Today we are chatting about allergies and food preferences coming into play when you are hosting an event! As an Event Coordinator I have definitely seen the increase of food preferences and allergies over the past few years. Overall people have shifted their outlook on eating and health which has become more prevalent when planning meals for groups at event.

After receiving everyone’s food requirements it can get overwhelming very fast. This can definitely make things a little more difficult when planning a meal for a group of people but I find it a fun challenge to try to incorporate everyone’s needs and still have an amazing spread for everyone! I’ve gathered some tips below that have helped me over the years to to help with the process and make things as easy as possible for you.

1) AHEAD PREP – Gathering as many details as possible before you have your event is the best way to prep for an easy smooth evening. When sending out invites, ask your guests to provide their dietary restrictions. This way you can start to plan an amazing menu around them and eliminate the surprise of a last minute request.  On the reverse side – if you are attending a conference or party, please provide your host with as much advance notice if you do have a certain allergy or preference. The worst thing ever is to find out you need three vegetarian meals as guests are starting to serve themselves for lunch. This puts incredible pressure on the host/kitchen to come up with a genius last minute dish from ingredients they have on hand and delays service completely for those specific people. If your event is time sensitive this could actually affect various people involved as the last minute meals would delay the finish of the meal greatly! Be courteous and inform your host!

2) ELIMINATION  – Sometimes the easiest way to work around an allergy/food preference is to completely eliminate it from the menu. This does not always need to happen but you would be surprised how many recipes you discover when working outside your comfort zone. If the allergy is very serious (ie. peanut allergy) it is better to eliminate nuts from the full menu so you are not worried about them all night. At the end of the day there is no one out there that cannot last one meal without a certain item being present.

3) BUILD YOUR OWN – This has got to be my #1 tip when it comes to serving a large crowd with different allergies and food preferences or serving a crowd that you don’t have any information on! What is more fun then getting to customize your own meal with your favourite options!? What I mean by “build your own” is taking an overall look at what you are planning on serving and trying to break up the items individually. This way people can choose to skip a certain item if they cannot eat it and customize their dish but everyone will still be served an amazing meal!

Some creative ideas:

SANDWICH BOARD – Sandwiches/wraps are a very common item to serve at lunch time and an easy item to serve to a group. Usually sandwiches come on a platter premade but with various allergies you need to create a platter for each request – vegan, gluten free, vegetarian, etc. I suggest stepping it up a notch and allowing everyone to customize their own amazing lunch option!

To start: put together a basket of various buns or place a fresh loaf of bread/baguette on a cutting board for people to serve themselves. If there are any gluten free folks joining you can offer gluten free bread as well.

Then picture yourself making a sandwich and lay out each step as follows:
–> provide a few spread options: butter, earth balance vegan butter (tastes the same as the regular stuff!), hummus, antipasto, babaghanoush, tapenade, vegetable spread, pate, avocado mash, mayo etc. – the possibilities are endless!
–> for a meat option a platter of deli meats is always a hit (try to include some red meat and white meat options) : turkey, ham, chicken and salami are all favourites. You can also grill up some chicken pieces the night before – they work well served at room temperature.
–> create a platter of cheese: offering 2 to 3 cheeses works well! Havarti, Provolone, Swiss etc.
–> a platter of grilled vegetables is a great option for vegans and vegetarians – try to include a few like: peppers, eggplant and zucchini.
–> cut up some fresh veggies and herbs too – cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, red onions, chives, basil, avocado, radishes, red cabbage, shredded carrots, sprouts, mushrooms, arugula, hot peppers, pickles, lettuce – I could go on forever!

JMS TIP: I love to add in a few food items that most people do not eat on a regular basis. Coming from a Polish background I am very familiar with our local European markets which not everyone frequents. There are so many different spreads (red pepper and tomato) or unique vegetables (pickled pattypan squash – my fav!) and I love to introduce them to people. Bring in some of your family favourites to the meal! 

Having every signal item displayed separately allows everyone to participate in the meal together without signalling individual people out for their specific needs. This allows for more of a community feel rather than signaling out people for their food preferences. Separating items may feel like a lot of work but it really is not – you were planning on using that item in the meal anyways! Also having items separate is great for cleaning up leftovers as everything can be put back to their own individual containers instead of having to deal with soggy sandwich leftovers that no one wants to eat.

More of my favourite buffet spreads:

WHOLESOME BOWL – Build your own bowl is always my favourite at a buffet station – you can literally put together so many different options that people can customize to their liking. How fun is it to just stand in front of various options and pick your faves!  Some of my choices are: rice, chickpeas, lentils, chicken, salsa, herbs (cilantro, parsley etc), tomatoes, ground turkey, green onions, tomato sauce, quinoa, couscous, grilled onions, cheese….SO MUCH GOODNESS!

YOGURT BAR – Such a great option if you are not serving a full meal but need a filling snack for the group. Providing a few different yogurts as the base (Greek, vanilla, coconut -diary free!) to cover all preferences and then loading up options for toppings. Granola, berries and jam oh my! OR  kiwi, honey and coconut flakes for pizzaz! I think you see where I am going with this. SO many fun options to enjoy 🙂

TACO BAR- How can you ever go wrong with tacos? Offer various filling options like listed in the sandwiches or bowls above and provide both meat and beans options – people love a good taco!

4) UTENSILS – have separate utensils for each dish you are serving. Although this may seem very basic, I have seen on multiple occasions people only put out a few utensils which get moved around to each item and end up touching many food dishes. In general most people have a separate utensil for meat and vegetables (although I have seen this not done also) but I suggest having a separate utensil for every dish you put out. This way you can ensure no cross contamination happens and people attending your event are comfortable helping themselves to the specific dishes

5) SIGNAGE – ensure to label everything if possible…yes everything! When hosting an event you want your guests to be comfortable as well as self sufficient when it comes to serving themselves throughout the evening. As you are trying to mingle with the crowd you should not have to leave your guests to help answer if a certain dish has diary in it. By providing labels on certain dishes (gluten free, vegan, sugar free etc) this helps guests navigate through the selections on their own and feel comfortable they are eating the correct food.