Allergies and other dietary needs: which ones we can accommodate and which ones we cannot

Many of our guests have various food allergies, likes and dislikes. Most people told us, “oh, it’s easy. All restaurants I go to can accommodate my needs. You guys should not have a problem with my allergies, dislikes and texture issues.”

However, our set-up is unlike any restaurant: we prepare a different meal every day, every meal, and each one is plated. The meals are gourmet and made fresh and totally from scratch. Because we do not have a repeating daily menu and assembly lines with simple ingredients pre-chopped up by line cooks, and the menu is unique, only highly qualified, well-trained chefs can prepare the entire meal.

To accommodate guests’ allergies/dislikes, we may need to add another Chef or a Chef Assistant. Additionally, Our Head Chef may need to extend her working day up to 10-12 hrs. Besides, before your arrival, she creates an individual menu for each person with allergies and ensures that the entire kitchen team is trained. The team needs to keep in mind the allergy for the duration of the whole seven days. If someone is allergic to tomatoes, someone else to soy, plus someone does not like beets, and still another one cannot tolerate cilantro, there are five menus to follow in addition to the main one. In addition to meals, we need to think through your custom protocols, supplements and juices to ensure those are also customized. Multiple ingredients customization complicates things even more.

But nothing is worse than any “newly discovered” allergy or meal customization request arriving in the middle of the program after everyone is trained and knows what they are doing. Undisclosed before arrival, allergies and fussy eaters make the life of our kitchen crazy.

Guys, we are talking about real life here… This is why we ask you to disclose all allergies, dislikes and other issues before arrival and to be understanding of our limitations. There is nothing worse than to come for a program and not be able to eat most of the foods we offer and then explode on day 4 or 5 or to run to a grocery store to buy Cheerios and other comfort foods to deal with the severe stress. It happened; that’s why you are reading it.

We are a small retreat with limited kitchen space and are not staffed to accommodate every need/wish; this is why we want to ensure you read in detail about what foods we offer and that you enjoy this type of food. It is super tasty and prepared with a lot of love, but, like everything, it cannot meet everyone’s tastes and standards. If you do not like vegetables and salads, have difficulty eating healthy foods in general, or do not like or cannot eat many foods, the program is probably not for you.

NOTE: If your digestive system cannot handle a lot of staple foods and needs a lot of work, please check out our Physical or Emotional GoDeeper Programs. These programs’ focus is health restoration, and we may be able to accommodate slightly more.

We appreciate your understanding.

What We Customize

Free of charge:

Dairy, gluten, meat, fish and other seafood, sugar and eggs free. These foods are not included in our meals.

Ingredients we can customize for an additional fee:

(see exceptions further in this doc):

• Many types of fruit, veggies and greens
• Rare types of nuts (pine nuts, Brazil nuts, hazelnuts)
• Most seeds (sunflower, pumpkin, hemp, sesame, poppy seed)
• Legumes (beans, soy, peas)
• Gluten-free grains (quinoa, gluten-free oats, wild and brown rice, amaranth, buckwheat, millet)

Limitations: When the meal customizations are too extensive, or we have too many guests with allergies, we may not be able to accommodate all requests or ask you to book for future programs.

Meal customization fee:

$150 per 7-day program. The fee covers additional planning, training and preparation time.

The customization fee must be paid during registration, and all known allergies/ sensitivities must be truthfully disclosed.

We are not able to customize the following:

Special Diets (Keto, FOD maps, Tamoxifen Diet, Glucose Free, Salt-Free, Diabetes, Kosher and similar). If you suffer from health conditions (Chron’s, IBS, Celiac, CEBO) requiring meal customizations, look into our Go-Deeper Programs.

Food texture issues, picky eating, food disorders and complex customizations (=very many ingredients, multiple food groups, or customizations due to major digestive problems). We do not accommodate most of these in any programs.

Culinary herbs and spices, except some fresh herbs such as cilantro. We cannot customize dry herbs and other ingredients that are part of spice mixes.

Contact allergies, Celiac and other severe allergies (traces of specific ingredients may cause an allergic reaction) – our kitchen is not set up for such extreme customizations, we do not have separate facilities, cutting boards, knives, or other equipment, and we cannot guarantee any cross-contamination.

Epipen-requiring allergies – you can come at your own risk and bring an EpiPen (we do not have one on-site). While we do our best, we cannot guarantee that no mistakes or mix-ups of plates will ever happen. By choosing to come, you release us from liability.

Staple ingredients requiring Head Chef approval to customize (because they are virtually in everything):

• Almonds
• Cashews
• Carrots
• Cooked onions
• Cooked garlic
• Flax seeds
• Honey
• Lemons
• Lettuce
• Nightshades
• Potatoes
• Walnuts

Upon Arrival Allergies Discovery:

This is our WORST nightmare :) If we already have 2-4 that we are customizing meals for, one more surprise may break the camel’s back.  Please, do not ruin your healing experience, do share with us in advance. We do want to look after you but we do need to know if we can actually do it.

Disclaimer: You have to choice, to come back for another program or if we may accommodate it, pay additional $75 fee for the last-minute menu re-planning, on top of $150 standard fee. Fresh Start is not responsible for the cost of lost tickets, flight rescheduling, or other expenses related to an early departure.