Coping with a guest’s dietary restrictions?

re: Coping with a guest’s dietary restrictions?

katie102006 — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:46:38 GMT

I run into this all the time. I blame it on bad luck, but every time I serve something someone happens to remember they hate part of the menu. I do two major things to avoid this: 1) As SOON as a person accepts a dinner invitation I make them do two things: nail down a date and tell me all thier allergies/dietary restrictions/general dislikes. Everyone's first response is, "Oh, we eat everything." Yeah.Freaking.Right. So you push it a little and you get your answer, and THEN you plan your menu. 2) I always have a variety of dishes at the meal. In case someone forgot ot mention a dislike (which they ALWAYS do) a couple apps, a few sides, some meat, a hearty side and rolls, etc with ingredients that aren't all particularly the same but go together. Then if there is something in one of the dishes they won't eat, they have thier choice of other things.

Problem averted. Happy dining! :)

re: Coping with a guest’s dietary restrictions?

dizzykates — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 02:02:58 GMT

I am just thinking about this. Someone in my family recently decided to become a vegan. I am making something that I know I can make, but I will prepare half with meat and half without. I will just add the meat at the end. After that one meal though, I am at a loss.

re: Coping with a guest’s dietary restrictions?

nmk — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 19:03:14 GMT

I love to entertain, but this is always challenging when cooking for my family. I have family members with diabetes, vegan, nut and wheat allergies, and low sodium restriction. I have made up to 10 dishes for dinner to make sure everyone had something to eat. It is definitely tiring and time consuming, but I only do it because they're family. When it comes to cooking for friends, I happily call them my guinea pigs so that I don't have to worry about altering my menu. Majority of the times, people don't mind trying new things especially when they have unlimited beer and wine with my new creations.