London's top chefs are signing up to a new app that shows allergy sufferers where they can safely eat in the capital — after the inventor’s husband had a near-death reaction in a Greek restaurant.
Tech company owner Kim Antoniou has launched Kafoodle Kitchen, an information-sharing app between restaurants and the customer that she claims will boost the industry and potentially save lives.
London-based Michelin-starred Tom Aikens and TV cook Aldo Zilli are among the first to sign up to the system.
Mrs Antoniou developed the product after her husband Ron — who has a sesame allergy — was stricken while eating out.
She told the Standard: “A waiter hadn’t checked with a kitchen and he said he had. Ron was on the floor with anaphylactic shock, he was completely out of it for an hour and a half. Everyone thought he had had a heart attack, it was so severe. He had his airways cleared — it was horrendous, absolutely terrifying.
“I thought it would be great to develop a really easy-to-use management system for commercial kitchens to manage their ingredients and recipes with that fed through to the consumer app.
“And hopefully, we might even save a life.”
Restaurants upload their ingredients and dishes to the cloud-based system, before users access it via a free app.
Antoniou, 54, added: “Chefs often aren’t massively tech-savvy, so we needed something foolproof.”
Mr Zilli, executive consultant of the San Carlo group which has 17 UK sites, said: “People who have the allergies are going to be encouraged to go out. I think it’s a big improvement for the industry.”
The technology will be introduced to the group’s four Cicchetti restaurants next week. @MichaelRHowie
