by Answer: it depends.
Pasta is a very broad category of food. In this answer, we are strictly focusing on pasta. Not sauces, not cooking prep, not stuffed noodles. Just pasta. Store bought dry pasta is, in my experience, vegan-friendly 90% of the time. Egg pasta, not vegan. In fact, egg is consistently the only non-vegan ingredient in pasta. Fresh pasta from fancy Italian eateries is normally not vegan. Fresh pasta is frequently made with water, semolina flour and egg. Of course, you can also make fresh pasta without egg (and it’s delicious).
Result: check your labels. Dry pasta – likely safe. Fresh pasta – likely not vegan.
ok.
My friend owns a small italian restaurant in Haverhill. It is not fresh pasta and he said that it still has eggs in it and most pastas around Mass does. Watch out and ask the waiters or read labels if possible.
I have a friend who is a chef too and we argue about this all the time. He swears all pasta has egg in it (and that I’m therefore not a true vegan), yet the ingredients of every box or bag I have ever read does not list egg as an ingredient – with the exception of egg noodles (of course). I know there are lots of recipes online for fresh pasta that include egg, but my Italian grandpa made fresh pasta for us all his life and I never saw an egg go into it.
Ask the waiters? Get real. Like the waiters should know, or anyone else for that matter. If you are that concerned about being totally vegan, go to a vegan restaurant and stop being a pest in other restaurants.
You sound very selfish and horrible I work in a restaurant and am happy to help with people’s allergies/dietary requirements. We need less people like you
I was a waitress for many years and worked at 2 restaurants and one cafe. Regardless of what the place is like, it is ALWAYS a requirement to know the basics of every dish the restaurants serves. It’s one of the first things we are taught and I was even sat down to go over all the dishes that could be allergy risks when i worked at both restaurants. The foods a vegan needs to avoid – meat, dairy, eggs and honey mainly – are ALL allergy or religious hazards so it’s not hard to identify at all, and even if the waiter didn’t know (e.g with fresh pasta) the chef will know.
I and every other staff was always happy to answer questions people had. If you think that’s being a pest clearly you have no idea what it’s really like to work in service
Screw you and your attitude. People should be able to eat where they want. As a former waitress myself, people are always encouraged to ask the wait staff what ingredients are used in the food that is being served. If the wait staff does not know, they go and ask the chefs. That’s a standard. Why you don’t you get real. Stop being a pest and having such a negative attitude.
@Dorian, waiters and waitresses should always have some idea of what’s going into the food, and if they don’t they ask, its their job. It’s no different than if someone came in with an allergy and asked what goes into something to make sure they don’t have any of the allergens in it. If you’re going to a restraint where they can’t ask what goes in the food/they don’t know, you shouldnt be going to that restraunt.
Precisely! You’re 100% right!
They are not Obliged to know but any waiter or waitress with any common sense or manners will go and ask the chef