Take the Venn diagram approach to dinner party menus

A paleo dieter, a vegetarian and a friend with a nut allergy walk into a dinner party. Confusion ensues and plain rice cakes are served because that's the only thing the host has in the cupboard that everyone can eat.

In the age of restrictive dietary requirements, dinner parties are a stressful thing to organise. You can't just whip out a pot of apricot chicken and expect to satisfy everyone. A menu takes serious planning and luckily high school-level maths is here to help.

A Washington Post article recommends applying a Venn diagram approach to dinner party menu planning. It suggests serving steak and vol-au-vents, say, and doubling up the vol-au-vents for the vegetarian.

At goodfood.com.au we feel sorry for the vego who has to eat a plate of vol-au-vents outside of 1986. Instead, we recommend taking the Venn diagram approach in a different direction. If, for example, you have three mates with dietary requirements at the table, cook three different dishes that at least two parties can always eat.

We've provided the above diagram to make things simpler and it can easily be tailored to suit your guest's needs.

As far as entrees and desserts go, we're advocates of the "capitulation" approach where you make a dish that satisfies everyone. If that means raw chia bars then so be it - you only have so much cookware.

And to think you once questioned when you would need to know about "A Union B, Intersect C" in the real world.