A full menu, cooked with the same attention as everything else. Not the main course with the meat taken off, and not a risotto by default. We have catered entirely vegan weddings and we would rather do that than apologise for a substitution.

Canapés — hot

• Polenta, Mushroom and Rosemary (ve)
• Onion Thyme Confit Tart (ve)
• Bang Bang Cauliflower (ve)

Canapés — cold

• Broad Bean Gazpacho Soup Shot (ve)
• Hummus and Red Onion Bruschetta (ve)
• Chilli Peanut Vietnamese Rolls (ve)

Starters

• Spiced Turmeric Broth with Roasted Vegetable Crisps (ve)
• Grilled Peach, Burrata and Basil Salad, Dijon Mustard
• Asparagus, Saffron Mayonnaise, Hazelnut Dressing (veo)

Main courses

• Puy Lentils, Harissa Carrots and Fennel (ve)
• Honey Baked Feta with Lavender Rye Crisps, Summer Garden Salad
• Balsamic Beets, Cauliflower and Parsnip Puree, Garlic Beans (ve)

Desserts

• Choc Avocado Pots, Pistachio Brittle (ve)
• Roasted Pineapple, Coconut, Passionfruit and Lime (ve)
• Sticky Toffee Pear Pudding with Butterscotch Sauce

How we handle it

Tell us the numbers at the tasting and we build the vegan menu alongside the main one, so both are tasted and both are signed off. On the day the vegan plates leave the kitchen at the same moment as everything else — a guest waiting while the room eats is the failure everyone remembers.

Where a guest has a genuine allergy rather than a preference, we plate separately and label. Our kitchen is not a nut-free or gluten-free environment and we will say so rather than imply otherwise.

Allergens

All fourteen declared allergens are listed against each dish on request, and we ask for every dietary requirement in writing before the tasting. Our kitchen handles nuts, gluten, dairy, egg, fish, shellfish, soya, celery, mustard, sesame, lupin, molluscs and sulphites, so we cannot guarantee any dish is free from traces. (gf) gluten free · (gfo) gluten free on request · (v) vegetarian · (ve) vegan · (vo) vegetarian on request Reeves Events holds a 5-star food hygiene rating.

The test we apply

A vegan main course should be the dish somebody at the table wishes they had ordered. If it reads as the meat dish with the meat removed, it has failed, and most of them do.

The giveaway is construction. A plate built around a protein, with the protein taken out and a vegetable moved into the middle, leaves a hole that garnish cannot fill. These menus are built the other way round — the vegetable is the reason for the dish, not the substitute in it.

Allergies are a different thing from preferences, and we treat them differently

This matters more than any menu decision on the page.

A preference — vegetarian, vegan, does not eat red meat — is catered as a proper option and served alongside everything else.

An allergy is a safety matter. It is prepared separately, plated separately, labelled, and brought out to that person by name rather than left on a table to be identified. Our kitchen handles all fourteen declared allergens and is not a nut-free or gluten-free environment. We state that plainly rather than implying otherwise, because with a serious allergy the honest answer is the useful one.

We need dietary requirements in writing, with names against them, not a headcount. “Four vegetarians and a coeliac” is not enough information to serve five people safely.

When most of the room is plant-based

It is increasingly common for a wedding to be majority vegetarian, or entirely vegan, and it changes the planning rather than complicating it. A fully vegan wedding breakfast is straightforward and often more interesting than the alternative; what it needs is deciding early, because it affects the whole menu rather than one plate on it.

The reverse also happens: two vegans at a table of a hundred and twenty. That is the situation most often handled badly by caterers, because it is easy to forget. It is the reason we ask for names.

Across the other menus

Every menu we do has proper vegetarian and vegan options built in rather than bolted on — wedding breakfasts, sharing and feasting, barbecue, bowl food and canapés. Ask and we will send the vegan version of any of them.

Where vegan cooking is genuinely harder

Two places, and it is worth being honest about both.

Richness. Butter, cream and stock do a lot of quiet work in a plate of food, and removing them leaves something that can taste correct but thin. Getting depth back takes longer — roasting, reduction, fermentation, proper stocks made from vegetables rather than water with an onion in it. It is a time problem more than a skill one, which is why so much vegan catering tastes underpowered.

Puddings. Harder than main courses by some distance, because so much classical pastry is built on eggs, butter and cream. The dishes that work are the ones designed that way from the start rather than adapted, and they tend to be fruit-led rather than pretending to be a cheesecake.

Serving it without singling anybody out

A vegan guest at a wedding of a hundred and fifty should not be the only person at the table having a conversation about their food. The plate should arrive at the same moment as everybody else’s, look like it belongs to the same meal, and need no explanation from a waiter.

That is a service decision as much as a kitchen one, and it is the part most often got wrong — usually by bringing the alternative plate out two minutes late, which draws exactly the attention the guest was hoping to avoid.