Demand for gluten, dairy and meat-free meals was here to stay and chefs needed to get on board, he said.
"We'll get times it feels like every second table has a dietary [demand] - whether it's gluten-free or coeliac."
Far from seeing special requests as a nuisance, Bayly and his team saw them as a challenge. "When we get a dietary all the guys in the kitchen fight over it because they get to do their own thing.
"We embrace it because it's the way the world's going."
People were paying good money for a meal out and deserved better than a stodgy meal or a dish with an ingredient removed.
At all his restaurants, Bayly used a Japanese lathe to create gluten-free pasta out of root vegetables. Veges like beetroot, celeriac, turnips, courgettes were turned on the lathe into spirals that mimic the shape of pasta.
"What we do is we just blanch it quickly to soften it and then we cut it into fettuccine or pappardelle.
"[Customers] just can't believe they've got a pasta made from vegetables."
Modern cooking leaned towards a fresher, healthier style that relied less on gluten anyway, Bayly said.
"It's definitely where the trend is. It's not a food fad, I just think people are more educated and people know now that eating carbs after lunch isn't so good for you if you want to lose weight."