Everyone is wrong about the story of the baby meat at the vegan restaurant

Or, on the one hand, the customers, who think they're always right, and on the other, the restaurateurs, who can no longer stand rude and overbearing people. Whichever faction you belong to, my opinion is that you're wrong, and look, everything in this country has to be resolved with the rancor of a derby.

Catering and children (in Italy)

I've written many times about children and restaurants, even receiving insults, both direct and indirect, and being called a pot-bellied mother, even though I never thought I'd ever been one. I wrote that paying for a buttered pasta dish at a restaurant as if it were a regular entree seemed like a rip-off. I was told that my children were stealing another customer's place at the table, and therefore had to pay the restaurant owner. And that I should have taught them to eat anything, other than plain pasta, if I wanted to take them to a restaurant. Or I should have left them at home. Here's how we do it, so everyone avoids the hassle of having children around.

I tried to speak in more concrete terms, leveraging the business aspect, and arguing that, after all, families are often a good target audience (depending on the restaurant, of course), and all things considered, the idea of ​​attracting them with a minimal offering for children (say, a placemat to color, or a couple of dishes specifically for them that go beyond pasta with tomato sauce or plain pasta, or a frozen, fried cutlet) might not have been a bad one, in terms of revenue. But no, all hell breaks loose. In our restaurants, we do what we want, and if you're not happy with that, keep your kids.

Perfectly legitimate, on the other hand. A bit like refusing to heat up baby food for a customer.

Why the restaurant is wrong

True, the restaurant wasn't obligated to grant the customer's request. There was the HCCP issue, which the restaurant owner latched onto to make themselves sound impervious (but baby food can also be reheated in a bain-marie with the lid on, thus avoiding contamination, eh?). And there was also the ethical issue, so if the owner is a staunch vegan, they might look askance at baby food made with meat. I don't see any reason to deny it, for crying out loud.

In short, the restaurant didn't necessarily have to heat up that baby food. But it could have. Just as I don't have a duty to help a stray cat in need, for example, but I do. Just as I don't have a duty to donate something to those who need it more than me, but I do. There are a thousand things in life we're not obligated to do, but we do because they're right, humane, and supportive. And after all, there could have been all sorts of cons, but we could have found a solution, together. And not because we were obligated, mind you, but because maybe it was simply the right thing to do, finding a way to feed a child (and please a customer). Maybe we'd huff and puff, maybe we'd think the parents were being a pain in the ass, but we'd found a solution that worked for everyone, especially the child. Or not?

Why customers are wrong

But when a fight breaks out in a derby, no one's right. And so, no, not even the customers at the table who somehow demanded that the baby food be reheated are right. For a whole host of reasons. The first of which is that my children ate cold baby food, baby food I made myself and stored in a thermos, sometimes cold baby food, and dishes that weren't exactly baby-friendly, kindly prepared by the restaurant owners. These are the risks of taking them out to lunch or dinner, in an Italy that—let's face it, come on, let's at least try to be honest with ourselves—doesn't want children in restaurants.

That said, there's a solution here too. Sure, if you ask to heat up baby food and the restaurant owner says no, you'll get a little pissed off (understandably), and you'll probably never set foot in that place again, but it'll probably end there, because he could have said no, after all. Acknowledge that there are people who refuse to accommodate a child's requests—if it's true that things went their way—and that's it, you just accept it; the world is a bad, wicked place, after all.

Then, yes, maybe you leave a negative review describing the incident, as one of the people at the table did, the one everyone identifies as "the Milanese actor" who, let's face it, has a monologue on vegans on his resume, featuring a series of clichés that would make Massimo Boldi's arguments about the 2026 Turin Olympics look like the stuff of a Strega Prize. But that's another story, and it really is, despite some others describing him as a provocative influencer with a grudge against vegans and who came there with the specific intention of causing a stir. No, that doesn't seem to have happened: he left a calm Google review, describing what had happened without any hint of anger toward vegans. For the record, the restaurant responded to this review with, "I recommend you buy a portable baby food warmer," demonstrating that perhaps the problem wasn't so much HCCP, but rather their (legitimately unwilling) to find a solution. In fact, the Milanese actor even ended up in the middle (just think about giving bad monologues, sooner or later karma comes back...), and many are considering him the culprit in this whole sad story.

The feeling, after reading all the details, is that no one is right. However, truth be told, some people seem to be slightly more wrong than others.