Can the chef make this without . . . ? pet peeve

One other thing I find annoying. Sometimes when I'm dining with people, they will make a special request to the chef--can he/she make this without some listed ingredient like the anchovies or cheese or sauce or cranberries or shiitakes or whatever? Then after their meal is served, cooked without whatever ingredient they objected to, they have the nerve to complain about the way it tastes. This has happened to me several times, and I find it both amusing and mildly irritating. I always figure that the chef wouldn't have included that ingredient unless it was necessary, so it doesn't seem right to make a special request and then complain about the result. Has this happened to anyone else?