Allergic Girl at the Princeton Club

A lovely consequence of presenting at the Bulldog Reporter Food Marketing & Publicity 2008 Summit and being a panelist about the dos and don’ts of pitching niche food bloggers along with Smitten Kitchen, Cupcake Takes The Cake and Epi Log was sitting at Jim Sinkinson’s table with other supa dupa fly panelists and speakers during lunch.

What a total treat!

Especially sitting with esteemed Marion Nestle. Of course I peeked whilst she ate her salad and only half of her fish dish before she stood up and talked about the important of portion size in the national debate about obesity--among other things, great speech.

I love practioners who practice what they preach.

Speaking of which, what did this Allergic Girl eat? How did I handle this situation: conference dining at the Princeton Club? I’m a panelist. There are a few hundred of us. It’s a set menu. And all eyes are on everyone. Could be daunting.

I did a version of the Cheers Experience and all was wunderbar.

Firstly, when the Bulldog Reporter conference producer invited me to join them for lunch I asked if the Princeton Club kitchen could accommodate my needs. He said sure, he was in touch with the chef and would send over my list of requests.

Well, what in theory sounds good isn’t always quite right on the ground. It seems my special meal requests went “missing” as I wasn’t the two vegan meals or the one lactose intolerant guest they had planned for.

No matter. In a flash, the young floor manager came over and asked what I’d like for lunch. As I had noshed before I went, in case of this occurrence, I asked for just some plain steamed veggies, only. He offered a starter of a berry plate. Yay! The entire table stopped as my gorgeous berry plate landed at my place setting.

“How did you get that?” asked my clearly envious table-mates.

“Food allergies.” I said with a big smile. The berries were plentiful I offered them to my table and Marion Nestle took some. She said she likes sharing food and wonders why more people don't do it more often.

My main dish was steamed veggies, which is really all I wanted before I was presenting; no big lunch necessary.

I was impressed with how quickly the kitchen and management of the Princeton Club was able to get this Allergic Girl something yummy to eat in a room full of a 200 or so food publicists and food marketers.

So a big bloggy public thank you to Briggs at The Bulldog Reporter and Jason, floor manager at the Princeton Club for ensuring that this Allergic Girl had some safe fuel before her panel!