Very interesting observation. It reminds me of Deborah Tannen’s work in gender differences/comfort levels when speaking one-on-one with the same sex.
Great observation!

Hi, Lezlie and Sabina — Thanks for your interesting comments. The reasons I didn’t feel able to tell the interviewer about my allergy were complex. I was younger and inexperienced. I really wanted the job. I had eaten lobster before without a problem, so I wasn’t quite sure what was happening. My interlocutor had made a really big deal about the lobster; it was clear that it was a kind of test to see if I could eat lobster without spilling it on my tie, that sort of thing. The interviewer was oblivious and clueless — because he was monumentally self-absorbed — and that became an interesting study for me in itself. (He was, after all, going to be my boss, so I wanted to know just how far his cluelessness extended.) There was a kind of surreal hilarity about my reaction and his lack of awareness that fascinated me. Finally, I’m a private person and didn’t know the gentleman at all, so felt uncomfortable talking about what seemed like a (new and unknown) personal failing.
Nonetheless, today I’m older and perhaps wiser, and I would have certainly brought it up, so to speak.