If you know Ben and Me, you just know how important food is in our household. Ben and I joke that we work for our food, not the weekend. When we worked at the same office, our breakfast conversation would be about lunch, and our lunch conversations would be about what we would have for dinner later that night.

However, whenever we go out to eat, or we are going to a bigger party, we often have to look at the menu beforehand. You see, I have a kind of weird food allergy…I’m allergic to pork. I know, I know–I have heard every bit of sympathy from breakfast and bacon lovers in this world. Thankfully, I grew up not eating pork, and have learned different alternatives to fill the void.

Because of this, I try to be very sensitive about major known allergies or food restrictions at events that I’ve planned, or parties I’ve hosted. While it may seem like extra work, I promise that the person with the allergy will feel so cared for to know that they were catered to have the same food experience as someone who can eat all the meat, dairy, gluten in the world.

Generally, as long as I know of an allergy, I try to prepare for it and provide comparative alternatives. This generally works fine with friends and family. If for whatever reason I am short on time, or can’t stretch my budget to meet the dietary need, I’ll try to get in touch with my guests ahead of time and provide a menu for the event so they can know and plan accordingly.

For larger scale parties, I would generally say it’s safe to try to have vegan and gluten free options with groups larger than 50 people. Planning for both of those allow vegetarians, dairy free and gluten free people to enjoy the meal at a gathering. It’s also just good to have an arsenal of allergy friendly foods handy to be prepared to feed someone with special dietary needs. Below I’ve included a chart of the most common substitutions or allergy-friendly foods I keep in stock.

The picture at the top of this post is from our Easter Brunch this year. It was particularly tricky because Ben and I were in our last week of completing Whole30 so there were A LOT of things we couldn’t eat. Along with that, one of our best friends had just started an anti-inflammatory diet. The other half of our guest-list though, were carb-fanatics and brunch lovers.

When I was putting together the menu for this brunch I wanted to make sure that the people who weren’t restricted, got to eat food they loved, and the people who were restricted got to eat beautiful and delicious foods as well. Here are the three steps I went through in planning a balanced meal for both groups:

1. I made a list of the specific foods that could not be eaten (and like I said, with Whole30…that was a lot), and then a list of breakfast foods that didn’t include those things.
2. I brainstormed an easy breakfast food for those without allergies
3. I put both lists together to create a fluid brunch so that half of us weren’t eating cinnamon rolls and the other half oatmeal.

The finished menu was waffles, hardboiled eggs (duh), regular hash browns, sweet potato hash browns (cooked in ghee), fresh fruit, fresh greens, and smoked salmon.

The process of meal planning was only a little bit longer, but the result in my guests being able to eat their fill was worth the little extra effort. I know that life is hectic and crazy and full, and being a perfect host should never come before just simply being a person of invitation, but if you have the time to prepare with filling your pantry and even learning how to cook some meals that are allergy-friendly here and there, I promise it’s one of the best habits to make sure your guests leave with full hearts and full bellies.

Mary-Beth Johnson

Mary-Beth is a creative, food-obsessed, Georgia transplant living Chicago. She is proudly and fiercely Latina, and more specifically Chapina. In her day to day she is a food educator to students around Chicagoland aged 3 to 80+, both virtually and in-person. She is passionate about cultivating the truth that every person has an understanding of food that deserves being brought to the table, and that time in the kitchen can be sacred, passionate, and an act of love for self and others. Outside the kitchen you can find her at the intersections of infertility, chronic illness, and a deep love for the dignity of all humans. She hopes to create a space that is holistic about the role of food in the social, political, relational, and physiological dynamics of our world.