The Guest Handbook
Dietary requirements,
without a spreadsheet.
Caterers need counts. Guests give you sentences. The work is turning one into the other, and keeping it right while the guest list is still moving.
How do I collect dietary requirements from guests?
Ask at the reply stage, per person rather than per household, and separate allergies from preferences — they are different problems for a kitchen. Give guests a short list of common options plus a free-text box, then hand the caterer counts by category with the free-text notes attached.
01
Ask per person, at the moment they reply.
Dietary information asked for separately, after the fact, is answered by roughly the people who were going to tell you anyway. Asked as part of the reply — while the guest is already thinking about attending — it is answered by nearly everyone.
It has to be per person. A household reply of "one vegetarian" is not usable: the kitchen needs to know which seat, because the plate has to arrive in front of the right person. This is the single most common reason dietary information has to be re-gathered from scratch a fortnight before the event.
02
Allergy or preference — the distinction that matters.
Kitchens treat these completely differently, and collapsing them into one field is what causes the dangerous mistakes.
| Allergy or intolerance | Preference or diet | |
|---|---|---|
| What it means | A medical consequence if it goes wrong | A choice that should be respected |
| Kitchen handling | Separate preparation, cross-contamination controls | A different dish from the same kitchen |
| How to record it | Named, per person, exactly as the guest wrote it | A category count is usually enough |
| Who must know | Caterer, and the staff serving that table | Caterer |
| On the day | Belongs on the place card or the service sheet | Does not need to be visible |
If you take one thing from this page: never summarise an allergy. Pass the guest's own words to the caterer. "Nut allergy" and "anaphylactic to peanuts, tree nuts fine" require different kitchens.
03
The workflow.
Offer categories, not an empty box
Vegetarian, vegan, pescatarian, gluten-free, dairy-free, halal, kosher, no pork, no alcohol — plus "an allergy" and "something else". Most guests will pick from a list; almost nobody writes an unprompted description of their diet.
Always keep a free-text field as well
Categories never cover everything, and the exceptions are exactly the ones that matter. Keep it short and optional so it does not deter replies.
Attach it to the person, not the reply
It must survive a change of table, a change of meal choice and a re-run of the seating plan. Information that lives on the reply rather than the guest gets lost the first time anything moves.
Send the caterer counts plus the exceptions
Caterers want a number per category for planning and a named list for the allergies. Give them both, in one document, and re-send it after the final headcount rather than before.
Put it where the service staff will see it
The kitchen knowing is not enough — the plate has to reach the right seat. Marking it on the seating plan or the place card is what closes that gap, and it is the step most often skipped.
Re-check after the final headcount, not before. Dietary counts drift right up to the end, because late replies, plus-one substitutions and table moves all change them. A caterer who receives numbers a month out and never receives an update is working from a list that is quietly wrong.
04
Common questions
When should I ask about dietary requirements?
What if a guest gives a very complicated requirement?
Do children need to be recorded separately?
Should dietary requirements appear on the place card?
Dietary notes that stay attached to the guest.
Evorrah records dietary requirements on the person, so they follow a guest through table changes and re-runs of the seating plan, and come out as counts a caterer can use.
See how guest details are held