Expert: Teri Davis Newman - 9/14/2008

Question
I need to know how much to make/buy of the following for an outdoor buffet of 100 people:
Sausages and peppers
Sauce for the sausages and peppers
Ground meat for small Italian meatballs
Ziti/ricotta/morzarella for baked ziti
Chicken wings
Thanks a bunch.


Answer
You need to cut back on your menu items in a big way because if you don't, you are going to have tons of leftovers and waste.  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.

What you have is a selection of several entrees which if you make a serving for each person will give you way too much food.  Unless you send out a "chicken or beef" type card in advance (like we do for weddings) you won't know who will want what.  Cut your entrees choices down and serve sides instead.  
Figure 4 wing pieces (2 whole wings) per person.  3-4 small meatballs per person. 8 oz of sausage/peppers per person. 8 oz of pasta is also a serving but no one will eat a full serving of both pasta and S&P.

Not knowing what recipe you are using, I can't tell you how much cheese to buy--recipes vary wildly.  If you want a recipe scaled for 100, I can send you as many as you like if you tell me what you need a recipe for.