SC - on-board / off-board

[Bronwynmgn at aol.com]

In a message dated 9/22/2000 2:09:47 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
olwentheodd at hotmail.com writes:

<< As for our cooks guild here in Bright Hills, we know certain folks have 
food 
 concerns and we "build in" to our menus a limited number of alternate foods. 
   If we know for certain we are having special guests from afar, we do our 
 best to seek out information on the subject before-hand. >>

I'm not sure if you are doing the same things I am, but what I do is simply 
choose the menu from the beginning with a variety of foods, so that no more 
than a quarter of all recipes contain the same ingredient (fewer if the 
number of dishes is less than, say, 12).  That way, all are guaranteed to be 
able to eat at least 3/4 of the dishes served - and considering that many 
people choose not to eat more than that because they don't like the 
ingredient, I think that is reasonable.  By using this method, I have been 
able to accomodate mushroom allergy, citrus allergy, onion/garlic allergy, 
wheat allergy, and alcohol/sulfite allergy in the same feast without having 
to offer alternate dishes for each, or make small portions leaving out or 
substituting the offending ingredient.  I've tried the special small portion 
method as well, and found that it simply doesn't work for me; it is too 
mind-boggling to try to keep track of all the special dishes and get them 
done and to the right people.

Brangwayna Morgan