What are the proper guest to food ratios for surprise party?!
What are the proper guest to food ratios for surprise party?
I'm throwing a surprise party in June and i'm not sure what kind of food to guest ratio I should have??? There will be between 25-35 people there....Any ideas? We are doing a lot of finger foods (tapas...a.k.a appetizers) veggie platters, cheese crackers etc. HELP
Answers:
Go to the deli of a grocery store and ask them which platter serves how many people, or ask if they have a catalog that lists that. Use that as a guideline. If they say the 12" veggie tray serves 15-20 people, take a look at the size of the tray and figure you'll need 2 of those for your party -- even if you're preparing your own. For chicken fingers or wings, figure 2-3 pieces per person. That goes for those small slices of wrapped sandwiches, too. Those are easy enough to make.
Figure all this out and then add 10% to 15%. Extra food is better than not enough. If there are tons of leftovers, take them to a local homeless shelter afterwards or arrange to share them at your church after services on Sunday.
Calculate at least 3 pieces of each finger food item for each person.
A large vegetable platter should be fine...as should a large platter of cheese and crackers.
Always have something on backup in case you run out of food. I usually make fruit salad and keep it in the fridge just in case.
It depends what time of the day it is. if it is from 6pm-8pm (start time) then they would not have had dinner so you should be looking at approx 7 different dishes, but people will probably be having around 11-16 pieces each (should equal around 7 dishes). Also serve drinks as this will also fill them up. If it for lunch around the same amount.
As a general rule with finger foods and so forth you can figure 4 to 6oz per person.