About Chef Glen L. Davis II Expertise I can answer almost any question about food. Food is my passion, if I don't know an answer I will find out and give you the best answer possible!
Experience I am a classically trained Chef. I have been the manager of several restaurants. I have been cooking LITERALLY since I could stand! I strive to learn new things every day and I enjoy helping people and I often assist my mother with a cooking class at her church.
Education/Credentials Trained with several chefs, and I have attended Culinary School. I have also worked every position in a restaurant setting from washing dishes to Kitchen Manager/ Chef. I also teach cooking classes and teach private lessons.
my prob is i don't know how much i need for every thing such as how many pot. eggs cabbage and things like that can you help me plz???
Answer The best advice I can give you is to invest in a "recipe development program" such as Master Cook. This will allow you to simply input the ingredients and original quantities. Then simply change the portion yield desired and the program will change all of the needed amount of ingredients. That will help you to get the recipes set.
From my experience with catering people tend to eat more at weddings than at any other function. This being said I am going to give you my "rule of thumb" figures for needed portion sizes per person. While these figures are not "set in stone" they have proven to be VERY accurate over the years. By making these portions for everyone even children an elderly guests who may not eat as much, it will make up for guests who may eat more than the average. These figures are for a "buffet" style serving, which I find is MUCH easier for a large function.
Meat/Main Protein- 8-10oz
Potato Salad- 3-4oz
Coleslaw- 3-4oz (depending on what part of the country you are in there may be more or less people who will eat the Coleslaw, if you tell me a general are of the country I could probably give you a more accurate figure, i.e. I live in VA and we love some coleslaw here in the south, folks up north don't tend to enjoy it as much as we do)
Shrimp Cocktail- 4-6 per person (16/20 ct. P&D tail on)
Cocktail Sauce- 1oz
Bushes Baked Beans- 3-4oz
The pickle tray is a bit more tricky. If you tell me what you plan to have on it, when it is planned to be served (before the meal or during) and weather or not your guests are "fond" of these items.
Another thing that should help with the cost and stress involved with this type of meal is, if you know anyone who works in a restaurant ask them if they can order some of the food items for you. For example, I used to order from US Food Service, I could get 50lbs of 16/20 ct. shrimp (not peeled) for about $200, which is RIDICULOUSLY CHEAP! I was also purchasing chicken breasts (boneless skinless random size) for about $1.29 per lb. The baked beans will be cheaper and in #5/#10 cans (64oz/128oz) which is easier to deal with than the small cans found in the stores.
I hope this helps answer your question, please let me know if you need any further assistance. If necessary I can "scale" the recipes for you to the yield desired.
