---

A step by step guide in cooking for a large number of people during special occasions or gatherings.

During special occasion or gatherings, a large number of people is expected. It could be a birthday celebration, anniversary, group gathering to celebrate something special or simply a get together for families, friends or groups. Needless to say, food and beverage is a must on these occasions, and someone should be responsible preparing for it.  Often times,  it is more costly getting a food catering service, so an alternative plan would be to host the party at home with self-prepared food  or find a suitable self-catering venue (buffet style). Here’s some guide to get it started.

Identify the crowd

This is to simply determine what the occasion is.  Accordingly, the crowd can be determined (whether serving for all adults, children or combination of both), then it’s easy to plan the recipe and shop for ingredients depending on the budget -or- this is a way to know how much budget and effort is required.

Meal Planning

The quantity of the main course mainly depends on the number of guests. The starter can be one or two as well as the dessert.  Consider also buying some ready-meals from restaurants, supermarket or bake shops and it will surely save time and money.  If preferred to cook-it-all, then get ready for “a night or a day before” preparation.  Mostly, desserts can be done a night before the celebration.

List down the ingredients

Once the menu is decided, list all the ingredients down. The easiest way to determine what to buy and their quantities and to avoid OVER BUYING them is to start listing the ingredients as per the menu separating the vegetable and wet market items (meat, vegetables, etc.) from the dry (grocery) items.  Salt, pepper and cooking oil  should be given at all times, a pack or two of these can be bought and is totally fine if not all consumed for the occasion (as these can be used for daily cooking at home).  List the ingredients one by one by thinking the step by step procedure of how it’s being cooked, this way you will avoid missing an item.  An example is  given below.

Menu item: 1 kg Spaghetti

1. Vegetable & Wet Market Items:

• 1 clove garlic
• 2 pcs onion
• 3/4 kg minced beef
• 1 big red bell pepper
• 1/2 kg hotdog or sausage

2. Grocery items:

• 1 kg & 500 g pack of spaghetti sauce
• canned sliced mushroom
• cheddar cheese
• 1 kg pasta

Do the same for the rest of the menu and once done listing all the ingredients, combine all the wet and all the dry items, sum up the quantity of the same ingredients (for example; Spaghetti – 1 clove garlic, chicken curry – 1 clove garlic = total 2 cloves garlic).  Organize the list, then decide when to start buying them.

Buying the ingredients and preparation

Grocery items including canned goods, condiments, spices, disposable plates, cutlery, and some accessories can be bought a week or even a month or longer before the event (depends on the expiry date) as these items can be stored at room temperature and doesn’t require refrigeration. If cooking for a crowd, buying these items a day or two before cooking is not ideal as sometimes, you may not find some items on your list available around.

Meats– buy this item one or two nights before cooking to allow enough preparation.  Clean, cut (can also be seasoned) as per the recipe and store them in separate plastics before placing in a freezer.  Some of them depending on the recipe can be marinated overnight especially barbeque items, this way, freezing is not required – but refrigeration is still a must.  Marinating them with minced garlic, lemon, salt, and pepper, soy sauce (optional) is the best thing to do as it gives tastier flavour even if the recipe is for deep frying.  Seafood items should be bought and prepared the night or in the morning before the cooking time.  Seasoning them with salt and pepper and/or lemon can preserve them while waiting to dive in the casserole.  If it’s an overnight standby, freezing is a must then allow some time for thawing before cooking.

For dim sums and recipes of the same kind, prepare them a night before by mixing the ingredients together, wrap if required and store them in the freezer.

Cutting preparations – here are some which can be done a night in advance.  Once done, make sure to put them separately on any sealed plastic bags and it will be a breeze to just simply pour them while cooking.  Refrigerate once prepared.  About 1/2 kg bag of garlic can be used for about 5 – 6 dishes.

• garlic – peel and chop
• onion – peel, cut into halves (this can avoid teary eyes when cutting without losing all the spice)
• ginger – peel
• some vegetables – wash, peel.

As long as the color of the vegetables will not change once peeled, that should be fine.

Do not cut the items which can easily loose its aroma and spice like onion, ginger, celery, bell pepper etc.  Cutting them should be done on cooking time or  before adding them to the dish.   Apart from the given above, try to see if there are some other ingredients which can be prepared.  Please be reminded that although preparation can save time, it is still best to prepare these items on the day of cooking (if time and manpower are enough) in order to guarantee that the dishes are going to have the full freshness of the ingredients.

Of course, desserts can be prepared a night  before the celebration as long as they are immediately kept in the fridge once made.  Salad should be made just a few hours before eating time because a perfect salad relies on the crunchiness and freshness of its full ingredients.

Cooking Time

Remember that cooking is still a preparation stage.  Be prepared – thaw items from the freezer, slice the remaining ingredients, peel, boil and set them all aside.  Depending on how many dishes, the goal is for people to eat hot dish as hot and cold items should be cold.  It is not necessary to be at a certain temperature, an acceptable temperature should be enough.  In this manner, it is good to use food warmers and bowls with ice to keep the desired temperature.

Start cooking a dish that is fine if prepared early and to be reheated later like pasta (80% cooked), sauces and alike.  Meat can be sauteed, seasoned and bring to boil until cooked to desired tenderness, do not overcook the vegetable, add the garnish upon serving.  If there are plenty of vegetables on the recipe,  it will be better to cook them separately (blanch, saute, steam or fry ) then set aside and as mentioned, just garnish or incorporate them into the dish before serving.  A good example is stir-fried noodles where vegetable should be crunchy with bright colour.  Do the same with recipes including potato, carrot, and others.  Fried menu items to be the last and be cooked at least one hour or less, allow it to cool enough before serving. Take note that fried items doesn’t taste nice if reheated again in oil, so make sure it is done only once, then serve.

All menu items should be served on the food table in a buffet style. Again, hot dish on food warmers, cold foods on top of a bowl of ice or whichever way to maintain the temperatures.  For beverages, have the pitcher or juice dispenser ready then put ice cubes and pour the prepared mixed drinks or soda before eating starts. Alternatively, canned or packed drinks on top of ice.  If the crowd is a combination of adult and children, it is good to have a separate food table for children’s meal. Or, If there are more than 50 eaters, the same idea of having two separate tables is recommended.  In this case, same items should be found on the same table. The goal is to prevent eaters to get loaded on one table getting the same food items and so everyone can enjoy the food while it is warm/cold.

Some points that may also help

• Remember to serve the meal from light to heavy, savoury to sweet. This is the reason why fruit should not be served as an appetizer because sweet foods can dull the appetite.
• Hot dish especially soup, to begin with, can stimulate the appetite so this is usually eaten first.
• Do not repeat the same type of ingredients especially for the main course.  If tomato sauce as the main ingredient is used for the chicken, try not to use it for another menu served at the table.
• Use different types of meat and seafood and avoid not to cook/repeat any on a majority.
• Do not overcook vegetables; crunchy and colorful vegetables are appealing to the tongue and eyes.
• If serving rice, pasta or other bland dishes, make sure to include other items like meat that are strongly flavoured or well- seasoned vegetables.
• Dessert as always, being eaten at last is being served to cover the savoury, sour and strong tastes of the main course.  For some, the dessert should be the most luscious item as this is the last food that will be consumed and will be remembered the most.

Do you know?

In theory during the time that sugar was first became popular in Europe, it was so expensive that only rich people could afford it and so desserts are served in small amount at the end of the meal.