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Cooking for a Crowd of 25 or More??
Questioning your sanity? Don't.
Cooking for a crowd of 25 or more guests for a luncheon, cocktail party or
brunch at home is a large undertaking, but you can pull it off with style and
grace...yes you can!
Delegate, delegate,
delegate
Sure, you can do it all, but why
should you? You know who your most helpful friends and family members
are...call them into service.
As a general rule of thumb:
the more people the
simpler the food should be
Plan
a Make Ahead Menu
Many dishes can be made one to two weeks before your big party and safely frozen
or otherwise stored.
Study Your
Recipes
Once you have decided on a menu,
study each recipe and break it down into components, then write out an action
plan. For example, Stuffed
Banana Peppers require prepping the peppers, cooking the rice, cooking
onions, cooking the meat
and chopping herbs. In this recipe, the
onions and ground meat can be made
a week or two in advance and frozen and the rice can be cooked 1-2 days ahead of
time and stored tightly covered. If you are very
organized, you could batch cook or batch prep ingredients. In other words,
if you are planning several dishes which contain onions, calculate
the total amount you will need and chop them all at one time, freeze or store
accordingly. If cooking methods between recipes are the same or similar, you could even
cook them all at one time. Really pick apart your recipes and see how you can save yourself
energy and time. Convert
your standard recipes to large quantity recipes and try batch cooking
Decide
How to Serve
Without a doubt, buffet-style service is the only way to
serve. If you
have space. arrange two buffet tables. Have friends serve the main dishes.
This helps to control
portions and waste and keeps the buffet line moving smoothly.
Know Your Cooking Tools and Equipment
Don't have a complete oven meal if you have a really small oven; and don't forget about last minute
reheating. Try to spread the work load to all of your appliances such as
the stovetop, microwave, portable grill, crock pot, toaster oven, etc.
Make Refrigerator Space
As you get closer to the big day, you will need every bit of storage
space. Clear out any foods that can safely be left out for this time, like
condiments and jellies. Stock up on foil, plastic wrap, Ziploc storage bags, bowl covers, etc., for wrapping and storing food.
Do It Like the Pros
For a sit-down meal of over 10 guests, let your kitchen helpers form an assembly
line. Each person serves one item and passes the plate to the next person. Start with the food item that is cold/room temperature or retains heat the longest (like potatoes) and end with the food item that doesn't (like meat). Salads can be plated ahead of time and set on the table. Let
the Pros Do-It
Consider hiring a caterer or personal chef to do some if not all of the cooking. Hire a chef's assistant to act as supervisor or server. This may be needed for crowds from 8 and up depending on your entertaining and cooking comfort
zone.
A few words about food safety:
Unfortunate cases of food poisoning are often traced to
failure to follow simple food safety wisdom:
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Keep food items
refrigerated until served
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Do
not allow food to sit at room temperature for more than two hours.
Discard food that does
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Replace
the entire empty platter rather than adding fresh food. This helps to avoid cross
contamination from guests' hands
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Place cream or mayonnaise-based
dishes like potato and seafood salads and dips and salad dressings, nestled in bowls of crushed ice
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Only put out
small amounts of foods like fish, stuffed eggs and meat canapés.
Keep the rest hot in a 200 - 250°F oven or cold in the refrigerator until serving time.
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On
the buffet table, keep foods hot at 140°F or warmer, by using chafing
dishes, slow cookers or warming trays
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Cooking
For a Crowd Quantities
Chart
Calculate how much food to purchase
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