i work in the food industry. the problem is that (most) people have know nothing about food.

we hype chefs who know nothing about food. every time i see a chef like ramsay get praised over the mountains for his knowledge about food i can't help it but cringe. chefs are just people who cook stuff, they have no idea how food works. it is idolizing superficial knowledge that brought us to the point we are at today.

it usually goes like this:

• some housewife magazine is looking for the latest fad to praise in their dietary pages
• they pick up about some helicopter moms demanding special treatment for their kids who are allergic (not sensitive - the medically valid ALLERGIC)
• the stone starts rolling with all the homeopaths in the world jumping on train
• people start demonizing gluten with idiotic stuff like "you can only find it in processed foods!", "it's all the industries fault, they spiked our food with gluten"
• next all the self diagnosed people with gluten sensitivity (their doctor told them that they are not allergic, but the magazines and blogs told them that they are so they had to have some health problems - BAM! now we have gluten sensitivity, which can't be tested so you can just self diagnose!)
• the industry responds by creating gluten free products because they know how to replace wheat based materials in their foods and know how to avoid cross contamination
• meanwhile the chefs jumped on board and offer "gluten free" stuff. the problem is that they don't know how to guarantee that their food is gluten free and often don't understand the concept of cross contamination.

and now, people who really are allergic to gluten (not self diagnosed mumbo jumbo) can't trust a restaurant that claims to be gluten free anymore. restaurants who used to claim usually knew what they were doing, now you have all those chefs on the bandwagon to make some quick profits.

can't wait for the next fad...