Vegetarians and Other Eaters

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

I always call or e-mail guests before an event to ask about special food issues. At one dinner for twelve, we had three vegetarians, one guest who ate no flesh-fish and one who ate no shellfish, two who ate no carbs and one who could not tolerate dairy products. It was a challenging meal. For the most part, if you know that a non-meat-eater is attending, it’s good to have a substantial ‘stand in’ that can serve two purposes – like a hearty rice pilaf, studded with nuts and fruit, or a classic mac and cheese. And we usually offer a number of vegetables, to account for the tastes of our guests and to give vegetarians some greater options. I am definitely not a baker. I wouldn’t dream of tackling puff pastry or anything delicate. And I don’t care much for fancy desserts. But we do especially like to serve farm-house desserts: gingerbread, trifle, chocolate pudding – nursery puddings. For one of the library dinners I made bread pudding with Irish soda bread and put pitchers of cream right on the table. I wondered, given the tony guest list, how many folks would exercise discipline, only nibble at the bread pudding and eschew the cream. At the end of the meal, barely a crumb was left and not a drop of cream.