# Catering portions.  How to figure per person.



## hotpit (Sep 2, 2012)

Need some help with portions   I cooked ribs for a party yesterday. Don't know exact count of people. I cooked 8 slabs and 15 pounds of chicken legs. I have 3.5 slabs left.  How do the catering company's figure portions???


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## jarjarchef (Sep 2, 2012)

It really varies from company to company on what they do. There are a lot of factors that go into the planning of how much food you will need.

Here are a few:
Guest how many, male or female, age, where they are from? Men tend to eat more, teens to young adults tend to eat more, where they are from and the regions eating habits.

Menu: what is on it, how many sides, how many proteins, time of day and oddly enough the weather. If you have a lot of choices you can cut to a lower per person portion size. If it is around a normal meal eating time they will eat more. If you catch them between meals a little less. If it is very hot out people will tend to eat less heavy stuff and go for the lighter foods and the opposite when cold.

Service style: most due buffet, but if you get plated it is easy to figure. If you do buffet, are you serving them or are they serving themselves? You serving you can control how much the first serving is. If they are serving themselves they will pile the plates up. A way you can help control that is plate size. Large plate = more food taken, medium plate = less food taken. People will most of the time take what will fill the plate and end up with too much food. A 7" plate is a good size for a meal.

Hope this helps. If you are looking for numbers let me know the menu and I will fill in what I would do for it. Add some of the other details as well and it will help.


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## desertlites (Sep 2, 2012)

I would do 3 rib portion if Baby backs and 2 if a meaty spare, just my 2 cents worth. there's  some good weight charts on the site.


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## weberlamp (Sep 2, 2012)

Hey hotpit, check out the below link, it has two Excel docs that you can use to plan a gathering of almost any size, good luck.  Its the first post on the second page.

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/67732/spreadsheet-for-those-big-qs/20


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## hotpit (Sep 2, 2012)

jarjarchef said:


> It really varies from company to company on what they do. There are a lot of factors that go into the planning of how much food you will need.
> Here are a few:
> Guest how many, male or female, age, where they are from? Men tend to eat more, teens to young adults tend to eat more, where they are from and the regions eating habits.
> Menu: what is on it, how many sides, how many proteins, time of day and oddly enough the weather. If you have a lot of choices you can cut to a lower per person portion size. If it is around a normal meal eating time they will eat more. If you catch them between meals a little less. If it is very hot out people will tend to eat less heavy stuff and go for the lighter foods and the opposite when cold.
> ...


these are good points, and oddly enough, I cooked ribs and chicken legs,  sides of beans, potatoe salad and others brought other sides such as slaw, chips dip, etc    so with all that being said, really tough to foresee whats gonna happen.  That being said, after further reveiw, we had 24 adults, and 10 kids, so i way over cooked with 8slabs of st louis style spare ribs and 15lb of chicken drumsticks.  gonna have lunch for a while......


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## jarjarchef (Sep 3, 2012)

I looked at the 2 spread sheets. They look good. A great tool to have. Kudos to those who took the time to create them, a lot of work.

Yea just a bit much on the meats. We tend to cook too much for our events, but we follow 2 simple rules: Never be late and never run out..... Both are bad for future business opportunities.

Based on what you did these are the numbers I would start with, again I usually cook too much.

Ribs 8oz per person raw weight

Chicken Legs 5-6oz per person raw weight

Baked beans 4oz per person

Potato Salad 5oz per person

If you know the age range of the children ahead of time, I try to use this as a guide. Yes I know all the children are a full person, but they don't eat the same.

2-4 = .25 person

5-9 = .5 person

10-13 = .75 person

14+ = 1 person

Things with kids that will throw a wrench into the factor is more on the older kids. Athletics?? Are you cooking for a dance troop (use guide) or are you cooking for the Middle School football team (count as adults and then pad)

The variables are endless to what can effect the success. Only time, experience and information gathering will make it easier. Every event is it's own animal!


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