No need to tolerate poor menu choices

'SPECIAL dietary requirements" is a phrase that crops up with increasing regularity in hotels and restaurants these days. Whether for medical reasons or as an effort to look good and feel better, more and more people seem to be on special diets and, therefore, chefs are becoming accustomed to tailoring their menus and dishes to suit customers' culinary needs.

While most dieting diners have the foresight to mention their food requests when booking their table, it's not uncommon for people to simply turn up with a list of ingredients that they can't eat, leading to some hasty menu manipulations.

While some chefs may be grumbling behind the scenes about fussy eaters, food allergies and intolerances can prove a serious problem for many people. Obvious care must be taken when dealing with allergies to the likes of peanuts or shellfish as they can prove fatal. Although not as serious, intolerance to certain ingredients is something that is increasingly diagnosed, meaning that a pleasant but poorly researched dinner can lead to hours or even days of discomfort for the sufferer.

"Coeliac" is a word that many chefs have come to know over the past few years, referring to someone with an intolerance to gluten, which is commonly found in wheat flour. This, of course, rules out most conventionally prepared pastry and pasta dishes, bread, any stews or sauces that have been thickened with flour or the likes of sausages that are bound with breadcrumbs. Dairy intolerance is if anything even more drastic, especially when it comes to desserts where dishes prepared without eggs, butter, milk or cream are hard to come by.

However, it's not all bad news for those diners unfortunate enough to operate on a restricted diet as hotel and restaurant kitchens are rightly becoming more sympathetic to their culinary plights.

Requests for gluten or dairy-free menu options have become so commonplace that many chefs are starting to include appropriate dishes on their menus as a matter of course.

While a cut of meat or fish with a salad or vegetable accompaniment can provide an acceptable option, there is an ever-increasing range of alternative products available. Gluten-free ingredients are becoming especially widely marketed, particularly flour made from the likes of tapioca, buckwheat, soya and potato, meaning that with a little experimentation coeliacs can once again enjoy a pizza, followed, perhaps, by a sponge pudding. Sometimes, however, a little research and imagination are all that's required. For example, a flour-less chocolate cake can be whipped up just using chocolate, eggs and sugar.

So as knowledge about these issues increases among those who come up with the menus, eating out for people with food intolerances should become a safer and more relaxing experience and less like a game of Russian roulette. Just remember to let us know before arriving.

• Andy McGregor is chef/proprietor at Blonde Restaurant, 75 St Leonard's Street, 0131-668 2917

Salmon with ginger, lime and coconut milk (dairy-free). Serves 2

Ingredients

2 fresh salmon fillets

1 red chilli, chopped

1 tbsp chopped fresh coriander

Juice from 1 lime

Thumbnail sized piece of root ginger, chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed

200ml coconut milk

Sea salt and ground black pepper

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 200C.

Mix the coconut milk with the lime juice. Place the salmon in a baking dish, sprinkle with the chilli, coriander, ginger and seasoning. Pour over the coconut milk and place in the oven for 20-25 mins, until firm to the touch.

Gluten-free chocolate cake with toffee sauce. Serves 8-10

Ingredients

10 eggs, separated

300g good quality dark chocolate

300g butter

250g caster sugar

1 measure dark rum (optional)

For the toffee sauce:

150g soft brown sugar

150g caster sugar

75g butter

100ml golden syrup

175ml double cream

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 180C. Grease and line a round cake tin. Cut up the butter and break the chocolate into pieces then melt together over a double heat. Add the rum if using. In a separate bowl whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until creamed. In another bowl whisk the egg whites into soft peaks. Fold all the ingredients together thoroughly, pour into the cake tin and place in the oven. Bake for approx 1 hour, until the top begins to crack. Remove and cool. Place all the sauce ingredients except the cream into a heavy-based saucepan on a medium heat. Stir occasionally until mixture begins to boil then allow to simmer for 7-10 mins. Cool for 5 mins then stir in the double cream. Serve the cake at room temperature with the warm sauce and whipped cream or marscarpone.