Catering for a large group - how much salad (pasta or potato, not green) per person do I calculate?!

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for a full 3-5 course meal never more than 22 ounces per person, but that's even a lot, better safe than sorry though.

Potato salad is not a good idea. I know, everyone likes potato salad. The thing is, they always take much too much potato salad than the will ever finish (especially if its a serve yourself type thing). So at least 30% of the potato salad that is served with be discarded via 'served > not eaten > thrown away'. Now, pasta salad is always a great idea. Now, here's where my brilliance comes in: Buy 30 nice size tomatoes. slice them in thick slices, about 4 slices per tomato and omitting the 2 ends. You will reserve them for something else. Spread the tomato slices out and put one scoop of potato salad on each tomato slice. Sprinkle ever so slightly with paprika. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve everyone. The refrigeration will make the potato salad adhere to the tomato and look beautiful. Now: clean up the end slices of the tomato. dice all into small 'less quarter inch pieces. Mix all into the pasta salad. Some drops of light olive oil to the salad. Sprinkle with dry parsley before serving. Beautiful. It is labor intensive for a lousy 2 hours. Looks like you worked on it all night. Good Luck. You will definitely have enough salads for all. And of course, if you notice that the pasta salad is running out, just keep some extra pasta in hot water. when it starts to get low, add the extra to the serving tray. Mix Mix Mix.

1/2 a cup is a serving of pasta or potato salad. So maybe do 1cup per person to be safe. Hope that helps you figure it out.

1 cup/person is the best bet.