AboutTeri Davis Newman Expertise Any questions about catering and cooking for large groups. This would include recipes, cooking techniques, what to serve, how to prevent food poisoning, food storage and food integrity. I have thousands of recipes that are scaled for large groups and gatherings and will be happy to share them!
Experience Catering and parties are a large part of the restaurant business. I do a lot of catering for local parties since I am now retired. Education/Credentials Graduate, Le Cordon Bleu, Tokyo, Japan
Past/Present Clients Allexpert.com expert for 7 years, owner www.yahoogroups.com/reciperequest with 30 thousand original recipes on site.
Expert: Teri Davis Newman Date: 7/23/2008 Subject: How many party trays for 200 people?
Question I am planning my wedding reception for approximately 200 people. We are trying to do things cheap and easy by having most of our food be finger foods like fruit and veggie trays from Kroger. (The reception will be about 2 o'clock, so no need to serve a meal.) So far we're planning to have fruit trays that serve 16-20 each, veggie trays that serve 16-20, and cheese trays that serve 16-20, as well as tortilla chips, salsa, queso, and punch. We may also get some dessert trays with about 2 dozen cookies/brownies each. Now, I understand that if every person were going to eat exactly one serving of each thing, it would be easy to figure out, but considering people will pick and choose, how do I know how many of each kind of tray to get? Also, how do I know how many bags of chips and jars of salsa/queso to have? I've searched all over the net and can't seem to find anything to help me solve the party tray dilemma, so any help is appreciated!
Answer Here's the rule of catering as to how much you will need per person:
7 ounces of cooked meat entree
4 ounces of each side dish up to 3
3 ounces of salad greens
1 4 ounce dessert serving
6-8 appetizer bites per person
16 oz of non-alcoholic beverage
2 oz of chips per person
1 oz of dip per person
Multiply the ounces times the number of guests and then divide by 16 to give you pounds of food and the beverage by 128 to give you the number of gallons of beverage you will need.
However since you are not having this at a meal time you should calculate 12-15 appetizer bites per person and a 4 oz serving of dessert and you are good to go!
