When planning an event in 2024, it’s common for guests to have dietary needs. This can make it difficult to meet everyone’s requirements. You want to ensure that all your guests enjoy the event you worked so hard to organise. However, at Wine & Dine’m there’s no need to stress, we’re experts in delivering dietary-inclusive events.
Here are 4 simple suggestions to help successfully guide you through this process:
1. Include Questions about Dietary Needs in your Invitation
When you invite your guests, ask them about their dietary needs early on, include it in the invitation. Where they should be encourage to supply this information with their RSVP. We recommend adding a detailed form with your invitations. This form should cover common dietary needs such as vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free and nut-free requirements.
There should also be a space for guests to mention any other specific, less common needs. These can include requirements like FODMAP, heart disease friendly, preservative allergies or others that don’t always come to mind. Luckily, we are experts in this field – so just pass on the information and we’ll take care of the rest.
Know the difference between an intolerance vs allergy and push your guests for more information if needed. For example, there is a huge difference between allergies and anaphylaxis. If a guest indicates to you that they are anaphylactic to nuts, do not simplify this to a peanut allergy. Someone trying to cut gluten out of their diet is not the same as people with celiac disease.
Asking these questions early helps guests with special needs feel comfortable and cared for. Through our years of experience, we’ve found that when hosts don’t ask these important questions ahead of time, some guests with restrictions don’t eat. This happens because they can assume that the host hasn’t catered for their needs or they feel like they are a burden. Making sure they know someone is looking after their needs is important for a positive experience.
Consider using an online RSVP service like Paperless Post to track your invites & communicate with guests.
Another important question to ask yourself is whether it’s your guests or event that has dietary requirements. If more than 20 percent of your guest list have seperate requirements, you’ll need to include these in your menu from the start. At Wine & Dine’m we will work with you to create a more inclusive menu that satisfies your large group’s many differing needs.
2. Communicate with your Wine & Dine’m Event Manager
After you have this information, please share it directly with our team. When you send us the complete list of dietary needs, you don’t need to worry about these effecting your chosen menu. Our event managers and chefs are highly skilled at creating menus that keep both taste and food safety in mind. We’ll take care of this, so you can focus on the more important aspects to event planning.
Extra credit if you can provide the names of guests and their respective dietary requirements!
(This is a massive added help on event day to ensure the right people are getting the right meals)
On event day, connect with your onsite event manager. Letting them know which guests present need alternative catering ensures we will take great care of their needs throughout the event.
3. Clearly Label your Menus
When making your menus, clearly label them with important dietary information. You can use icons, colours or create a seperate menu for guest with special dietary needs. This proactive approach prevents confusion during the event, allowing guests quickly to identify suitable options.
If you’ve planning your event with Wine & Dine’m, we can supply these for you with all meals correctly labelled, so there is no confusion.
4. Consider your Event Serving Style:
How you should tackle dietaries at your event largely depends on what style of service you have chosen. Each serving method can raise it’s own challenges relating to dietary transparency.
Cocktail / Canapé Events:
Adding 1 x Vegetarian option to your menu isn’t always enough if the event is 4 hours long. By adding extra portions or suitable substitutes, you ensure that all guests receive the same amount of food.
At Wine & Dine’m, our talented chefs often create substitutes that are as close to the original item as possible. By swapping out a sauce or protein, guests with dietary needs don’t feel like they are missing out and are getting the same experience. In cases when changes like this aren’t possible, our chefs work with you to choose a dietary-friendly alternative.
Seated & Shared Dining:
We have learned that the key to good dietary catering for seated and shared dining is knowing where guests with additional needs will sit. If possible, when you give your event team a list of guests, include clear seat assignments. This makes for a discreet service. Ensuring we serve guests the right meal without needing to constantly interrupt you whilst you’re enjoying the event.
If you choose an alternate-drop service, our team will serve the right meal to these guests first. This way, there will be no confusion when the remaining meals come out.
For shared dining in particular, the chef allocates portions per person at each table. This means that if one table has 2 x gluten-free guests, our chefs can plan ahead. We can also inform them about what they can and cannot eat at the table or provide extra concessions such as gluten free breads.
Buffets & Grazing Stations:
For self-serve stations, it is important to label every component. Include the ingredients and dietary information on the labels, ensuring your guests can make an informed decision. Not all dietary dangers are as straight forward or visible as others, so transparency is key. Especially when there may not be staff at the station to answer questions.
Understanding the extent of the persons intolerance or allergy is important information for your event staff to know here. Grazing stations often layer ingredients to make a beautiful display. However, this can also lead to allergen cross-contamination, potentially affecting guests with severe allergies. In these cases, our team needs to know so that they can prepare portions separately for those guests.
If after all this, you decide not to cater for dietaries, be transparent with your guests so they can plan ahead. Nothing is worse than telling your caterer that no one at your event has requirements outside the set menu when they do. If your guests don’t know that this is the case before hand, you’re risking leaving those people hungry and unable to enjoy your event.
By following these steps, you can be confident that your event will be inclusive and cater to all dietary needs. Careful planning helps make your event successful and creates a memorable experience for everyone who attends.
