Expert: Teri Davis Newman - 5/18/2008

Question
HELP!!
I am cooking for my step-daughters wedding, and while the menu was fairly easy for the bride and groom to decide on, I find myself second guessing how much food I should plan on.     There should be 100 ish guests. They wanted it fairly simple, but is there something I should add..I am doing this on my own, so your 'amount' help would be greatly appreciated!!!

It has an Italian theme,
I am making--
* a sausage and ground beef lasagna in 12"x9"x2 1/2" pans
* a penne pasta with chicken, mushroom and asparagus
* marinara with pasta (for our vegetarians)
* meatballs in a pan on their own
* large green salad with a choice of dressings
* couple types of bread/rolls

Thank  you for your help,  Pam

Answer
Unless you have sent out "chicken or beef" type menu cards with the invitations, you are in trouble because you are going to end up with way too much since you don't know who will eat what--which of course will tell you how many servings you need of each.  You need to either cut back to one entree or find out who is going to eat what before I can tell you how many servings you are going to need to make.  Do not despair--this is not as hopeless as you might think, but you are going to need to adjust the menu.  I'd make vegetarian lasagne with cheese and have meatballs and sausage on the side for the carnivores.  Cut out the choice of dressing--virtually everyone will eat Italian type dressing.  One type of roll or garlic bread will be sufficient and lose the chicken mushroom asparagus because there's something in there for everyone to hate--the vegetarians will hate the chicken, a surprising amount of people hate asparagus, the low carb folks will shun the pasta and the rest consider mushrooms to be a disgusting fungus--it's a no-win dish. You must have something with mass appeal which will be the vegetarian lasagne.
You will need:
6 oz of lasagne per person= 38 pounds of lasagne
4 oz of meatball per person= 25 pounds of meatballs
4 oz of sausage per person= 25 pounds of sausage
3 oz of lettuce/salad per person 19 pounds of lettuce
1.5 oz of salad dressing per person= 5 quarts Italian dressing
1.5 rolls per person 150 rolls
16 oz of NON-alcoholic beverage per person= 13 gallons beverage (and more if it will be outside on a hot day with dancing.)
If you can get a head count on who wants what, it will be much easier and then you can feel free to use the above numbers to calculate what you will need. It sounds like a small amount, but you will have leftovers.
Blessings,
Teri Davis Newman.