AboutChef Todd Mohr Expertise I'd be glad to answer your questions about how basic cooking methods apply equally to cooking for two in your home, or 1000 for an event.
Experience Executive Chef at a large hospital, feeding 3000 people three times daily over 8 different menus. Chef at The National Security Agency in Washington, DC, part of a team feeding 15,000 people twice daily.
Publications I am a featured author at Ezine Articles (ezinearticles.com, ideamarketers.com, articlecity.com, buzzle.com, selfgrowth.net)
Education/Credentials Bachelor of Arts, Long Island University
Associate of Arts, Baltimore International Culinary College
Past/Present Clients My catering company boasts many of the nations largest companies as clients over the past 8 years.
I Have to prepare a 3 coarse meal for 250 people and am struggling with 2 things
#1 The quantity to buy. The starter will be Butternut soup. Main meal will include lamb, baby carrots, cauliflower with a cheese sauce, sweet potatoes, roast potatoes and a salad. The dessert is a chocolate pudding with ice cream.
I know how much meat I need, but I don't know the amouts for the veg. The dessert i will be able to figure out.
#2 Keeping everything warm. I want to know up to what amount of veg can I put in a pot on a stove to keep it warm without the top batch being cold and the bottom burning. I have a limited amout of shaving dishes.
I'm from SA so if you can please answer me in terms of grams, I'll appreciate it, otherwise I'll convert it myself.
Thank you
Answer I'm sorry it took 2 days to respond. I didn't receive an alert from AllExperts. Also, I thought I had answered this question before. Please review some of the other questions I've answered on Mass Production.
The average portion for adults is 4-5 ounces of protein (chicken), 3-4 ounces of starch (potatoes/pasta), and 2-3 ounces of vegetables (or salad).
Unless you're an experienced caterer, I'd make it easy on yourself by having only one vegetable and only one starch. Why make roast potatoes AND sweet potatoes? This complicates your production considerably. The more choices you have, the more over-production you have to create. For 250 people, you can't just make 125 servings of one item and 125 of another to equal 250. What if the first 150 people LOVE sweet potatoes. The last 25 people may not have a choice between dishes by the time they get there. Thus, you'd have to create about 175 portions of each to equal 350 total, so everyone has a choice.
To estimate the amount of Butternut Squash soup to make, consider an 8 ounce bowl per person, by volume. 8 ounces times 250 people is 2000 ounces, divided by 128 ounces in a gallon, yields about 15 gallons of final product needed. Considering you'll use some broth or stock, and perhaps other ingredients to yield the final 15 gallons, you'll need at least a 10 gallon bucket filled up with cubed butternut squash to simmer and puree. Since squash are all different sizes and densities, I can't tell you how many squash to buy. My guess would be that each squash cubed yields about a quart. Quick math in my head points to about 60 squashes you'd need to clean, seed and simmer. I hope you have a pot big enough!
I get soooo nervous when I get questions from home-cooks asking "how do I keep it warm?" If you're feeding 250 people, you have a TREMENDOUS responsibility to create safe food and keep it safe. How horrible if you made everyone sick? You MUST have means to keep the food out of the temperature danger zone of 40-140F or 6-60c. Buy or rent "chafing" (not shaving) dishes to assure your food is attractive and safe.
The important part is to begin your planning with a calculator, and have a mathematical plan for your production and portioning. Don't just guess or "eye-ball" it.
More questions you might ask of yourself: What is your production method? Will you cook all the vegetables ahead of time, shock it in ice water, then re-heat for service in boiling water? Or, will you have enough staff to batch-cook. Do you have means to keep your food warm and safe? Will you use chafing dishes for buffet service, or is it plated? If plated, what is your procedure for filling plates and delivering them before the food gets cold?
Cooking for 250 is the smallest of the challenges in actually serving 250 people. The amount of food is only the start. How you are going to prep, cook, hold hot, and serve are the biggest questions.
