But if you're ordering lunch for a large group of people, asking for any dietary restrictions isn't too far out of line. If you're ordering sandwiches for 30 and someone asks for a salad instead, that's pretty easy to work around. Or to have some meat-free. To expect a custom order (no mayonnaise, extra mustard and really I never eat white bread) is just being annoying. But as the picky person, sometimes you just have to be prepared to go without. None of the employees in question are going to wither away if they had to skip one meal.

It's also pretty ignorant to lump all Indians into one group. Hindus have very different dietary rules than Muslims, which are different from Sikhs, which are different from Jains, etc. India is very different from region to region.

I think 33girl was simply responding based on what SoCalGirl said:

And quite frankly, I don't know all of the dietary restrictions of every group/region in India. Heck, I didn't even know there were specific differences based on such things. It's not anyone's job to know. I don't think that's ignorance. Ignorant would be assuming that every Indian person eats in exactly the same way. Or that every American living in Arkansas eats the same way. Or that every Christian eats the same way.

The point is, everyone has preferences, and some people are pickier than others and/or they have things that they simply can't eat. And if you know you have dietary restrictions, you either a) let someone know ahead of time, or b) suck it up and bring your own food. But the last thing you do is complain when someone provides you with food that you don't like (unless you made specific requests ahead of time).

I agree with the above, but a couple of points. First, I believe that you can separate religious dietary needs from personal dietary needs and secondly most places that do catering, will have a vegetarian option.

Oddly enough, the only religion that I know of (and I've had coworkers from a wide variety of South Asian founded religions) that has restrictions on what plants can be eaten is Judaism. This falls into two areas, first the restrictions on grains during passover (so even the vegetarian wraps don't work there) and second, "Orlah" which is the prohibition on eating tree fruit from the first three years of production. (Leviticus 19:23) (And Orlah doesn't really apply outside the Land of Israel)

I don't see why personal dietary needs would be less important than religious dietary needs. Many personal dietary needs are medically based- allergies, Crohn's Disease, lactose intolerance, Celiac's Disease.

I wasn't directing that at 33girl. I was agreeing with her point that making assumptions is dumb.

That's another reason you need to just have a sandwich bar with things that people can mix and match and if someone wants to eat nothing but green peppers, no harm no foul.

Ha!

And you'd piss off an entirety of West Indian/Caribbean people - having worked with many Carribean students, co-workers and acquaintances, cold meals are not acceptable. Most say it upsets their stomach. I thought it was just a few people being picky, but I realize almost EVERY WI I've met in a social setting with food rarely touch cold food (salads, sandwiches) or cold finger foods (raw veggies with dip, for example). I organized a 3-day conference and had about 30 students (out of say, 100ish) who would refuse to eat the sandwiches and potato salad offered. The next day we offered a hot pasta dish in addition to the sandwiches. Some were OK with that but others either brought their own food from home or went out to buy food.

Many of my former WI coworkers brought their lunches from home for lunch meetings unless they were sure the food was hot, and also send their children to school with hot lunches, making sure there are accommodations for their foods to be heated.