How Much Food to Serve Guests

When you are calculating how much food get to serve a crowd there are many things to consider, and many options to choose from. How much food you will need depends on how you plan to serve the food, and what types of food the occasion calls for. Cost is only one aspect of serving your crowd, and pleasing them is the main concern. If price is a problem choose to prepare food yourself instead of buying ready made portions, or using a caterer.

Decide what type of event you will have, where it will be held, and what time of the day it will be. Do this to know whether you will need to be serving morning foods, between meal foods, or a dinner meal. Think about what the crowd is gathering for and serve foods appropriate to that type of meeting, party, event, or occasion.

Consider the types of foods you will be using to serve the crowd for that type of event, for example, you'd serve pancakes or eggs for a breakfast crowd, appetizers and coffee or tea to a business crowd, pizza and wings and soda to a party crowd, petite sandwiches and cocktails to a fancy crowd, etc.

Determine how you will seat your guests, or if it will be an open room type of event where everyone is mingling. Do this to figure out how to set up your food, or how to serve it. Create a buffet for crowds that will be wandering, congregating, associating, and interacting. Serve portions to seated guest in the form of a meal, in courses. Calculate how many types of different foods will be at the buffet, and how much food it will take to serve each guest based on the foods and drinks you have decided to serve.

Calculate portion sizes by figuring out the ratio of. How many adults vs. how many children there will be in your crowd. Take the number of children and divide it by 2 to figure out how many adult sized portions it will take, giving each child half of an adult portion. Do this so you do not get too much food as children will end up throwing away half of what is on their plate should you give them an adult portion, which wastes food and money.

Calculate the cost using the number of guests multiplied by the cost per serving, or by adding the prices of all the foods you want you buffet to include together.