Party Catering Plan
Buy the raw weight, serve the cooked weight, and remember that offering a choice costs about a fifth more.
BFCBrilliance · bfcbrilliance.com/tools/party-food-calculator
The party
- Date
- Guests
- Oz per head
- Mains
- Cooking yield %
- MEAT TO BUY
- Serves (cooked)
- LOST IN COOKING
- Per dish
- Sides
- SIDES TOTAL
- ROLLS
- Hours
- DRINKS
Planning figures
- Cooked protein per adult
- 6-8 oz
- ⚠ Cooking loss
- 25-30% of raw weight
- So 6 oz cooked
- is about 8 oz RAW
- ⚠ More than one main
- add about 20% in TOTAL
- Each side, per head
- about 4 oz
- Rolls per head
- 1-2
- Drinks
- 1-1.5 per person per HOUR
- First hour
- runs higher than the rest
- ⚠ Bone-in waste
- 20-40% — NOT in these figures
- ⚠ Food out of the fridge
- 2 hours total, 1 above 90F
- Published cross-check
- ~25 lb boneless meat per 50 guests
The menu
| Dish | Type | Qty needed | Where from | Cook when | Done |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
The things that get forgotten
- ICE — far more than you think, and it is not food
- Non-drinkers and drivers catered for properly
- At least one substantial vegetarian option, not a garnish
- Allergies asked about IN ADVANCE, in writing
- Serving spoons — one per dish, counted
- Somewhere for coats, somewhere for bins
- Fridge space cleared BEFORE the shopping arrives
- Oven space planned — you have one oven and four dishes
- Something for the first hour that needs no cooking
- Containers for leftovers, ready before the party
- A plan for getting hot food COLD within two hours
The plate weight is not the shop weight
Meat loses 25-30% of its weight cooking. A 6 oz cooked portion starts as about 8 oz raw. Multiply the portion by the headcount and go shopping with that number and you will be short by nearly a third.
A choice costs about a fifth more
Offer two mains and people take some of both rather than half of one. Plan about 20% more food in total, split across the dishes — not one portion divided between them.
Drinks are about hours, not heads
One to one and a half per person per hour. Fifty guests for three hours is 225 servings — a completely different shopping trip from the one 'fifty guests' suggests on its own.