Posted by Cindy Crawford on January 15, 19101 at 21:12:09 :
In Reply to: Re: Buffet portions for 140 guests posted by sam sears, cec on January 14, 19101 at 14:50:11 :
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: : : Dear cindy, here us what I would do, 175 portions of chix (6 or 5 oz depending on if it is heavily breaded), 8 qt raw rice, 30# carrots (ep=edible portion), 25# salad, 15 doz rolls, 1 portion of dessert per person, 100 c coffee & 10 gal iced tea, 1 server per 50 ppl, if minimal table service is required or paid for, more if you are getting a premium price for the service, if premium service is the fare of the day, Yes we would service beverages & dessert at the table, if not, set up beverage & dessert stations..........hope this helps.....sam sears, cec
: : hi Sam :
: : People drink more of my tea..... Don't you guys sweeten the tea in KY?
: : That sounds like too much salad mix. I would only go 15#....
: : As far as the beverages, I serve at the guests' tables....
: : Desserts I always set up a separate dessert table. This allows me to serve multiple selections, creating a better "WOW" effect... and I use much less desserts this way. I usually start out with 60% of the guaranteed guests, since many banquets, especially fundraisers never have their numbers.. and there is always a percentage who do not eat dessert.... If I put in out on the guests' table, I cannot take it back with me, so 100% of the guarantee is served... about 30% is disposed of... It adds up.... I don't care if I preset tea at 20 cents a gallon....
: : Looking back at another response you gave where you said to put the entree at the end... I used to do that.... I now put it at the beginning... well, almost... Plates, salad, dressings, rolls, meat1, meat2, starch, veg, veg..... I find that if you put the veggies first, they can always stack meat on top of the veggies, but when it is the way I do it, they never put veggies over meat... this would make you assume that you use less veggies, that is true.. BUT you dont use any more meat...I have tested this over and over and I find that I serve the same amount of meat both ways, BUT I serve less veggies my way.... end result is a savings in food cost...
: : Also notice that I put my Rolls at the beginning... THis takes up plate space.... Peope are trying to conserve plate space at the beginning and pile on at the end, so they take a reasonable amount of meat..... I use less rolls this way too, by the way... they can always pile on rolls if they are at the end...
: : I always separate my desserts... some will skip the table all together and not bother to return... most will go straight to it and grab one dessert in their free hand... servers are pouring tea or water as they are seating in a wave service that follows the order they went to the buffet.... In REAL large events, 500+ I encourage the host to allow guest to go through the buffet as they arrive... and I open them 15 minutes early... This will get about 25% through the line before start time and 50% arrive on time, and the final 25% arrive a few minutes late... this allows me to keep the buffet restocked with less staff and moves the line very quickly.... everyone is happy...
: : Just my experience.... :)
: : Your friend,
: : Carl
: Carl, I never thought of the buffet with the meat 1st, then not piling on top of meat, but it makes sense, I'll try it, the reason I loaded up her on salad was that it was not a green salad, but sort of a vegetable salad, which weighs more, but it is probably too much anyway, I always have outlets for leftovers that are still properly temp maintain and have never been exposed to the public, so sometimes that effects my estimations, and no we don't sweeten our tea!!!!, and you are so right regarding the desserts, we always try to use that old "chefs selection of desserts" on buffets to give more appearance of bounty & you are so right about the 60%, then you can take back the 40% to sell another day, provided that there is no temp abuse, and I'm going to try the rolls/butter near the front, this is what I like about these bbs, 100s of heads are better than 1, even if it is mine!!!!, I have a habit of finding out what works for our firm, then never looking out of the box to improve that..............thx, thx, and by the way my constuction is on going, got state & local approval last week, now waiting on a custom grease trap, and doing drywall work, I swear, it would have been cheapter & easier to move down the street, than to just knock out walls............lol,,,,,sam
Thanks Guys! I can always depend on you for help. BTW, we serve "sweet tea" in GA too. Also, large portions of the salad will be consumed since it is a local favorite from the "Tea Time at the Masters" cookbook. Thanks, again for the info.
Cindy