To ask about Kosher food?

[QueenRefusenik]

I'm running an event tomorrow and Friday. As part of the registration process attendees were asked about dietary requirements which were duly passed on to the catering company we're obliged to use. Catering was booked and confirmed two weeks ago, so I was a bit surprised to get an email yesterday afternoon saying they couldn't cater for the one person who indicated they needed Kosher food.

Lack of notice is one thing, but what I'm really asking whether AIBU about is whether not being able to provide Kosher food is reasonable at all? I have a vague idea of what Kosher food is, but no experience of trying to source it. IS it difficult to provide?

If anyone has any ideas about how to proceed please weigh in! Do I tell this person there will be no food (there are lots of bought food options nearby) so they can source their own (if possible? This isn't a very big or cosmopolitan town!). Do I/can I source some food myself to offer them? Any suggestions about what if anything could I get from the big Asda/medium co-op/Tesco express that are all nearby?

I just feel really bad telling this poor person everyone else is catered for and they will just have to fend for themselves!

I think you are right Anutteridiot. A friend of mine who is a chef and Muslim was part of a catering team at a Jewish convention. He said there was a rabbi in the kitchen just checking that the catering staff were preparing the food to dietary law.
I would just contact the individual concerned and ask. They might be happy with a vegetarian option depending on how strict they are.

My brother's best friend is Jewish so we have lots of experience struggling to cater for feeding kosher food!

It really is a struggle. If they want a kosher meal it suggests to me that they're at least Conservative (not the political party) Jews so it'll be important that, at the very least, absolutely everything that comes into contact with their food, if it contains dairy, has never ever been in contact with meat, nor stored with anything that has been in contact with meat. It's not about 'cross contamination' in the sense that there may be trace particles of meat left on something that comes into contact with dairy. You could wash and sterilise everything a thousand times and it still wouldn't be acceptable. You really need to provide an entirely separate working space to prepare food containing dairy products and another, entirely separate space, for anything containing meat.

If the kosher meal you provide contains dairy then it shouldn't be eaten at a table where there is also meat either, so if that's the case you'll have to make sure there's somewhere separate for them to eat!

It's not just a case of providing a vegan meal either (which you'd often expect to be prepared in a space away from meat and dedicated utensils so you'd be wrong in thinking it'd be ok!). There are lots of additional rules you might not expect, for instance they cannot eat fruit that's been picked from a tree that's less than two years old. Also, if crops have been grown in fields where the seeds may have been mixed that makes them not kosher too, so even something like bread made from a vegan recipe might still not be kosher!!

Honestly, your best bet is to call the guest and just be honest. Let them know you don't have any experience with kosher food but are keen to make sure they have a great experience. They'll probably be so fed up off others getting it wrong (which happens to DB's F's family a lot) they'll really appreciate you going to the extra effort to get it right.

Oh, another thing I forgot to mention! I would stick with a meat-free meal. Even if [wherever you end up getting the food from] offers a suitable kosher meat-no-dairy option don't do it!

After eating meat they won't be able to eat dairy again for however long they usually observe that for (normally 3 or 6 hours) ago that could be problematic if they've got a cheese pizza planned for dinner! If they do it the other way around though and eat dairy first they can have meat pretty much straight away.

This has all been really helpful, I can't thank you guys enough, you've totally spared me (and my company) a lot of embarrassment. Luckily the person concerned has turned out to be totally happy with vegetarian food but I have made the issues clear to the catering team and hopefully they'll take it on board... Phew!