All storiesA real order
Someone on the lunch thread just wrote "vegan, gluten-free, no nuts." Now what?
You don't need a second caterer for the three people with a dietary line. You need labels, and a kitchen that already cooks that way.
Questions offices askCan everyone on my team eat it? Vegan, gluten-free, allergies?
You know the moment. The lunch order is almost done, and someone replies to the thread: "I'm vegan." Then someone else: "gluten-free, please." Then the quiet one: "no peanuts, it's serious." Now it's a puzzle, and if you get it wrong, your name is on it.
Three orders from this year started exactly like that. This is how each one went.
The whole lunch had to be vegan
A plant-based food company in El Segundo ordered lunch for 20, and they meant all of it, not one vegan option on the side.
We sent five rolls of vegan kimbap, a tray of mapo tofu, vegan japchae, pan-seared vegan mandu and white rice for the table. None of it was a special request. Every one of those dishes is on the catering menu every day. This time they just went out together, each one labeled.
One gluten-free box in a stack of sixteen
An accounting firm downtown ordered 16 dosirak boxes. Fifteen were their usual mix of bulgogi and sweet chili chicken. One had to be gluten-free, and the note asked us to label it.
That box got mapo tofu and a marked lid, and it went in the same stack as the other fifteen. The person it was for found it on the first try.
It's easy for us because we switched our soy sauce to a gluten-free one, so galbi-jjim, bulgogi, japchae and mapo tofu are gluten-free as they are. We don't cook a separate recipe for a gluten-free box. It's the regular dish with a label on it. Not everything qualifies: gochujang dishes, fried and battered items, mandu and most kimbap contain wheat, and our kitchen is shared, so the allergen chart is the place to check.
No peanuts on anything
An eye clinic in Koreatown ordered 20 sweet chili chicken lunch boxes and two trays of vegan mandu. Every line of the order had the same note: no peanuts.
The kitchen made all of it without nuts and wrote that on every lid. The office manager didn't have to check a single box.
What to tell us
Put the dietary line in the order notes. Say who it's for, and whether it covers one person or the whole order.
We prepare those items separately and write the restriction (vegan, gluten-free, or the allergen) on the lid or tray.
If a dish can't be made safely without the ingredient, we'll tell you before we confirm the order, so you don't find out on the day.
The person with the restriction eats the same lunch as everyone else, out of the same stack, and nobody has to ask which box is theirs.
Write the one line and leave the sorting to us.
Planning something similar?
Tell us the headcount, the date, and any dietary lines. We'll suggest a menu that fits.
Next question: Is Korean food too spicy for a mixed office?