How to plan a holiday menu for dietary restrictions with AI

Ask guests the right questions

Write a short, friendly message asking my holiday guests about food needs. Ask:
1) allergies (and how severe: trace amounts OK or not), 2) diets (vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, dairy-free, halal, kosher, other),
3) foods they simply dislike, 4) one dish that would make the meal feel like a holiday to them.
Under 80 words. Make it clear there's no wrong answer.

"How severe" is the question people forget. A preference and a serious allergy need very different handling, and only the guest can tell you which it is.

Build a dish-by-guest matrix

Here's my draft menu: [list dishes with main ingredients]. Here are my guests' needs: [Sam: vegan; Priya: gluten-free (celiac); Leo: tree-nut allergy, severe].
Make a table: rows = dishes, columns = guests, cells = OK / NOT OK / OK with swap (name the swap).
Then list, per guest, how many full dishes they can eat. Flag anyone with fewer than 3 and suggest one dish to add for them.
Mark any ingredient you're unsure about as [CHECK LABEL] instead of guessing.

For allergen labels, use the US list of nine major food allergens: milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans and sesame (sesame was added as the ninth from January 1, 2023), per FDA's list of the nine major food allergens and FoodSafety.gov. Other foods can cause allergies too, so go by what your guests tell you.

Allergen list last checked Oct 25, 2026 on FDA.gov and FoodSafety.gov.

Swap ingredients instead of cooking twice

For each 'OK with swap' cell, give me the simplest swap that keeps the dish tasting like itself, e.g. olive oil instead of butter in roasted vegetables, vegetable stock in the stuffing, a gluten-free flour or cornstarch to thicken gravy.
Tell me which swaps change the texture and which nobody will notice. Keep the original version where the swap makes it worse.

Make one great dish everyone can eat rather than a sad separate plate. Hidden ingredients are where plans break: stock, gravy thickeners, butter on vegetables, breadcrumbs, and nuts in pie crusts or salads. Check each package label for the ingredient list and "Contains" statement.

Label every dish

Write a small table card for each dish on my menu: dish name, 'Contains:' line listing any of the 9 major allergens (milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soy, sesame), and tags like Vegan / Vegetarian / Gluten-free.
Use only the ingredients I give you, and print [CHECK] where you're not sure: [paste dishes + ingredients]

Print or handwrite them and put them next to each dish. Ask potluck guests to bring the same label for what they bring.

Plan to avoid cross-contact

Make a kitchen plan so allergen-free and gluten-free dishes stay that way: what order to prep them in, separate utensils and serving spoons, where they sit on the table, and serving the guest with the allergy first.
I'm cooking for: [needs]. Kitchen: [one oven, shared counter].

Making the allergen-free dish first, before flour and nuts come out, is the easy win. If a guest has a severe allergy, show them the labels and let them decide what they're comfortable eating.

Fit it into the day's timeline

Once the menu is settled, plug it into how to plan Thanksgiving dinner with AI for the countdown, shopping list and one-oven timeline. Hosting a potluck? Our Friendsgiving potluck guide shows how to collect allergen info on the sign-up sheet.