Travelers who have food allergies or adhere to a specific diet know how difficult it can be to find restaurants while on the road that not only accommodate them but also offer a variety of flavorful dishes. As for hotel brands that do so? Even fewer.

Fairmont Hotels & Resorts is changing that, however, with its new Lifestyle Cuisine Plus program that the global luxury hotelier rolled out to all 64 of its properties around the world earlier this month. The program’s new menus cater to guests with specific diet-dependent conditions, such as diabetes, heart disease and gluten free, as well as dietary choices including macrobiotic, raw and vegan diets.

Fairmont chefs have been trained to prepare a vast array of special dietary and allergy-specific meals and are equipped with Nutritionist Pro by Axxya Systems (www.axxya.com), recipe-analysis software that helps customize entrees and menus to fit with guests’ requests for caloric and nutritional requirements.

Each hotel will offer a distinct menu—typically with three item choices each for starters, entrees and desserts, with notations indicating for which type of diet or health condition the dish is safe—based on its location and availability of fresh and sustainable ingredients. Menus will change seasonally.

Yesterday I had the chance to sample a few of the dishes being offered at the Fairmont’s Plaza Hotel in New York. The tasty treats featured Grilled Watermelon and Watercress Salad with Peekytoe Crab and Jicama, Pistachio Vinaigrette; Tunisian Lamb Meatballs with Shirred Egg, Spiced Tomato and Bean Salsa, Parsley Salad; and my favorite, Grilled Vegetable Roulade with Fregola Sarda, Olive Oil Poached Fennel and Roasted Tomato Broth (pictured).

Other dishes from properties around the world include Baked Tofu with Bean Noodles (gluten free—Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa); Arame with Sunflower Seeds, Chives and Mustard (macrobiotic—Fairmont Beijing); Zucchini, Carrot, Portobello and Cashew Butter Pave (raw—Fairmont Mount Kenya Safari Club).

Interested in trying one of these concoctions at home? You can, as Fairmont is making available online select recipes from the new menus under the Culinary Arts tab at www.everyonesanoriginal.com.

The one downside to the new program is that Fairmont currently doesn’t plan to include the special dietary items as part of its regular restaurant menu and will make the special menu it available only on request. But if enough guests show interest, that could change.

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