A catered buffet: a chafing dish of rice above a chafing dish of pan-fried dumplings, with a shared serving spoon resting on the counter beside a bowl of salad.

It was gluten-free for 20 seconds

By Gregory Wilson ·

We had a team working lunch today, catered in. The caterers knew I have celiac and did the right thing — several genuinely gluten-free options were laid out alongside everything else. That part was great.

Then I looked at the line. The rice — one of my safe options — sat right next to a tray of dumplings, which are very much not gluten-free. And the serving spoon had been making the rounds between them. By the time I got there, there were stray bits in the rice and a spoon that had touched both. The rice was a “nope.”

The full buffet line: a chafing dish of rice sitting directly above a tray of dumplings, with a shared serving spoon resting on a plate just beside them and a few stray grains scattered nearby.

This is the thing about celiac that’s hard to explain to people: the food can be safe and unsafe within the same minute. Someone serves themselves dumplings, sets the spoon down in the rice, and a dish that was fine 20 seconds ago is now off the table for me. Nobody did anything wrong. There’s no bad intent anywhere in this story — just a buffet doing what buffets do.

My usual move is to be first in line, before the utensils get shuffled and the trays get sloppy. Today I was about fourth, and that was enough. Lesson re-learned: when the food is shared, the safety is only as good as the last person who touched the spoon.

I’m not angry — everyone meant well. It’s just the reminder that comes with the territory. The vigilance is always on you.