Allergies, Sensitivities & Restrictions

I have been thinking alot about allergies over the last several weeks. At the beginning of my career I can honestly say thinking about food allergy, sensitivity and dietary preference accommodations for events often felt below the line, like I was catering to the needs of "one" instead of the "majority".

Seeing how allergies, sensitivities and dietary restrictions have become more widespread as we learn more about our health and the demand is for events to strive for higher quality connectivity and diversity, how could I not think about the individual experience or the "one"?

By not being accommodating, I am potentially taking away from the immersion of the experience through the senses. Food plays such an integral part of events from the site, smell, taste and often visual creativity. Guests don't want to feel left out or "other".

So what do we do? How do we address this?

At first, I began planning events with special dietary needs called out in specific areas. For example, a nut free or vegan station would have specialty items, our catering staff would be quizzed to ensure they knew ingredients of our passed offerings etc. While this worked, because it was a clear safe space - a guest pointed out to me that no one wants to be restricted to one or two areas of an experience because of their needs.

I found this feedback interesting as I felt as though I had already made progress and had an initial reaction of what more can I do? I then realized this feedback was a gift to help me develop my craft.

I am now seeing a lot of caterers address this in a better and more holistic way than was offered in the past. They are creating amazing dishes that are nut free, gluten free, vegan etc. that are MAIN MENU items that EVERYONE can enjoy. They are integrated into the fabric of the menu and the experience and presented as an offering to everyone vs as an accommodation.

This seems to be the better approach and I truly believe those that start thinking in this way as they plan, hire vendors and learn their audience will achieve the better successes.