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Turn a guest list into a caterer's dietary summary
Caterers want two things and they are not the same thing: a count they can order against, and a list of allergies they must read individually. Paste your list below and you get both, formatted to send.
Commas, colons, dashes or tabs all work. Guests with nothing after their name are counted as no requirement. Nothing you paste leaves this page.
Guests with a requirement
0
What does a caterer actually need?
Two documents that people usually send as one, which is why they get misread.
The count is what gets ordered against: twelve vegetarian, four vegan, three gluten-free. It goes in with your final numbers and it is a purchasing decision.
The allergy list is different in kind. It is read individually by the person plating the food, it names the guest and ideally the table, and it never gets reduced to a number — "three nut allergies" tells a kitchen nothing useful, because one of them may be an intolerance and one of them may be airborne.
When should you send it?
With your final numbers, usually seven to fourteen days out, and again as an amended sheet on the morning if anything has changed. Most caterers will take a late allergy addition without complaint. Almost none will take a late increase in covers.
Should dietary requirements change the seating plan?
Almost never. Grouping guests by diet seats them together on the least interesting thing they have in common, and it makes service harder, not easier — a table of eight identical special meals is one tray, but it is also eight people who all notice at once when the tray is late.
The exception is a severe airborne allergy, where the guest genuinely should be seated away from the dish in question. That is a conversation with the caterer, not a checkbox.
Common questions
What does a caterer need to know about dietary requirements?
A count for each category they will cook for — vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and so on — and separately, every allergy in full with the guest's name and table. Counts get ordered; allergies get read by the person plating the food.
When should I send dietary requirements to the caterer?
With your final numbers, usually 7 to 14 days before the event, and then again as an amended sheet on the morning if anything changed. Most caterers will accept a late allergy addition; almost none will accept a late count increase.
Should dietary requirements affect the seating plan?
No. Seating people by diet groups them by the least interesting thing they have in common. The exception is a severe airborne allergy, where the guest should be seated away from the dish in question — and that is a conversation, not a checkbox.