It always seems like a good idea at the time, offering to cook for a large number of friends or for a function. Then, when you realize just how many you are cooking for, it can get very scary. Fear not, there are a few golden rules that will help you emerge calm and ready to receive well deserved praise for your efforts.
- Plan ahead: Work out your recipes as soon as you know how many you are catering for. Bear in mind that at a buffet people will eat smaller portions but of more items than they will at a sit down meal. At a formal dinner, you need full portions for starters and the first main course, then about 20% less for each successive course to allow for people eating less as they fill up.
- For every expensive or fancy dish, plan a cheap and easy one. The balance helps keep you sane and makes the budget and timing go much further.
- Borrow any extra pans, baking trays and serving dishes. Don’t be shy, call all your friends and round up the right tools for the job.
- Write your shopping lists as soon as you have the menu sorted. Then start shopping around for dry goods. Don’t forget that most cash & carry or wholesalers will happily deal with ‘ordinary’ people if you go in and ask for a day pass. Take cash if you can, especially if dealing with fresh wholesale markets. Always get a receipt, you’ll want to keep careful track of your spending.
- Remember that we rely very heavily on the refrigerator these days. Unless you are in a very hot, humid area, many food items are a bit more tolerant than we give them credit for. Obviously you want to pay careful attention to food hygiene, but some goods will cope perfectly well in a cool, covered area. Plan which items really need that fridge space before you start cooking.
- Cook or prepare ahead whatever you can. Vegetables can be prepared the day before and bagged ready for cooking, things in marinade can be done the day before for quick cooking at need and so on.
- Collect several big cardboard boxes if you need to transport food to another venue. They help stop you balancing dishes on top of each other with potentially disastrous results.
- Leave enough time for the actual cooking. You may have worked out that the cooking times are so many hours, but allow a few more for unexpected delays, washing up, eating lunch and so on.
- Have a contingency dish planned, something that uses store-cupboard ingredients and which you can make easily, just in case there is some terrible disaster with a course. Odds are you won’t need it, but it feels good to know there is a Plan B.
- Try to enjoy the cooking. Batch chop ingredients of one type, play your favourite music, don’t forget to eat and keep your fluids up yourself. Sometimes cooking big quantities is easier than small ones, things are less likely to burn, and flavours distribute better. Have fun seeing your list shrink as the cooking progresses.
Have fun, and Good Luck
