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Cooking for Parties/Wedding Catering Menu

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Expert: - 3/29/2009


Question
Hello. We are considering having my mom and some family cater/cook for my wedding - about 150 guests.  I was thinking green beans, mashed potates and then a meat option...some kind of chicken and beef.  I was thinking prime rib...not sure about the chicken.  Couple questions -
Would it be OK to cook the green beans and potatoes a day or 2 ahead of time and then just reheat before serving?
Secondly, would we need to have the prime rib cooked only that day or could that be pre-cooked a day or 2 in advance and just reheated?
Finally, any chicken ideas? Anything we could cook ahead of time but just reheat day of that would be good?

Thank you!!

Answer
It's impossible to reheat prime rib without ruining it, so it must be cooked the day of and served promptly. I'd go with Chicken Caccitore as it's easy to make, tasty, Italian and reheats beautifully unlike most chicken dishes.
Green beans could be cooked day of in the same amount of time it would take to reheat them and then they won't be mushy. You can toss them in some olive oil with sliced garlic cloves after lightly steaming them and it can be served hot or cold.  Mashed potatoes would also take about the same amount of time to reheat as to cook from scratch or you could put them in an oven to reheat--it will take about 90 minutes to thoroughly reheat a hotel pan of mashed potatoes as they are dense.

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Teri Davis Newman

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I am a wedding and party planner in St. Louis, Missouri and I do weddings and parties all over the country! My brides are my number one priority as I understand how important their wedding day is to them! 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! If you are in need of professional assistance for helping you to plan your wedding, party or corporate event, please feel free to contact me! I do a limited amount of weddings and parties every year in order to make sure that I have the best service for my clientele. Feel free to visit my business website at this address: WWW.EXQUISITEEVENTSUSA.COM for detailed information on what services I offer. I have price point weddings for every budget--no matter what size and I am very specific about what you get for your hard-earned money.

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Catering and parties are a large part of the restaurant business. I do a lot of catering for local parties and weddings.
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Graduate, Le Cordon Bleu, Tokyo, Japan

Education/Credentials
Graduate, Le Cordon Bleu, Tokyo, Japan

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Allexpert.com expert for 9 years, owner www.yahoogroups.com/reciperequest with 30 thousand original recipes on site.

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