Tips & Tricks

Honoring someone's dietary needs is an appreciated step towards accommodating an allergy or disability. 

Having an allergy or food intolerance can be particularly challenging for individuals in food-serving social settings. Here are a few tips and tricks:

1. Before trying to sub in ingredients for dairy or gluten in a recipe, see if you can find a recipe without them first! While American cuisine often has gluten and dairy, there are many cuisines that don't! 

2. Instead of asking, 

   • "Can you eat _____?" or "You can't have ____, right?" ask, 

   • "What are foods that feel best to you?" or "Is ___ a food that you can safely enjoy?" 

   • Reframing these questions allows a focus on what one can have versus what they can't. 

3. If hosting or organizing a food-related event, ask everyone what their dietary needs may be.

4. Create food labels so individuals can be informed about what's available versus needing to ask about each dish.

5. It can be natural to create an allergen recipe and an allergen-free recipe and designate one for "this person" and one for "everyone else." If you have found a great allergen-free recipe, we would encourage making enough for everyone to enjoy as compared to singling certain people out to have their own food.