subject: Catering for Vegetarians at Functions and Events [print this page] Catering for Vegetarians at Functions and Events
Catering for special dietary requirements
Catering for groups of people by a professional caterersis made to look easy. Caterers work to your menu selection and time frame to ensure a smooth efficient service. Guests are happy, and as a host you should be able to enjoy your time without too much effort required organising catering.
In- house catering, restaurants and mobile caterers all provide catering services with the main aim to make guests happy with beautiful food. When placing an order at a restaurant and you have any special requests the chef will know ahead of time before cooking your meal. Working with caterers operates on the same system.
It can be frustrating as a caterer to provide beautiful food for you and your guests, only to find out that a handful of guests have limited food to eat. When catering any function, a good policy for planning menus is simple and easy. A selection of hot and cold options, dishes with and without meat, and several types of meat including red and white. This really provides a diverse range of food options for guests covering most dietary requirements.
Buffets generally offer a range of foods including breads, salads, meats and vegetables. Buffets are really great if you really don't know if anyone will have dietary requirements. Sometimes it can be very difficult to know without specifically asking. Finger foods can be difficult to select a menu that will cover any special request at the last minute.
Menus are planned in advance, so there is plenty of time for the chef to make orders, prepare and cook food to suit. Given this, it is important to work with your caterer and advise them of any special requests you have for your catering. With this information adjustments can be made in advance to the menu and ingredients used.
Now more than ever people are becoming more informed on ingredients and food products. Grains, Fruits and Vegetables, Dairy, Meats and Proteins, Fats, oils and sugars are the main five food groups. While our body requires all food groups to remain healthy, some people need to be very careful with some of these food groups. Increasingly more people are finding they have intolerance to wheat and gluten. Avoiding wheat and gluten can quickly reduce the foods people are able to eat. If you know of guests that can't eat wheat it is important that you advise your chef. As so many options include this ingredient, your chef can let you know options that will cater to this.
Vegetarians are another special dietary requirement that is important to consider when planning your menu. It can be very easy to offer vegetarian options without having to change your menu to suit one or two people.
Pork is another meat that many people simply don't eat. Pork and pork by products, can be in a large number of food groups from sausages to marshmallows, so when catering for a function where most guests live by this it is essential to let your caterers know.
