How Much Food Do I Need for My Party?
How Much Food Do I Really Need for My Event?
Catering quantities are a common concern with party hosts.
As caterers, we are very careful to recommend enough food for your particular occasion when you book. We also know that even our well prepared menus and quantities are a guide rather than gospel as all functions are different.
We are also asked this question a lot, so whether you are hosting an event that we are catering, or providing the catering for your own party, we prepared these guidelines for your handy use. Freel free to bookmark or share as desired.
Factors that Affect Your Party Catering Requirements
It is a little more art than science, but the main factors to consider are:
- number of guests
- are they all adults or will there be children?
- age of adults and children
- mix of men and/or women
- the overall menu
- length of the party and whether it is over a meal time
- richness and denseness of the food being served
- the mix of food being served
- type of event
- ‘style’ of guests – are they plain eaters, an active sports group, are they expecting something unusual on your menu?
How Age Plays a Factor in Food Requirements
We find that generally, younger adults eat less than older adults. Ask a friend who works in aged care about how much an older person can eat in a day. Younger adult and adolescent girls tend to pick at food rather than heartily devour a large meal, especially in front of her peers. If you have a sporting crowd, they usually eat well.
If your party catering time is under an hour, consider whether you will have enough time to serve out enough food for a meal, or whether to only offer afternoon tea, pre-dinner drinks or light finger food. Make sure your guests know if you are only offering a light serving over what some may consider a meal time. Also let us know if we are preparing your menu.
The time of your party is also very important. An after-dinner cocktail party requires less food than an all-day barbecue.
If you have primary school aged children, you can use a simple ratio of 2:1 for food quantity needed, ie, 2 children to one adult portion. Always check with parents for allergies!
Party Catering Planning Guidelines
These are general rules of thumb. They are a good place to start, however, as you are talking to your guests when they RSVP, keep a note of any adjustments you may need to make.
- Round up your food quantities, don’t round them down. It is not nice when guests need to drop in on the local take-away on their way home, or worse, leave early because they are hungry!
This wedding chocolate fountain dessert buffet at Melbourne Pavilion for 300 guests was well received.
- Anticipate which food selections will be most popular and serve more of them and less of some others. Seafood and mini hamburgers are often more popular than quiches, for example.
- The more menu items you offer, the less of each is required.
- For ‘petite food’ cocktail party menus, provide a good variety throughout the party. Keep in mind that the little morsel you are so looking forward to serving may not be everyone’s ‘cup of tea’, and if there are only 2 rounds of that one item being served for the next 40-50 mins, some guests may go hungry. If a guest has dietary or other considerations that prevent them from taking a few of your menu items, it is important to take care of their needs in their own time.
- Even the most popular menu items are unlikely to be popular for more than a couple of service rounds, so again variety can be a better choice than more of the same foods.
- Buffets always require greater food supply than plate service or cocktail catering. Guests tend to have a taste of everything, and it is poor taste to run out of a buffet item, so there is a lot of waste.
- Palates need ‘a rest’. Plan a balanced menu with some simpler foods and some richer foods.
- If your are planning a meal, don’t forget the starch – bread, potatoes or rice. If your menu is being served cocktail style, include some bulk items. Our cocktail catering menus and cold platters can give you plenty of ideas. You can add nuts, pretzels, dips and flat breads on platters prepared before the party starts without a lot of extra work. Fresh sushi platters are also popular easy, bulky starters.
- Consider whether all of your guests will arrive on time. The younger generation have redefined fashionably late.
Here are basic guidelines for individual serving sizes of various foods. Multiply these estimates by your number of guests and, once again, always round up your estimates.
Catering Quantities by Meal Type
How much food do I need for breakfast catering?
Consider if some guests may eat before they arrive.
- For a light breakfast/pre-meeting service, allow 150-200g per person.
- For a full breakfast meal, allow 280-330g per person.
How much food do I need for my high tea party?
- 3 pieces per hour for light catering for a between-meals service, eg, morning tea, afternoon tea
- include a mix of sweet and savoury
- consider creative presentation & styling with beautiful or whimsy-styled foods, florals, servingware, linens & furniture
- For a lunch or meal-replacement, you need approximately 4 finger-food-size pieces per hour
How much food do I need for a cocktail finger food party?
The trick with canape or cocktail catering is that piece size can vary a lot. At Party Food Melbourne, for a meal replacement, we always calculate quantities based on weight.
For simplicity, we use piece size. Use your judgement as to how large or small your piece sizes are, eg, a party meatball is substantially smaller than a mini burger.
- ‘meal replacement’ catering – 4 pieces per hour for the first two hours then 2-3 per hour after that – depending on the piece size
- pre-dinner, after work office parties or after-dinner menus – 3 pieces per hour for light catering, more where alcohol is being served
More on cocktail canapé catering …
How much food do I need for a lunch or dinner party?
- Overall – 400g per person
- Poultry, meat or fish – 160-230g per serve, add 10% for each menu item per additional main dish offered
- Rice, grains – 50-80g as a side dish or 60-75g if it is a main dish such as risotto
- Potatoes (including starchy vegetables) – 80-150g
- Vegetables (excluding potatoes or starchy vegetables)- 150-200g if serving with a starch, or 230g if no starch sides offered. It is best to provide a higher vegetables-to-potato ratio.
- Beans – 50-60g for a side dish
- Pasta – 70-100g for a side dish, 100-120g for an entree, 300-400g as a main dish
- Green Salad – 60g before dressing with other vegetables/salads
More on catering for mealtimes – plated meals, small plate menus, and buffet meals
How much dessert do I need for a party?
Not everyone is a sweet tooth, so cake is not eaten by all. But, we do notice cake or cupcakes often being taken home for the children. This is a consideration within our recommendations here:
- 1 slice of cake, tart or cupcake – this may include a piece of birthday cake, though these are often cut into 2.5cm square (1″) wedding serves rather than cake & coffee serves at your local cafe.
- 1-2 pastries, depending on their size
- 2-3 mini desserts, petit fours, mini slices
- 1 freshly prepared fruits platter per 20-30 guests based on our generous Party Food Melbourne platter size
- 120g of a creamy dessert such as pudding or mousse
- 2-3 scoops ice cream (about 120-150g)
Where a mix of these is offered, allow a little extra, around 10%, using the same rationale as for other buffets.
For a dessert station, or dessert party, you will need a lot more. Contact our experienced team for a confidential discussion.
How many serves of cake do I need for my party, corporate event or wedding?
- for a wedding, consider adding a top tier of cake to remain uncut. Most wedding cakes can be frozen for enjoyment at a future anniversary or celebration. Tell the person cutting the cake so that they put it aside. When you cut the cake after speeches, cut into the second tier.
- Wedding cake serves are traditionally 1″ or 2.5cm squares. A coffee serve is larger, part way between 1″ and a cafe or dessert serve, and usually served at birthdays and anniversaries. There are no rules, though.
- When ordering a custom celebration cake, check on the size of the pieces you are being quoted on as cake decorators estimate differently.
- We always recommend freshly prepared fruits as this can be a great alternative for healthy eaters, diabetics, those who have food allergies, etc.
- if your cake is going to be served with whipped cream, ice cream, etc, serve with a dessert spoon instead of a cake fork.
For a dessert station featuring a custom cake or wedding cake, contact our experienced team for a tailored discussion to your plans and delicious desires.
*Hot tip: keep the cake box until after the party … just in case you need it.
More on special celebration cakes & wedding cakes …
Other Menu Planning Tips
- Don’t repeat a main ingredient for a meal. For example, don’t feature pumpkin in your entree and main course.
- The converse applies in cocktail fingerfood catering – to ensure variety, especially over a longer party, offer a couple of different menu items using a more popular base product, eg, chicken.
- Check your fingerfood menu items are compatible – eg, if you have one Asian item with a European menu, the flavours may jar on the palate.
- Consider the colours of the food that will be served together to ensure variety. We eat with our eyes before our mouths. Garnish is underrated and often forgotten in menu planning.
- Offer both hot and cold foods on a buffet.
- Consider textures and balance – creamy, crisp, crunch, light, dense.
- Allergies & special food requirements – unless you know, ask. Nearly all of our catering now include special food requests. We have countless stories of a guest not mentioning an allergy until at the party being served the first menu item. It is too late for the caterers by then.
