Halacha permits cooking on Yom Tob food that will be used for the Yom Tob. The Torah writes (Shemot 12:16) that activities required for preparing food "may be performed for you" on Yom Tob. The Sages inferred from the phrase "for you" that one may prepare food only for his Yom Tob needs. It would be forbidden to cook on Yom Tob food to be fed to a non-Jewish person, or to be fed to an animal. Cooking is permitted on Yom Tob only for the purposes of the Yom Tob celebration.
An interesting question arises concerning food which one cannot personally eat, but may be eaten by other Jews. For example, different customs exist concerning the consumption of rice on Pesah. If a person follows the custom not to eat rice on Pesah, may he prepare rice on Pesah for somebody who does?
The Ben Ish Hai (Rabbi Yosef Haim of Baghdad, 1833-1909) ruled that it is forbidden to prepare food that one cannot personally eat. As we saw, cooking is permitted on Yom Tob only for the purpose of celebrating the holiday. A person may therefore not cook food that is not suitable for his consumption – even if he cooks it for another Jew, for whom the food is suitable. The Ben Ish Hai bases his position on a ruling of the Rama (Rabbi Moshe Isserles, Poland, 1525-1572) who wrote that if a person, for whatever reason, observes a fast on Yom Tob, he may not cook for other Jews, even though they are not fasting. This ruling demonstrates that one may not cook on Yom Tob food which he cannot eat, even for another Jew who can eat that food.
Hacham Ben Sion Abba Shaul, however, disagrees with this ruling. He notes that the Sages excluded only the specific cases of cooking for gentiles and cooking for animals; they made no mention of cooking food which one personally cannot eat. Hence, according to Hacham Ben Sion, it is entirely permissible to cook on Yom Tob food for another Jew, even if the one cooking the food cannot partake of it.
One common case where this Halacha applies is a situation of a woman who ate meat on Yom Tob and now wishes to prepare a dairy meal – even though she currently may not eat dairy foods. If six hours or more remain before the end of Yom Tob, then according to all opinions it is permissible to prepare the dairy dish, because it will be suitable for her during Yom Tob. If, however, she ate meat within six hours of the end of Yom Tob, then presumably, according to the Ben Ish Hai, it would be forbidden for her to cook a dairy meal for somebody else, since she cannot partake of it on Yom Tob. Hacham Ben Sion, however, allows a woman to cook dairy foods in such a case, despite the fact that she will be unable to eat the food on Yom Tob. Since she prepares it for somebody for whom the food is suitable, it is entirely permissible.
The same would apply to cooking foods to which one has an allergy, foods that one cannot eat due to diet restrictions (such as in the case of diabetics), and foods that one simply does not enjoy. In all these instances, one may prepare the food on Yom Tob for another Jew, even if he himself cannot partake of the food.
Summary: One may cook food on Yom Tob that he or another Jew will eat on Yom Tob. It is permissible on Yom Tob to cook for another Jew even food that he himself cannot eat, for example, food to which he is allergic, or dairy foods within six hours of eating meat.
