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Vegan and Vegetarian Catering: What to Put on Your Menu

2026-07-16

Vegan and vegetarian requests used to be a single line on a booking form that caterers handled with an afterthought salad. That's changed: guests now expect a plant-based option that's as considered as everything else on the menu, and getting the details wrong, a shared fryer, gelatine in a dessert, dairy hiding in a sauce, loses trust fast. In this article we look at what actually separates good vegan and vegetarian catering from a token dish: the difference between the two diets, common ingredient traps, and how to price and plan for demand that keeps growing.

Vegan and vegetarian aren't the same request

Vegetarian rules out meat and fish but usually still allows dairy, eggs and honey. Vegan rules those out too, along with anything made from an animal by-product, gelatine, some wines and beers fined with isinglass, even certain food colourings. Treating the two as interchangeable is the fastest way to serve a vegan guest a dish with parmesan or a vegetarian one a bland plate they didn't need. Ask which one a client's guests need, not just whether they need a "meat-free option".

Numbers matter here too. Plant-based requests have moved from a rare exception to a regular line item on most bookings, and a menu with one uninspired vegetarian dish reads as an afterthought to guests who now expect the same care as everyone else at the table.

Common ingredient traps

Most vegan and vegetarian mistakes aren't obvious ones like forgetting to remove meat. They're hidden animal products that catch out even experienced kitchens.

• Worcestershire sauce, many stocks and some soy sauces contain anchovies or animal fat.
• Mayonnaise, some pastries and many baked goods use egg or dairy by default.
• Gelatine turns up in mousses, marshmallows and set desserts far more often than caterers expect.
• Parmesan and other hard cheeses are usually made with animal rennet, which rules them out for vegetarians who avoid it as well as vegans.
• Shared fryers and grills carry cross-contact risk that matters as much to some vegetarians as it does to allergy guests.

How much of the menu should be plant-based

Rather than adding one token dish, build the vegan and vegetarian options as their own small menu that stands on its own, with the same number of courses and the same visual effort as the rest of the offering. A good starting point is planning for at least 20 to 25 percent of guests wanting a plant-based option, even when nobody has confirmed numbers in advance, since these requests are frequently made on the day itself.

Give the vegan and vegetarian plates their own identity rather than swapping a protein on the standard dish. A dish built around vegetables from the start reads as intentional; a meat dish with the meat removed reads as an afterthought, even when the flavour is fine.

Pricing and planning for it properly

Plant-based ingredients are often cheaper than meat and fish, but that doesn't mean the dish should be priced or portioned as a lesser option. The labour, the extra prep for separate equipment, and the research into ingredient traps all cost time, and pricing a vegan menu as an obvious discount undersells the work behind it. Cost the vegan and vegetarian menu the same way you'd cost any other dish, ingredient by ingredient, rather than assuming it's automatically cheaper to deliver.

Build in a standard set of vegan and vegetarian dishes you know well and can cost accurately, rather than improvising a new one for every booking. That consistency also makes it easier to catch ingredient traps once, rather than re-checking them under pressure on the day.

Wrapping up

Good vegan and vegetarian catering comes down to treating the two diets as genuinely different, checking for hidden animal products rather than assuming a dish is safe, and giving plant-based guests a menu that's been planned rather than bolted on. Get that right and it stops being a special request and becomes just another part of a well-run menu.

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