To believe that people should stop expecting special treatment for “food preferences” (not allergies) at events?

[TheCoralReader]

If it’s just a preference, it’s on you to manage. AIBU to think events shouldn’t have to cater to everyone’s diet choices?

Same here, I'm on a vegan diet due to high cholesterol and I find Quorn really repulsive, expensive. Extremely happy with beans,grains and fresh vegetables.

Why is being a vegan more worthy than not eating mushrooms and onions?

Both are preferences of some kind, and having an issue with for example textures of some food isn't a moral failure.

Moreover, many posters explained on this thread that different health conditions which are not as severe as allergies, but still unpleasant are triggered by different vegetables, onions are a common problem.

Exactly the same here! 👍

We had that when we organised a work event recently. Please let us know about any dietary REQUIREMENTS. Most people understood what that meant and said vegetarian/vegan/kosher/gluten-free. But we did have a few people responding with things like "don't like mushrooms" or "low-carb please" or "don't eat read meat, just chicken".

No you haven’t; you’ve made a few vague allusions.

In short, if this is another boring vegetarian/vegan bashing thread, YABU. It’s hardly a hardship to provide a vegetarian option. If you’re asking should you have to provide 10 different options at a large event just in case someone didn’t get something they absolutely love, YANBU. However, if I was catering for a wedding and knew I had a vegetarian guest who hated mushrooms, for example, I’d make sure the vegetarian option didn’t feature them.

As noted by a pp, I have been to so many events who have catered for vegetarians and vegans in equal measures. You know, because "everyone can go without meat/dairy". So much of the food is then wasted. Everyone goes for the "normal" food, and the veggie and vegan options are barely touched. So the majority go hungry, and the rest goes in the bin. It's awful.

My GP and child nurse told me to wean at 6 months 30 years ago. It's been the same for my whole collection of children. (It was also the age we were told to face them forward in the car, but that did change with the middle children onwards to younger ones being 12 months).

Traditional veggie here, i.e. I eat dairy, eggs, etc. but no meat or fish.

It's tricky. If people want to eat meat, that's fine with me. Their choice. If people want to be vegan, also fine, also their choice.

However as a veggie, I'm beginning to get fed up of vegan food being the default veggie option. I don't want vegan cheese, thanks!

So a fair balance would be one meat dish, one veggie option, and perhaps a crowd-pleasing vegan option, e.g. a veg curry or similar.

I realise vegan food can be healthy, but much of the 'corporate event' type vegan food isn't - it's often highly processed and full of salt!

But experience does tell me that whilst veggies and vegans will take what is offered, meat eaters do like to have a choice of meats.

But I could be wrong!

A lot of the vegan substitutes can be very processed. I have the same problem with gluten free foods - often way more additives than the regular stuff to try to achieve the same texture and look. I'll assume you read the labels and are discerning about good vegan food vs. highly processed vegan food. Home made from scratch is always good.

I mean, I love hummus. Hummus is good. But I still have to read every label because not every hummus is good for my needs.

I think it's because it's easier to cover both veggie and vegan in the one dish. When catering for a range of needs, it makes sense to double up with some things. i.e., dairy and gluten free in one dish, veggie and vegan in another.

I agree - have always catered: vegetarian and meat options, with pork-containing items clearly labelled and separated from the rest at the end of the table. No nuts. I have some simple salads on offer. And I think that is enough for 60+ people in my home (christenings, christmas or birthday parties).

People won’t die if they can’t eat much for one meal. My family contain muslims and Hindus and this has always been sufficient. My kids have dairy intolerances (intolerances, note, so absolutely fine for the odd meal), the oldies struggle with cucumber and onions so these are served separately, and I have a full-on anaphylactic reaction to Quinoa which is often found in vegan/gluten free items so these are banned from my house. People can manage a meal without a piece of gluten free bread.

It’s one meal.

If I am not sure when I eat at someone else’s home/buffet I pick around what is obviously fine and eat when I get home. If I am having an intimate meal that someone else is cooking I will alert them to the quinoa issue, but otherwise I take what comes and eat what is served to be polite. Even if it contains butter beans. Or any beans, really 🤢 🤮

Not everyone has the luxury of allowing 'just one meal'.

It's so annoying how OP won't give a single example of requests.

FFS the OP clearly states ‘at events’ ie ONE meal.

Jeez, sometimes I think MN only caters to the trolls.

YANBU my in laws collectively require a lactose free, vegan, gluten free birthday cake which mustn’t contain dried fruit. The birthday cake in question was for a little boy.

They do not have allergies.

In the end I told them to bring their own. 😂

Yet I have the audacity to be allergic to Xantham Gum and I’m the “problem” because I can’t eat their vegan alternatives

The problem is so many caterers seem to think that vegan = fake meat/cheese. Vegan food can be scummy but it's easier to throw fake meat between 2 slices of bread than to come up with something tasty and natural.

If I organise an event, I specify no fake meat/cheese to the caterers. I have an event coming up and the caterer is great. There will be no fake meat/cheese, no UP meat. Everything will be real food. The meat eaters will eat the meat/veggie/vegan food. We do 50% veggie, 25% meat and 25% vegan. Everyone is happy.

Yes, and not everyone can just suck up eating what they are intolerant to for ONE meal. You might suck up eating things with beans for 'just one meal' but there's a difference between not liking them and spending the next week in pain, with a rash, anaphylaxis, whatever the reaction is.

I personally don't even bother trying to get people to cater to me over a meal. It's way to complicated. I just eat before I go unless I know there's going to be something I can have.

Either people have paid, or you're hosting them as a guest/ either way they should be fed decently

It's nice if possible, but other than close family, I have put my needs in the 'too hard' basket and aren't going to ask that of someone. Poor them.

Would love to contribute here but OP you're not being remotely clear about if this is 'peppers are repellant & ruin everything they touch' or 'I'm vegetarian, what's suitable for me?'

I have IBS and have to follow a diet called FODMAPS. I really dislike vegetarian events because I can't have beans, peas, lentils etc. Out of your example of chickpea curry, rice, naan and onion bhajis, me and others with IBS could only eat the rice. A burger and salad I could eat (albeit not the bread). A lot of people think vegetarian only events are very inclusive but they aren't at all for some people with bowel conditions.

It isn’t vegan food in general (which I eat about 50% of the time at home as I’m vegetarian).

It’s lazy restaurant menus, who obviously never wanted to cater to vegetarians or vegans in the first place, and now just offer the meat option with some fake meat and cheese subbed in to cater for the meat-free Mondays crowd.

I don’t know many established vegans who like fake meat much either. If you are repulsed by the idea of eating meat, you generally also won’t want to eat something that looks, tastes and smells exactly like meat.

Im gluten intolerant but for my own kids they get a normal cake and I have a GF cupcake on the side. Much easier.

You are being deliberately obtuse - if you have an intolerance and can’t tolerate the digestive disturbance or use buscopan etc to manage symptoms, don’t eat it then.

I am gluten and dairy intolerant, my kids are dairy intolerant (stomach ache and diarrhoea) - so am fully aware of the impact of eating either CAN have (but not always, it is an ‘intolerance’ NOT an allergy so the symptoms can vary in severity, unlike the impact of quinoa on me or nuts on some people - it will not involve ambulances/paramedics).

If your stomach is that sensitive that occasional exposure is so debilitating, then don’t eat at such ‘events’. I never did when my intolerance was at its worst. I did not expect my host to pander to me individually when coordinating an event and catering for 49-99 other guests. Every person I know has an ‘intolerance’ to something, and every single one of them takes responsibility for what they put in their mouths accordingly - and if it is not something that can be navigated around at a normal, mass catered event, they bring their own or skip a meal.

A world where everyone thinks they are so bloody special that their individual needs must be met 100% of the time is an impossible one to live in.

I once went to a work meeting where a sandwich lunch was provided. One person had a low-carb plate of beef carpaccio and salad provided for them, which I thought was a bit much to be honest. It’s not for a workplace catering budget to accommodate your weight loss diet.