Allergen-safe events:
one menu everyone eats

Here is a secret from the inside: about a third of every corporate menu we write is designed to flex across diets from the start. Not because we are saints, but because separate meals for every flag does not scale past 200 guests.

The better answer is a menu where most dishes already work for most people, and the exceptions get prepped separately and labelled per name.

Design overlap into the base

A grilled fish with salsa verde is already gluten-free, dairy-free and halal-adjacent. A grain bowl with roasted vegetables is vegan and coeliac-safe. Build the menu on dishes like these and 80% of dietary flags are covered before anyone sends the list.

The remaining 20%, true allergies and strict requirements, get a named pack cooked on a separate bench with separate utensils.

The labelling system

Every pack gets a printed label: guest name, requirement, contents. The floor team knows who gets what before the doors open, so nobody announces their allergy across a ballroom.

At buffets, dietary items sit at the end of the line under their own sign with dedicated utensils. Self-serve means private.

The dietary guest should eat the best version of the menu, not a consolation prize.

What we need from you

The flag list with your RSVP CSV, 72 hours out. That is genuinely it. We handle the rest: separate prep, separate utensils, trained floor staff who know the difference between a preference and an epi-pen situation.

One warning we give every client: 'allergy' written in the dietary column gets treated as allergy. If it is a preference, say so, because the prep intensity is different.

The mistakes we see elsewhere

• One vegetarian option for every flag: vegan, coeliac and halal guests all getting the same risotto
• Dietary meals announced over the floor so the guest has to wave for attention
• Shared fryer oil and shared benches on 'gluten-free' items
• Dessert options that are just fruit while everyone else gets cake

None of these are hard to fix. They just require deciding dietary guests deserve the same menu standard, not an afterthought.