Ever been to an under catered party?

[Crunchymum]

Just back home from a party with a generous doggy bag and I remarked how I'd never been to an under catered party as the host was divvying up the leftovers. Cue lots of stories of horrifically under catered parties and weddings?

Other than a few occasions where I've known there won't be food, I've never experienced it? I've never had to share a burger at a BBQ or nip out for a super market sandwich at a wedding.

Is it really that common? What's the worst under catered event you've been to?

I always over cater, but I tend to bring it out in rounds as food mountains can be intimidating. Also, to the people saying over catering results in food being thrown out/wasted, just have the leftovers later on or freeze them.

I'm going to a wedding in a few weeks involving an overnight stay.
I'm now concerned I'm going to need to find the nearest take away before I go

On the other hand, overcatering really can be a real waste. I once worked at a massive, very posh, and very expensive function. Huge three course meal, loads of booze, etc. Huge platters of cheese and biscuits were served after dinner. They were barely touched. The chefs were just pouring the platters into the bin. We begged to take it home with us (I love cheese) but due to health and safety they had to chuck it. Such a waste!

We don't have a freezer so I forget people have that habit of freezing stuff to eat later. But do they.... My experience when I lived with housemates' freezer was: people freeze stuff, forget about it, food gets freezer burn, gets thrown out.

Plus we were catering at my mom's house. I guess she might have found the frozen food months later but being alcoholic, she wouldn't have remembered what it was & would have forgotten about it like most food in freezers gets forgotten about.

I get so :( seeing bin bags of food thrown out all the time after catered events. Happens all the time. I'm always trying to bring back armfulls of stuff, as much as I can carry. Neah, I'm still fine that we under-catered. It wasn't deliberate, but nobody was harmed, either. We weren't even supposed to be cooking that day and were fairly clueless trying to figure out a menu... IIRC we had about 2 hours notice and didn't have any idea how much the others usually ate.

thenewaveragebear1983 Curly, former, fishes - it was a three year olds birthday party!!! There was plenty of good, home prepared food, chicken legs, cheese and biscuits, vegetarian dish for the one vege guest, baked glazed gammon and crusty rolls, salad, Homemade puddings. Birthday cake. Wine, beer.

Now if you'd actually said you had had THIS amount then there would not have been any misunderstanding.... but you didn't mention some of it

My wedding. My husband and I were aware of 150 night guests. We ordered for 200. My in-laws (we got married in his country) invited loads of extras and in the end about a third didn't get food including us.

Dh's grandparents, every Christmas manage to drastically under cater. One small jug of gravy between 18 people. A few roast potatoes etc, the only thing there is ever an excess of is peas.
I've offered to bring extras, they aren't young and it really isn't fair that they host everyone, but they absolutely insist.

ShirleyPhallus - l know, I'm cocked up the copy and paste

A relative made a wedding cake a few years ago (to be served as pudding / dessert at the reception) that was truly awful. She'd used a gluten free recipe for no discernible reason and put beetroot in it from her allotment, without checking with the 'happy couple' that this would be ok with them.

They thought they were getting a regular chocolate fudge cake with fudge filling etc. And yes, they'd paid for the all ingredients for their chocolate dream mountain, not for some shrivelled grated root vegetables encased in a burnt almond loam. It was as if the ghost of Mrs Letitia Cropley moved among us that day.

A few of us made a valiant attempt to eat it and smile. No-one took any home. The remaining 90% of it was up on Facebook for free for days, but there were no takers.

The 'happy couple' were very stoic about it. (It was the groom's nan.)

Anyway, there was no pudding at the wedding.

Those talking about greedy people at buffets I think have an unrealistic idea of how much many people eat. If a buffet is instead of a main meal, then a few small sandwiches, a sausage roll and small slice of quiche is not enough.

I under catered at a birthday party. Made curry and baked potatoes, and thought I had made plenty. But people turned up at 10pm still expecting to eat a full meal. And there was very little left.

My sister's otherwise amazing wedding was hilariously under catered.

She's in the music industry and it was at a castle with about 300 guests. She thought it would be nice to give the catering to some friends who had just started their own catering business. Well, the food ran out after an hour and only a third of the guests got to eat anything.

Most of the guests didn't seem to care as they were there for 'other substances' but my parents' generation had a miserable time and still talk about it now 😬

On the other hand, I went to a wedding, when I had been told that there wouldn't be much food 'as we are tight fisted' so you should eat beforehand. So I had snacks beforehand. There were stacks of food, and piles of thick ham. Over catered. Still puzzled about that one.

BBQ with one burger each. I feel mean saying that because they were excellent burgers...no other option for my kids who don’t eat red meat, and wasn’t asked. It was in Oz and my kids came with their swimming gear because they had a pool. They’d not treated it though so we couldn’t swim (it was green).

When I host a BBQ there’s everything ..,,prawns, veg kebabs, lamb, chicken and beef plus sausages so everyone’s happy.

Another bbq I called ahead and asked the hosts (family of six so imagine the adults have a good idea of what people eat) what they’d like me to bring. They said booze and dessert, they’d do all the food. Arrived and they cremated frozen Tesco burgers, the 99p for 8 type. That was it. BBQ was in flames. The kids’ Gran stays round the corner, i phoned her and took the kids round for her to feed them. There was about 50 people at least at that party...everyone brought a dessert and booze and no-one ate the set alight and stamped out burgers.

Also some food will always be wasted. People choose something from the buffet and then don't like it, so obviously don't finish eating it.

Two things catered by the same family who are notoriously tight despite being wealthy. One a funeral where i had some water and a cube of cheese, the other a wedding where a had some water and an asparagus spear. McDonalds on way home for both.

Like some PP, I don't care for a buffet at a wedding. It can become, especially after the cocktail hour, a Darwinian exercise in survival of the fittest.

At my reception we had a served dinner with soup and salad course and choice of mains and veg. Pudding was self serve, with an ice cream sundae bar and a sweets table, but at desert demand naturally spaces out over time so you don't get the long queues.

Went to a birthday party once where there was no food put on at all. We all stood there waiting and it just never happened. Not even a bowl of crisps.

It's the trend now to have hot pork rolls or bacon and sausage sandwiches at wedding receptions so being vegetarian I tend to eat before I go. I think I have been to three in the last couple of years where I've asked if there's a veggie option and have been told no. Also have a friend who is coeliac and we often sit looking forlorn and hungry. I only had a small cheap wedding but I made sure people could ask for a veggie or GF option if needed.

Not finished reading yet but posting this while I can....

My sisters wedding evening buffet was woefully undercatered and the wedding in the next function room was massively over catered.....think you can work out how that happened. Although there were still some greedy bastards who had seconds despite it being blindingly obvious there wasnt enough for everyone to have firsts.

My favourite one though is a wedding my parents attended. The couple became known for being utterly hopeless. They werent stingy, just useless and disorganised. Lets say their name was Smithers, throwing a party/having a baby/moving house with no planning whatsoever became known as "Doing a Smither"

The wedding was in the 70's and the couples families didnt have much money so lots of people offered to bring food for the receptiion. My mum was asked to bring a trifle. So up they rock at the reception and there were about 20 trifles, Mrs Smithers had said the same thing to everyone! There wasnt a drop to drink in the place (village hall), not even soft drinks or tea. In the end my mum and dad and their best friend couple dropped a weeks housekeeping each (A LOT of money) on booze and the makings for sandwiches, which ma and the other wife dutifully made. Not a word of thanks, never an offer to pay them back. THey just assumed it would be ok, because it always was as some poor sap (usually my dad and his best friend) would bail them out.

The killer was that as they were clearing up, B&G hadnt organised that either, my mum had to stop a woman walking off with the trifle mum had made. "Oh I really wanted this and as no one else had had it......" mum offered to put it in a tupperware for her "Oh no, I hate trifle, I wanted the bowl" :o

Several years of this kind of thing happened, my favourite being Mrs Smithers putting a bowl of washing up (WITH WATER!) and a basket of wet washing in the moving van.......

People are disgusting at buffets, though.

As a teen I used to work for a company that did wedding buffets. Posh affairs where people had huge marquees put up in their massive gardens.

Left to themselves guests would make a huge mound on their plates, dolloping coronation chicken on top of smoked salmon on top of several slices of rare beef and crushing vol au vents on top to stop them falling off. It can’t have been nice to eat, all mashed together.

The company used to persuade the hosts that paying a few people to serve the buffet was a much better bet. People still got loads of food, there was always enough for seconds, or more, but it stopped those at the front totally destroying the buffet and greedily wasting half of it.

Those talking about greedy people at buffets I think have an unrealistic idea of how much many people eat

The issue with greedy people at buffets isnt what they eat, but what they take. Ime (worked in hospitality for donkeys years) there are 3 types of people at parties.

The ones who take a smallish portion, leaving enough for others and thinking they can go back in half an hour or so if there is anything left. They are the smallest percentage about 4%

Then you have the ones (like me) who dont touch buffet food either through food issues, hygiene issues (Can you be sure that the bloke who is grabbing a handful of crisps washed his hand when he went to the loo?!) or has been burned before so ate before they came out. 16%

Then you have the by far largest group who take loads and leave loads. They have eyes bigger than their belly and dont care that they will be chucking away enough food to feed another person. This is 80% of guests at any given function.

And if you dont believe me, look at how people behave when the words "Free Bar" are bandied about.

Cash bar....people get pissed within their budget and go home. You get the odd arsehole but nothing too serious.

Free bar.....people getting absolutely fucking hammered on spirits. They dont need it, they dont really want it, but Fuck It, IT'S FREE!!!! Just this Saturday we went through 3 x 1.5's of vodka because the birthday girls dad said he was standing all the drinks. At a normal 40th we would go through 1 bottle at the most

To the pp who say they catered for enough people but the food ran out. You forgot one thing, loads of people turn into greedy pigs at a buffet. Dash to be first in the queue and pile their plates high not giving a care about anyone else eating.

Had this at a buffet in the summer. Loads of people piled into the queue, myself and a few others politely waited until the queue went down. Arrived to find 10 fruit tartlets left. Had to wait 15 minutes but luckily there was more food.

I think people underestimate how much other people can eat and also how much people look forward to food at parties.

I remember before my dad's funeral a relative saying 'oh people won't eat much' I knew that would not be the case...people love food!

I do think a served buffet is OK. I went to a Charity Ball last year and all the food was served and it was really delicious. But yes, people are disgusting pigs helping themselves.