Help! Buffet for 150!

DVOM

Sun, Apr 18 2021, 11:35 am

amother [ Plum ] wrote:

First of all Mazal Tov

This is a big under taking
Are you sure you want to cater it yourself
Is it that much cheaper than doing it in a hall

This is what I suggest
1. Go to a tablecloth Gemach and see what they have in stock you’ll need tablecloth for the tables and the buffets
Real tablecloth adds so much to the event and anchors a color scheme. Also think of layering.

After having your menu planned go to serve ware Gemach, plan where each item will go
Planning is your best friend

2. Rent the tables and chairs.
They do all the shlepping. It takes one thing off your plate and it’s cost efficient when you think about gas and going back and forth

3. Food amount, calculate each 9x13 can serve 16 - 20 ppl, because you have a lot of variety. Mini pizza and pancakes 2 pp

Salmon- 1/4lb pp

As far as bread I would calculate 1 bagel for each person and then supplement with your other breads 1 slice per person. You will have leftover- but it’s easily freezeable. Where ever you get your breads have them pre-slice it.
You could use your breads and spreads as a center piece.

Salad bar- I would calculate again a 9x13 of chopped veggie per 20 ppl and double that for mixed greens (they weigh less)

On the table- the chips and dips are fine in the center of each table.

Think about what ppl will do with the dirty plates when they are done eating, a lot of ppl serve 2nds on a new plate You are going to need servers to go around clearing the tables.

This is so helpful. Thank you!

I'm going to look into rentals for tables and chairs. It really does make more sense.

We have already hired waitering help (three staff members) to set up, clear up, serve, keep tables clean as people eat.

Your food calculations are helping me breath. Ok. Makes sense!

DVOM

Sun, Apr 18 2021, 11:36 am

amother [ Green ] wrote:

1. Sounds delicious and full of simcha. Mazal tov.

2. How about a cold soup? Gazpacho or fruit soup?
Get the smaller bowls. You have a lot of food stations. You don't need huge bowls of soup. I think they are 5oz size, (but check) and use that size to work out how much you need.
Make sure the bowls are sturdy, people will be carrying hot soup in them.

3. Re seating. You can get thin chairs that go with relatively small tables. If people are getting up to get food, you need more space between the tables.

4. Not everyone is going to eat every different thing. You don't need 150 mini pizzas, for example.

5. Mazal tov!

Very smart. I'm actually thinking mugs.

DVOM

Sun, Apr 18 2021, 11:38 am

Frumme wrote:

How is your front yard set up? Is there a a fence etc? If not, can you ask your neighbors if they would mind if you could "borrow" their front yard space? Even rent it from them if they are hesitant.

Also I hope you're hiring 1-2 waiters even with the buffet style set up. You will need people to attend to the various needs of your guests (water at tables etc) as well as setting up tables & chairs, breaking down tables & chairs afterwards, tablecloths, etc. You can't do these things all yourself.

As far as food. Make sure you have plenty of carby, cheap, filling foods available. I see that your list of dinners is all milchig. Make sure you have at least 1 pareve option for the dairy adverse or people who came accidentally fleishig. Tofu lo mein or even a plain pasta w/ margarine/olive oil. Quinoa salad with avocado, sauteed onion, roasted sweet potato

Very smart. Will do.

SuperWify

Sun, Apr 18 2021, 11:41 am

You can set every seat with a challah roll (it’s a seudas mitzva after all) and dips/ salads on the table.

DVOM

Sun, Apr 18 2021, 11:42 am

[quote="sky"]One thing to keep in mind with gemach for table and chairs is the shlepping. You need a lot of man power.
For renting try rent wise. You can get a basic folding chair for 25 cents IIRC.

[b]You are going to need 15 sitting 8ft tables plus Buffett tables. Not everyone will sit at same time.

Buy 3-4x the amount of plates and cutlery as ppl invited.

Do you have space to heat up so much food at one time. Do you need to rent dairy warmers?

Get waiters for setup, serving and cleanup so you can enjoy.

Do you have a rain backup plan? I was recently at a simcha in a city were it doesn’t rain and it was super windy and rainy the day of simcha. They had to find alternate location. Transfer food. Setup. And make all decisions day of. Please have a plan just in case to reduce last minute stress.[/b[/quote]

This is such a helpful post!

Do you have contact info for Rent wise?

Thank you for the plates and cutlery amounts. So helpful.

We have waiters. Food is going to be in sterno burners, plus I have a neighbors dairy oven I can use in addition to my own. Should be ok.

We have a backup location in case of rain, but I'm praying and praying for good weather!

tichellady

Sun, Apr 18 2021, 11:46 am

I would keep the buffet for hot things and have on the tables a bowl of green salad with one dressing in a bottle , a plate of room temperature salmon, a bowl of rolls , assorted spreads in bowls, platter of roasted or grilled veggies.
Then I would have a soup station and pasta station ( I would skip the pancakes). I would calculate one 9x13 of pasta would feed 8 people and one cup of soup per person. I would skip the chips, would not be eaten in my crowd. I would make a kids table with pizza and if you really want the pancakes put it there. Pancakes are time intensive so I would not include. I would keep the fish, veggies and at least one soup pareve.
Mazal tov!! Good luck!

Last edited by tichellady on Sun, Apr 18 2021, 11:53 am; edited 1 time in total

DVOM

Sun, Apr 18 2021, 11:47 am

amother [ Papaya ] wrote:

You sound amazing! But me personally - I would do chips and salsa on table - one or two, not 3. One soup, and 2 pasta mains, 3 salads and a fish. Dessert - a bunch. That’s it.....

OK.

This is very helpful.

I know I need to pare down the menu.

If you'all were hosting, what dishes would you choose?

I feel like the pizza and pancakes are going to be big sellers with the kids (there will be lots of kids.).

A parve fish and parve salad options for adults, plus a parve potato or pasta.

What else?

sky

Sun, Apr 18 2021, 11:48 am

Rent Wise Table & Chair Party Rentals
Work: (732) 886-0533
Email: rentwiseparty@gmail.com

DVOM

Sun, Apr 18 2021, 11:50 am

sky wrote:

Rent Wise Table & Chair Party Rentals
Work: (732) 886-0533
Email: rentwiseparty@gmail.com

Thank you!!!

Chana Miriam S

Sun, Apr 18 2021, 11:50 am

DVOM wrote:

Well, this is an interesting turn of events. I need help!

Invitations to my son's small, backyard bar mitzvah have gone out. This is our first bar mitzvah, so perhaps we can blame some of this insanity on my lack of experience? I had anticipated about 80 people to dinner, about 120 to dessert. Big, but manageable. After all, I've hosted my extended family many times, a crowd of about 50. So this would be double that. I've hosted my entire neighborhood plus family for a buffet dessert, also a large crowd, perhaps 100 people, also manageable. What I did not anticipate is that almost every single invitation sent came back with a yes.

I'm flattered. I'm delighted, actually. I love parties. I love my people. I dearly love my son, I'm so proud of him, I'm so excited for him. I love that our friends and family want to come and celebrate with us. Best we can figure, there will be about 150 people to dinner, many more to dessert.

But I'm also panic-stricken. I have no idea how I'm going to host and feed this many people. I don't even know if our yard can fit this many people. Time to recalibrate! Deep breaths!

A bunch of questions:

First in my mind is food. How much food do I need to feed 150 people? I'm more concerned about dinner than dessert. Dessert will be more of a milling around, nibbling a bit, saying mazal tov, and going home sort of things. We'll have a hot dessert section (cinnamon buns, plum cobbler, jumbo melty choc chip cookies), assorted nibbles, cupcakes, and cookies, a coffee and cocoa bar, fruit, and we're having an ice cream truck for soft-serve ice cream and slurpies. Dinner is what is making me really nervous. Dinner guests need to be fed an actual meal. And they need someplace to sit while they eat it.

We've gone back and forth on the menu, but here's what we've settled on as per my bar mitzvah boy's fantasies of the perfect bar mitzvah menu. It's not typical, but he's delighted with it. We were planning on serving buffet style:

Soup bar: zucchini potato, french onion, not sure about what the third soup will be. I'm thinking minestrone. Make your own salad bar, breads (bagels, rolls, garlic bread, sourdough) and spreads (cream cheese, butter, tuna, avocado).

In Sterno burners: Mini pizzas, pancakes, mac and cheese, fettuccini alfredo, penne vodka, lasagna, some sort of veg, salmon, potato gratin.

I'd like to have some sort of starter course on the tables for when people first come and find their seats. Not sure what though. We've nixed many ideas as either too expensive (individual fondu pots) or not what our bar mitzva boy likes (sushi- so easy, so gross in his culinary opinion.) Were thinking of several varieties of chips and dips. I think this could be fun.. Individual plates of chips and dips? In the center of each table? We'd probably do ripple chips with sour cream and onion dip, pretzels with honey mustard dip, and taco chips with salsa. It's more of a snack than a starter. Can I get away with this?

Dear ladies: HELP!

I have no clue how much of each of these foods to prepare (I also have no idea how I'm going to muster the time and energy to prepare all of this, but that's another conversation. If I see I'm running out of time and stamina, I can always buy some of it.). Have any of you hosted a crowd this big? How do I calculate portions? For example, how many 9x13 pans of pasta do I need? How much salad fixings? How much bread?

We'd thought to borrow tables and chairs from our neighborhood's gamach and to supplement with some of our own folding tables and chairs, but we're going to need a lot more tables and chairs than that. Where can we borrow (ideally) or rent (less ideal) tables and chairs???

We're also a bit stumped about the setup. Without seeing the space though, I doubt any of you guys will be able to help this with me. Initially, we thought we could do all of it under one big tent in the front yard. This would have been manageable for the crowd I was anticipating. But this larger crowd just won't fit. We have a large side lawn, a smaller back patio. We have a large backyard, but it's wooded and rustic and slants down to a lake and doesn't really lend itself to tables and chairs. Can I set up seating wrapping around the house? Too weird?

If it was easy, everyone would be a caterer. Speaking as someone who was a caterer for ten years, let me give you some advice:

Simplify the menu and provide Plenty of food in volume. It’s easier to make fewer things and more of them. Do you have any idea how much of your own Simcha you’ll be missing by not hiring a caterer?

Don’t even get me started on food safety, storage and hiring staff. Which leads me to your location...

Recognize defeat and move the location to somewhere it’ll fit.

Yes, this is my professional opinion.

sky

Sun, Apr 18 2021, 11:51 am

Cutlet probably even more then 4x. Especially if there is dancing. Ppl lose it outside in between.

amother

Peach

Sun, Apr 18 2021, 11:53 am

Sounds like an awesome party and you sound like supermom!

I would cut down on the amount of variety, it's very overwhelming as a guest to have THAT many options. Also keep in mind how many kids vs adults you have. For the grilled veggies, you don't really need to feed all the kids because they won't go for that, it's more about the adults, vs something like a heavy pasta which kids and adults will go for. Get a catering menu from any milchig restaurant's website to see how many pans you need of each food.
You don't need 120 portions of each option, based on how many you end up going with you need enough portions that every person can take 2-3

Chana Miriam S

Sun, Apr 18 2021, 11:55 am

Also I did both of my children’s parties and invited our guests plus entire congregation, so 500 ppl each time. I did it myself ( my sons bar mitzvah was the first insanely large event I did.

But I had the shul professional kitchen with walk in fridges, all the equipment I needed fir cooking and serving, linen delivery and people Who would set up chairs/tables who worked at the shul. I had staff from my biz including people I trusted on the day of the Simcha to run it for me. I had a lot of staff on the day as well.

The second went better than the first. By then I simplified and had another 4 years of experience.

DVOM

Sun, Apr 18 2021, 12:02 pm

amother [ Peach ] wrote:

Really helpful, thank you!

DVOM

Sun, Apr 18 2021, 12:07 pm

andrea levy wrote:

I appreciate this kind but pragmatic professional opinion!

But.... I'm not defeated yet!

Our outdoor space is big enough for the number of people, just oddly shaped.

The staff we've hired is excellent. We could always hire more. Are three staff members enough? Do I need more?

I'm hearing you (and everyone else!) regarding volume vs. variety.

Can I pick your brain?

What would your menu be?

ra_mom

Sun, Apr 18 2021, 12:16 pm

We did a buffet with a soup station and bought white soup cups with covers - you know the ones you get from the nice takeouts? It's very easy to walk around with them, eat while standing, for buffet.

We put out glass olive oil drizzlers, croutons, salt, pepper as add ins.

Vegetable soup and French onion are usually crowd pleasers. Keep them parve and put out signs listing each item at the station (and mark as parve).

DVOM

Sun, Apr 18 2021, 12:20 pm

ra_mom wrote:

This is a wonderful idea! Thank you!

DVOM

Sun, Apr 18 2021, 12:22 pm

tichellady wrote:

Interesting idea. I have to think about this. I believe you may be right.

amother

Slateblue

Sun, Apr 18 2021, 12:47 pm

amother [ Beige ] wrote:

I say it's def ok to set up seating around the house. Can you get speakers to every area so ppl can hear what's going on even if they can't see the speaker? I like the chip n dip idea. It's affordable and cute and sounds like there's lots of other food. Maybe add a salad to balance out health? A sushi salad? Way easier than sushi and adults can appreciate.

Im thinking a 9/13 pan feeds about 10 people. You don't need enough of each dish to feed everyone but 10 of each pan should be enough. Maybe more of the dishes you anticipate people wanting more of and less of the less favored dishes.

Sounds so fun and delicious! Good luck!

I'd think that 8 of each food in 9 by 13 foils should be plenty. I assume there are kids counted in the 150? Plus not everyone will eat everything.

I've never catered for so many people, so no advice there.

amother

Mistyrose

Sun, Apr 18 2021, 12:56 pm

I did a buffet bar mitzvah with garlic knots, bulkelach, lasagna, penne a la vodka, salmon, sushi, salad, fruit platters. Ice cream and cookie bar for dessert. The sushi platters went insanely fast (kids and adults)! I also did french onion soup but regretted it, it was a hassle and not necessary.

The garlic knots, bulkelach, and cookies froze well. Friends cut up fruit and salad for me the night before. Penne a la vodka and lasagna I made the day before. Sushi and grilled salmon I ordered. It was doable and enjoyable! Mazel tov on your simcha!