I was not sure where to post this. We have a new shopping center with upscale stores and restaurants in our area. I went today to start my holiday shopping and noticed this new store that I was not familiar with. Luckily my children were in school and I was shopping without them.
The name of the store is Sur La Table ("fine equipment for cooks and professional chefs...") They also have a catalog and website [url="http://www.surlatable.com"]www.surlatable.com[/url] Has anyone seen these stores or catalogs? Beware of peanuts! [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/mad.gif[/img]
Anyway, they have some really nice products, but as I was leaving I noticed they have an open bowl of PEANUTS on the counter at the register and some cheese to sample. This really bothered me so I decided to inquire if this is something they have out all of the time. The sales associate said YES, why? I explained briefly that I was glad my small children with life threatening peanut allergies were not there with me in the store and how dangerous this is. If they choose to sell their private lable peanuts in cans fine, but it is not necessary to have them there open on the counter for people to be walking around with etc etc. This person never heard of PA and I noticed that he was also working in the back of the store where there is a kitchen set up for teaching cooking classes!!!!! [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/frown.gif[/img]
This got me thinking again about the number of chefs out there that never heard of PA. Lets educate and target the culinary and restaurant industries, and even culinary trade magazines...maybe they should do an article on PA!
What do you think?
![http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/mad.gif[/img]](http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/mad.gif[/img]){kind=link}
![http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/frown.gif[/img]](http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/frown.gif[/img]){kind=link}
It just so happens that I know one of the officers of the national culinary association.
Do we have any freelance writers out there?
By the way, there have been articles regarding allergies in culinary magazines. I had a chef tell me about it several years ago.
Love their catalog, but have never seen a retail store.
Maybe contacting someone via the web site is an idea?
Really good point about educating the culinary industry!
My sister and brother in law are both in the culinary industry and until I was disgnosed w/a tree nut allergy, we were all pretty ignorant about the possible dangers. Slowly, I've been eduating them . . .
My brother-in-law works for a large hotel chain and I'm trying to find out what sort of training they do for their kitchen staff.
I'm really interested in trying to get the word out to culinary institutions, large chains -- pretty much anyone who will listen- about the dangers of food allergies.
Should we start a new thread about this?