A caterer receives final numbers eight days before an event. Attached is a list of dietary requirements including two vegans, a gluten intolerance, someone who does not eat pork and a severe nut allergy that nobody mentioned when the booking was made four months ago.
Three of those are a menu problem. One of them is a kitchen problem, and it should never have arrived this late.
Separate preferences from allergies immediately
A vegetarian guest and a guest with anaphylaxis are not variations of the same field. Conflating them in one box on a form is how serious requirements get treated as menu choices.
Example conversations
These scripts use information a caterer might publish. Your answers should come from your own pages.
Client: A few of our guests have dietary requirements. When do you need those? Assistant: The page explains that dietary information is needed at booking where possible and confirmed with final numbers, and it separates preferences from allergies because they are handled differently. Could you tell me what you know so far, and I will pass it to the team with your event details?
Client: One guest has a serious nut allergy. Assistant: That needs to go directly to the kitchen rather than being noted on a form, because it depends on ingredients and how the kitchen is set up. I will flag this now so the chef can speak to you about it before the menu is finalised. Could you leave a number and the event date?
Client: Can you do a gluten free version of the main course? Assistant: The page explains which dishes can be adapted and how alternatives are provided, along with any cost difference. Whether a particular adaptation is suitable for a coeliac guest is something the chef will confirm with you directly, because preparation matters as much as ingredients.
Never confirm safety from a website
The only correct response to a serious allergy is to route it to the kitchen. A website explaining that a dish contains no nuts is making a claim about preparation, storage and handling that it cannot possibly know.
Ask at booking and confirm at final numbers
Two capture points. Early information shapes the menu, and confirmation catches guests added later.
Publish what you can accommodate
Which requirements you routinely cater for, which need notice, which carry a cost difference and which you cannot safely handle. Being honest that a kitchen cannot guarantee an allergen-free environment is better practice than implying it can.
Explain how dietary meals are served
Plated separately, labelled, brought to the guest by name or identified with the venue's staff. Guests with requirements dread being forgotten or singled out, and the service detail matters.
Keep a record that reaches the kitchen
Information gathered by a planner and never passed to the chef is the most common failure. Establishing who holds it and how it reaches service is part of the job.
Allergen questions never stop
They arrive at every service, which is the pattern in the allergy question your staff answer every service.
Numbers and menu come first
They are covered in headcount and menu questions before a catering quote.
Tastings raise the same questions early
They are covered in menu tasting requests and how caterers handle them, and structured capture is the approach in the best chatbot questions for capturing high quality leads.
Getting started
Publish what you cater for, when you need the information and how allergies are handled, then capture requirements at any hour and route them to the kitchen. SpideyChat for caterers and planners answers from your published pages and never confirms a dish is safe. Try SpideyChat on your own site, or read about capture on the features page.