I have been vegan for six years and was vegetarian for about 8 years before that. Even when I was vegetarian I would need to make a special meal request and because I was fussy about rennet in cheese and free range eggs I would request vegan catering. Sometimes I this would be done well and sometimes it would be done poorly. This has led to an ever expanding special meal request. Depending on what the event is (I will try to be politer for some) my meal request now looks something like:

I don't want to sound like a diva but can I please request vegan food (no animal products including no dairy and no honey), also with no raw tomato. I'm a 6ft, 100kg guy and not a small rabbit so please provide enough food. Also, if you could please wrap the food separately and label it so that it doesn't get eaten by others.

Here are some of the best and worst experiences (that have led to the extended request above) I have had at catered functions.

The Worst Catering Experiences

Not reading all of the request or understanding what vegan is
I am sensitive to raw tomato. I'm fairly sure it isn't psychosomatic, my uncle is also sensitive to it and so was my great-grandfather. It is amazing how often "no raw tomato" got interpreted as cover everything with raw tomato. On one occasion I had the admin person who was looking after catering at an event I was presenting at proudly say "we have organised your special meal and it is set aside for after you speak" only to find a chicken and tomato sandwich with my name on it. At one event at an extremely fancy hotel (who should have known better) I asked where the vegan options were and got told, "the prawns are over there".

Not separating the food
Another issue that comes up is that the special meals get put out with the rest of the food. Sometimes they look much nicer than the dodgy ham sandwiches and I will get there to find that all the vegan food has been eaten. Several times I have asked where the vegan option is and had the caterer wave at a tray of sandwiches and say "there are some vege options in there" (in amongst the chicken and ham). For someone who doesn't eat meat this is annoying (since you can't necessarily easily tell which ones are vege) and also gross.

Pineapple and spring rolls
Sometimes there is a vegan option but the caterer hasn't really thought about it being a complete meal. At one event I got told that vegan options had been organised. When we got to lunch I asked what they were and got told "oh, the spring rolls and pineapple slices should be okay for you". At another event which was charging guests $150 per head my entree was some spears of asparagus and my main was a portobello mushroom. I was sitting with some other vegans and we decided to take bets on what we would get for dessert. I nailed it - it was three slices of melon, one piece of pineapple, and two blueberries (nice work Melbourne Museum catering).

Do I look like a rabbit
One of the most common lazy options for caterers is some kind of green salad. This would be fine if it had some other ingredients but sometimes it is little more than green leaves and some dressing. My worst experience was at an event held at Eden Park (a non-sporting mid-week event in the function rooms). I got the usual fruit plate for morning tea but then at lunch the waitress brings me a plate of iceberg lettuce (far worse looking than the picture below). No dressing, no topping, just a plate of iceberg lettuce. I explain to her that this isn't going to be a sufficient lunch for me to last the rest of the day. She heads back to the kitchen and comes back 15 minutes later with the same plate, same lettuce, but now with a small bread roll in the middle of it.

Source: https://www.pexels.com/photo/salad-vegetables-vegetarian-lettuce-102123/

The Best Catering Experiences

It's not all bad though. Sometimes you have some amazing experiences with great caterers.

University of Canterbury - MODSIM 2007 Conference
It's a long time ago now but I still remember the superb catering at this conference. Everyone who had requested a special meal (vegan, vegetarian, halal) received a large, individually labelled plate which had at least four different things on it. Pretty much every piece of food was delicious and during the four day conference it was different food every day. This really set the standard for special meals at events.

The Foxton RSA
Foxton is a small town in the North Island of New Zealand. I was at a small conference being held at a nearby beach and the conference dinner was at the Foxton RSA since it was virtually the only venue that could hold more than 10 people anywhere nearby. An RSA (known as an RSL in Australia) is a Returned Services Association centre - typically a bar and restaurant whose main audience tend to be older and with narrow food preferences (meat + boiled veg). I didn't expect much but in fact it was the opposite. They put all of the vegans/vegetarians together and the chef actually came out before we started to welcome us with a lot of enthusiasm. Then he came back to apologise that our entree was taking a bit long but he had made us marinated satay tofu to snack on in the meantime. The entree was excellent and then before the main came out he was back with more dishes that he wanted us to try. After many delicious dishes the chef came back out again to thank us for the best week he had had working there. He was so excited to have an excuse to try new ingredients - he had bought tofu, quinoa, and other ingredients just for us - and to make interesting dishes because his usual customers just wanted bland meat-based dishes.

Swinburne University - Lilydale Campus
When I first moved to Australia I worked at the Lilydale campus of Swinburne University. It got shut down a few years ago but the catering for me was excellent. It was a small campus and the on-site cafe did the event catering. They got to know me and when I was wandering past they would often chase me down to tell me about new dishes they had thought of trying and asking whether that was something I would like. They also started including jokes on my food labels. Luckily Morrissey didn't decide to turn up to any research seminars 😃

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