurant, we received no reports of gluten poisoning. As many of our gluten intolerant patrons know, we take extremely thorough and careful measures to insure the quality and edibility of our products to all of our customers. We are remarkably aware of the issues confronting those who are gluten intolerant due to lifelong friendships with several people who suffer this unfortunate affliction. We offer a limited number of gluten-free products that we are confident will not be harmful to our friends and other members of the public. The despicable comments made by Mr. Cardone were posted almost 3 years after he was terminated at our company. The statement he made clearly demonstrate that he never engaged in these activities while at Beau Jo's since we are unable and unwilling to offer a gluten free pasta due to the possibility of contamination with products that contain gluten. We currently have gluten free pizza and sandwiches. The sandwich bread and the pizza crust are made by "Deby's Gluten Free". Our procedures for preparation are designed to prevent cross contamination, are strict and they are followed by our kitchen staff.

Great! Thank you for taking these measures.

[mushroom]

Is anyone here mildly annoyed by the statements made by the journalist and physician focusing on the minor issues with only a passing reference to the "oh by the way..it can lead to cancer, etc" as a mere afterthought? It almost makes me cringe when the "experts" seem so much like the doctors I would have avoided after I knew better.

What else would you expect from people who have spent years telling their patients they suffer from Irritable Bull Sh*t???

[lynnelise]

Some of the comments on these articles are appalling! So many people seem to think this is just made up or an excuse to be picky or get better service. How crazy is that. First of all I LOVE to eat. One of my favorite parts of travel was to try different foods. Do these people think I like the idea that I will never have beignets in New Orleans again? Not to mention the other fabulous dishes that are started with a roux. No crabcakes in Baltimore. No cheesesteak in Philly? The list goes on and on! I also like the suggestion that we should just make our plain food at home and leave dining out to "normal" people. As if we don't deserve a meal out now and then? That's enough to raise a person's blood pressure!

[nutralady2001]

on the news:

http://www.kjct8.com/news/27377743/detail.html

From the comments

"I happen to know the whereabouts of this Damian Cardone. He is living with his new fiance, in Sea Girt, NJ. I am friends with XXXX and I think the guy is a total jerk. The town of Sea Girt should be notified of this guy who is now probably looking for employment since his reloction to New Jersey."

I "X'd" out the fiance's name but it's in the comments if you go read them.

[kwylee]

The article jerseyangel just posted has this final quote...

Celebrity chef David Chang says he thinks "The special requests are ridiculous. My personal opinion is that a lot of people say they have a special allergy or they don’t like something so they can get better service." [Via Zagat Buzz]

I think "Celebrity chef David Chang" should be careful not to be associated with Damian Cardone. Being quoted in the same article could be fatal to a career.

[mushroom]

I think celebrity chef David Chang should stick to cooking for celebrities, so many of whom are giving gluten free a bad name. They probably won't notice if they are glutened!!

[GFinDC]

Mr. Cardone is not employed at any Beau Jo's restaurant. Our Glenwood Springs restaurant, where Mr. Cardone was briefly employed in early 2008, has been closed for almost a year. During the short time that he was employed at the Glenwood Springs restaurant, we received no reports of gluten poisoning. As many of our gluten intolerant patrons know, we take extremely thorough and careful measures to insure the quality and edibility of our products to all of our customers.
....
Our procedures for preparation are designed to prevent cross contamination, are strict and they are followed by our kitchen staff.

Thanks for joining up and letting us know the real story Beau Jo's. It is great to hear that restaraunts like yours are making a real effort to serve gluten-free people safely. If I lived in CO. I would be sure to stop in and eat there, if it was still open that is. Seems to me your establishment got a raw deal from this incident and it was nothing to do with your operation. More likely a disgruntled ex-employee is the cause.

I hope things work out well for your restaraunt business, in spite of the negative publicity generated by Mr. Cardone's FB posts.

[IrishHeart]

I have to add.....my best friend is a chef and she has always happily prepared the food as the customer requests. That is her JOY! To make the people happy and enjoy the dining experience.

For these "celebrity chefs" to whine about catering to "picky eaters" --a group I guess we fall into ??--I say maybe it's time to do something else!

As the number of people who have food allergies grows, (and more people are properly diagnosed with gluten intolerance/celiac) the restaurants will have to make adjustments accordingly---or go out of business!

As for Chef Chang....his comment is as equally absurd as Mr. Cardone's. Boo on you, mister!

I would say this guy has created quite a stir with his angry rants and maybe it will benefit us in the long run!!

[Lisa]

Thanks for joining up and letting us know the real story Beau Jo's. It is great to hear that restaraunts like yours are making a real effort to serve gluten-free people safely. If I lived in CO. I would be sure to stop in and eat there, if it was still open that is. Seems to me your establishment got a raw deal from this incident and it was nothing to do with your operation. More likely a disgruntled ex-employee is the cause.

I hope things work out well for your restaraunt business, in spite of the negative publicity generated by Mr. Cardone's FB posts.

Me too! If we can be of assistance....just ask.

[BethM55]

Apparently, the celiac/gluten intolerant population has power!

The following was copied from that so-called chef's facebook page:



Former Glenwood chef's Facebook comments anger celiac sufferers
By Heather McGregor
Post Independent Editor
POSTED: 03/31/2011 12:35:25 PM MDT
UPDATED: 03/31/2011 12:39:15 PM MDT

A former Glenwood Springs waiter and chef has caused an online uproar among the celiac disease community for his Facebook page posting about disregarding requests for gluten-free meals.

Damian Cardone, who worked as a chef at the Sopris Restaurant and Buffalo Valley, and more recently worked as a waiter at Florindo's, posted the message on his Facebook page March 10.

The message was discovered this week by celiac disease online advocate Shauna Ahern and posted to her Facebook page, "Gluten-Free Girl." It was picked up by other activist blogs and resulted in hundreds of phone calls to Florindo's from outraged people across the country.

Cardone left his position at the restaurant March 15, according to Florindo's owner Florent Gallicchio, and has moved back to the East Coast, according to his former boss Kurt Wigger, who owned the Sopris and Buffalo Valley.

In the March 10 post on Facebook, Cardone wrote, "People who claim to be gluten intolorent dont realize that its all in there disturbed liitle heads. People ask me for gluten free pasta in my restaurant all the time, I tell em sure, Then I serve em our pasta, Which I make from scratch with high gluten flour." (sic)

Read the rest of this report at PostIndependent.com.

[idonteatwheat]

http://www.postindep...entProfile=1074

There was an article in the Colorado paper painting the restaurant as a victim in all of this, and perhaps to some extent they are, but on a blog someone mentioned two photos on the chef's FB page that showed a kitchen with a group of people and I believe one of the captions mentioned the restaurant or a timeline that led to that and the other one is all over the news showing him in a Chef's coat. It would be nice to clear that up and know which kitchen that photo was taken in as I would find it hard to imagine a chef with such training who was only waiting tables happily posing as a chef. I guess I am just saying it would be easy to say he was a waiter after the fact to limit liability and negative press so seeing the kitchen in the restaurant would help clear that up.

I would hate for this to be twisted into something that puts us all in a negative light since the chef already had that vehement opinion. This really becomes an ethical dilemma, as a person with food issues I want to avoid anyone else becoming ill at a restaurant but where is the line where you stop with negative reviews to travel/restaurant sites (yelp, urban spoon, etc)? It is a different situation from a health inspector finding obvious problems. It is a hard call, what do you all think?

[kareng]

http://www.postindependent.com/article/20110406/VALLEYNEWS/110409941/1083&ParentProfile=1074

There was an article in the Colorado paper painting the restaurant as a victim in all of this, and perhaps to some extent they are, but on a blog someone mentioned two photos on the chef's FB page that showed a kitchen with a group of people and I believe one of the captions mentioned the restaurant or a timeline that led to that and the other one is all over the news showing him in a Chef's coat. It would be nice to clear that up and know which kitchen that photo was taken in as I would find it hard to imagine a chef with such training who was only waiting tables happily posing as a chef. I guess I am just saying it would be easy to say he was a waiter after the fact to limit liability and negative press so seeing the kitchen in the restaurant would help clear that up.

I would hate for this to be twisted into something that puts us all in a negative light since the chef already had that vehement opinion. This really becomes an ethical dilemma, as a person with food issues I want to avoid anyone else becoming ill at a restaurant but where is the line where you stop with negative reviews to travel/restaurant sites (yelp, urban spoon, etc)? It is a different situation from a health inspector finding obvious problems. It is a hard call, what do you all think?

I thought that the "PT waiter" could be a CYA statment. But, according to his FB, he was trying to establish himself as a private chef. He may have taken a part time job to make ends meet. His comments about Valentines Day could be as a waiter or cook. The pics of him in the commercial kitchen could be older, from another place.

I don't think we should post bad reviews unless we have been to the restuarant & had a bad experience. There are legal issues with a review that isn't true.

[kwylee]

I think the responsibility still clearly lies with the restaurant and their employee.

If the restaurant owner is dedicated on a go forward to providing gluten free menu items, and performing the same due diligence as would any other restaurant with good intentions in this regard, then good word will get around in the same way the bad word made its way across lines of communication.

I might agree that it seems unfair that the restaurant is made a public example if they were indeed performing this due diligence. But were this my restaurant, and I yearned to let people know how much I truly cared about my gluten intolerant patrons, I would have made sure that MOST of the article covered the lengths to which I go to perform that due diligence, not make it a "oh, poor restaurant who is getting the short end of the stick". It sounded more like a puff piece to me. That business owner is not going to win gluten intolerant patrons that way. I have a feeling though, with the still small numbers of people eating gluten free, & the old adage of NO SUCH THING AS BAD PUBLICITY, they're not exactly hurting.