Free From - is is this okay?

[weddingwaiting]

The food for my wedding is going to be a “hot fork buffet” rather than a table service meal. I understand this to mean that we get to choose maybe 4 main dishes + sides for guests to go up and be served by staff.

I have a bunch of guests with various dietary requirements 3x vegan, 4xveggie and at least 3 gluten free that I know of.

Is it okay to have one “catch all” free from meal eg. A vegan and gluten free Thai curry and then maybe one other thing that is veggie (with lots of yummy cheese!) but other people can eat too?

. There are too many of them to make it practical for them all to have individual meals so this is how we have been told we need to do it but I want to food at my wedding to be tasty so I don’t want to waste too many food options on accommodating so many dietary requirements

That’s a want, not a need. They’re not going to get sick from accidentally eating animal product.

and it’s still a lifestyle choice whether you chose it as an adult or were brought up with those ideas

Tbh you need to speak to your caterer - there are three weddings being planned in our family atm, all different places, and all have been told that if GF is absolutely essential then all the food has to be GF. Otherwise they cannot/will not say it’s absolutely GF because of the cross contamination risk.

BIL’s caterers have said it’s not worth the risk to their reputation if someone ends up ill.

As a coeliac depending on the setup, I might just avoid eating if it was buffet style as I just wouldn't trust it.

I've been at more than one hotel breakfast buffet where there was a special area for gluten free bread with a dedicated toaster and people still use it to toast regular bread.

There really are some utter knobs on this thread.

Do you really think a vegetarian or vegan should sit and starve because not eating meat is just a lifestyle choice?

None of the vegans/vegetarians are so because of religion or intolerance reasons.

My coeliac cousin regularly eats at family buffets where only certain items are gf so I’m sure she will be fine eating from a staffed buffet where the gf items are identified and separate

Not at all, but they can eat food which has been in accidental contact with meat. They may refuse to do so but can digest the food without poor physical outcomes.

Gluten kills coeliacs.

Think of a nut allergy contact which results in a rapid anaphylaxis. The guest goes red, body parts eyes / mouth swell, they start to wheez as their throat closes and then collapase unconsciousness on the floor. They stop breathing and die. That is what is hapening in the intestine of a coeliac.

So the old hosting rules of not killing your guest puts coeliacs on the top of the who do I feed first list
Then a good host will look at how to feed vegetarian or vegan guests
And then prehaps fussy eaters
And then people who will try everything once

So the old hosting rules of not killing your guest puts coeliacs on the top of the who do I feed first list
Then a good host will look at how to feed vegetarian or vegan guests
And then prehaps fussy eaters
And then people who will try everything once

This is exactly right and a vegan curry is too niche a choice for many coeliacs , not everyone likes curry .

@AnSolas
Please enlighten me, are you suggesting that a coeliac can be killed after eating gluten?

I ask this as the mother of someone with a nut allergy (and I myself am a diagnosed coeliac)

If you are a coeliac you should be aware of why you should not eat gluten if not you should ask to see your GP.

@AnSolas

What a hilariously patronising post 😂 Stunningly lacking information too.....

So again, please explain your bold claim?

For context, if my dc and I attend a buffet and both eat the wrong food (ie him nuts, me gluten) then yes, I will be very poorly but my dc could be dead within minutes.
Only one of us is in very grave danger in that situation.

And fyi, I come from a family with 3 generations of coeliacs, so certainly not lacking in either knowledge or experience.

Lots of cheese is vegetarian and perfectly tasty. I think you may be thinking of vegan cheese, most if which is awful.

Sorry OP for the off-posting

@otherwayup you did fail to read my original post.
So why are you saying " I will be very poorly "

As other PPs have said, it looks as though most of the dishes could be made GF fairly easily, and it's worth checking with the caterer. If you pick a vegetarian one too, you could get away with just ordering three separate vegan plates and accommodate everyone else at the main buffet. What I absolutely would do, though, is work out your seating plan and brief the serving staff so that all the people with special dietary requirements are called up first. They will want to serve table by table rather than just having a free-for-all, so if you can put those people all at the same end of the room, it'll ensure they all get first dibs on the food they can eat before everyone else gets access.

Many items on that menu could be gf if caterer checks the stock they are using and doesn't use flour in the sauces - fish pie for example and beef cobbler usually have flour.

I'm gluten intolerant and it is a bit of a minefield. The main problem I have had with buffets is by the time I have got a turn all the gf option has gone because others fancied it.
So might be wise to put them all on a table together and get that table to go 2nd or 3rd!

We had paellas at our wedding and found that a good way of catering for all dietary requirements a vegan one and meat one - with no butter used.

@Scottishskifun i don’t think it’s appropriate to sit them all together:
GF:

• Usher’s girlfriend
• Fiancé’s cousin
• My cousin

Vegan:

• School friend and husband
• My brother’s girlfriend

Vegetarian:

• My brother
• My bridesmaid
• School friend and fiancé

I do like the idea of paella or another rice dish though!

At a recent family funeral we had to cater for 2 coeliacs 4 gluten intolerances, 1 vegan, and 4 halal (with 1 person being both coeliac and halal) and that was just within family. We had Meat Lasagne (inc 1 gluten free), gluten free fish pie and a gluten free vegan Thai curry plus sides inc chips and salad which were OK for everyone. Everyone was happy and only the vegan had only one choice. The food was lovely and all left overs were packed up for anyone to take home.

We also made sure that everyone with a dietary requirement was served first and the serving team were aware of cross contamination issues.

@weddingwaiting no but you could have a family table which catches a lot of them then table 3 or 4 which have the school friends on 🙂

As long as staff know order of call up etc then that should be fine, when I have had issues it's because I have been table 7 or 8. One wedding I went to the caterer completely forgot the gf option and all the salads had nearly gone too! Thankfully we own a campervan so I went and cooked myself something from our fridge!

As a coeliac I hate it when I get stuck with the vegetarian or vegan catch-all option, especially as I can't stand mushrooms (the texture is just wrong) and not keen on curries. Its a common problem for me at school :( Whereas recently I went to a buffet, 3 of us were coeliacs, they made almost everything GF including the cakes. But understandably that costs more (they made most themselves so wasn't as bad but the main cake was ordered from a bakery and must have cost a lot because it was absolutely massive) so not everyone can afford to do that.

If you are going to do a catch-all then warn them first so they can eat before coming if necessary. But so many meals can be made gluten free at no/negligible extra cost, would make more sense to make the main options gluten free and any that are more difficult to make gluten free like pasta, be kept normal and put to one side.

Whatever you do, make sure the coeliacs can get their food first, doesn't matter that they are at different tables, the caterers can just call for coeliecs first, then proceed normally.

@AnSolas in what way is 'very poorly' the same as death?
Eating gluten makes me very unwell but my dc eating nuts is literally life threatening within seconds.

And yes op, apologies for the hijack but important you realise you're not going to kill your guests with gluten!

Are you saying that religion is a disease, rather than a choice?

@donquixotedelamancha
Now that is a question..... 😬

Great so you know what will happen to your DC

I asked what happens to you, your body, your medical need.

If you are such an expert, you should be able to explain why coeliacs are told not to eat gluten.

Exactly this. Som much can be done for coeliacs without much effort but just isn't

While it's true that people with Coeliac won't die instantly from eating gluten, it is doing irreparable damage to our insides. And after a waiter once told me "nobody has ever died from eating gluten" in response to me ordering from their gluten free menu I no longer accept this rationale from anyone.