of caterers and other things

[Guest guest]

This is a follow-up to an email I posted a week or so ago, in which I vented about my mother-in-law telling me that I had no right to expect to be fed at my niece's wedding, even though the people actually paying for the wedding (the bride's parents - my husband's brother and sister-in-law) clearly didn't have a problem with my having a special meal, since they had first talked with the chef about my dietary needs before I even asked them to; then I followed up with a phone conversation with the caterer.

The caterer couldn't have been more wonderful. He told me that all professional caterers are prepared to deal with all sorts of different dietary needs, from vegetarians and vegans to people with food allergies, diabetes, and celiac disease. He said that it is the caterer's obligation to make sure that everyone at an event is fed well and safely, and that he would feel terrible if he found out a guest at an event he catered wasn't able to eat because his or her dietary needs weren't taken into consideration. He also said that it was inappropriate not to tell the hosts of dietary concerns, because the hosts have to pay for each dinner whether it is eaten or not. He said there is usually no extra expense to accommodate special diets (and he pointed out that at my niece's wedding, the items making up my meal cost considerably less than the steak being served to the majority of the 250 wedding guests). He confirmed that for any catered event, the person with the dietary restrictions should be the one to speak with the caterer (after first speaking with the event's host, of course) so that the caterer can be sure to understand all the issues.

He also gave me an interesting tip for eating safely at any catered event: avoid the cooked hors d'oeuvres, which are usually not made in-house (it seems a lot of caterers raid the freezer sections of Trader Joe's and Costco for the appetizers!). So there's no telling how they were made/what's in them.

I hope this helps anyone faced with a catered event in their future!

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