No Ketchup for you!

At Mad Fresh Bistro, a Fort Myers, Florida restaurant, you will not be served ketchup if you are over 10 years old.  Even their menus state:  “Chef reserves the right to refuse service of ketchup”.

People are taking note of this issue and a highly divisive culinary debate received over 1,700 comments with responders on both sides of the fence.  Many believe that if they are spending good money on a meal, they should be able to choose what goes on their food.  There also appears to be no substitutions made for allergies at this eatery, according to some of the comments on sites such as yelp.com.  Some sided with Mad Fresh Bistro, stating what would be the point of having a dish prepared by a trained chef, only to have it ruined by adding ketchup.

According to news-press, chef owner Xavier Duclos, defended his position.  “My burger has got a sauce on it already.  There’s no point in adding a sweet sauce on top of that.  I think ketchup is edible – on certain things.  I’ll give it that much.  But it’s just not part of my culinary agenda.  I think my flavors work.  You don’t walk into the museum and tell them to change the color of the painting.”

Mad Fresh is not the first restaurant to deny picky customer requests.  Chef owner, April Bloomfield, of New York’s eatery, The Spotted Pig, bans condiments on her signature burgers and will not remove ingredients, such as cheese from an order.

But the ketchup ban sparked the question:  What do you put on your fries?