To ask for help from parents of teens/tweens (re food)?

[COCKadoodledooo]

Am doing the catering for our youth group (40 kids, 11 - 16) weekend away, and I'd appreciate some comments from you/your kids as to whether they'd actually eat our proposed menu! All I got from the youth club kids are the usual shrugs, non-commital "whatevers", and the "I'm not fussy" which you just know is so untrue

Got most of it sorted (following a formula that's worked well in previous years - this is the first year I've done it though!). Saturday night is proving a bit tricky though. Tradition has it we have a themed supper, and this year it's "Brit Awards" stylee. Was thinking:

Starter: goats cheese/caramelised onion tarts + salad

Main: chicken smothered in pesto, wrapped in bacon and roasted (quorn fillets - obv sans bacon - for the veggies), with roasted veg and roasted new potatoes

Dessert: tiramisu-type thing (using orange juice && bourbon biscuits), or maybe an Eton mess type thing?

Does that sound ok as a sort of 'celebration' menu? And would your kids actually eat it??! Am open to other suggestions if you have any please!

Thanks in advance

i have 3 teens and they would all love that, except the pesto, its one of the few things that dont go down well with mine, mine are all good and varied eaters though

I would say the starter is probably a bit too grown up. Goats cheese is an acquired taste.
All sounds very lovely!

My DCs (5 + 12) would eat that.

They'd prefer the Eton mess for desert, though.

DS wouldn't eat the goats cheese or salad at home but thankfully he's polite enough to eat whatever's put in front of him outside home.

Sounds lovely!

Sounds lovely although I can see issues so far as the fussy eaters are concerned.

But my children would have eaten everything except the goat's cheese tart. They treated all products of the goat with the same enthusiasm as they would an hors d'ouvre of caramelised cold sick.

The only thing my 3 teens might not be too keen on is the starter. Two would give it a try, but the third wouldn't.

Make plenty of the Eton mess.

Cheers folks! Ok, cold sick goats cheese off then - any suggestions?! Maybe melon/ham, or is that too boring?

mine wouldn't eat the goats cheese tarts or anything with pesto

they are 13, 11 , 6 and 3

I tested it out on my boys and my nieces, but they are not normal will eat absolutely anything, so weren't any help really!

they'd eat melon and ham (apart from dd3 who won't eat pigs)

Oh and thanks for the pesto comments - maybe some with, some without? Or a couple of slices of mozzarella?

Wow - what a fantastic menu! Agree that goats cheese would turn off some. My 14 year makes vomiting noises if we even talk about it! She loves pesto but it is again a strong taste. Eton mess would be fab - plus easy to make and it looks fabulous.

Have a wonderful weekend. I have done youth work and I know what hard work it is. Hats of to you for not taking easy options. I wish children would try different things....

Melton would be fine. All mine like pate.

That should be melon of course!

I am guessing mine wouldn't eat the goats cheese, but he's surprised me before :), also I would go for the Eton Mess as the dessert - much more grown up and there's fruit in it

Thank you all

nagy pate good suggestion too, maybe I could have that and melon on the menu.

Punk thanks, but it is all fairly easy stuff really. Am used to catering for the numbers, just not the age group! (I cook every 6 weeks or so for our elderly congregation at church, same numbers, v v v different tastes!!).

Overall I think it looks fantastic. But if you do melon and ham as a starter, what would the vegetarians get instead of ham? It's not easy to think of anything that would go well with the melon. How about crostini? you could do a mix of veggie and meaty ones, so that the the veggies and carnivores are getting something similar.

I would do some kind of mozzarella and pesto bake (maybe with tomatoes/pine-nuts/olives) instead of the quorn fillets. There is nothing even slightly special about quorn fillets, and I don't know any vegetarians (including my children and partner) who like them. Sorry, I realise you are not a vegetarian and are making an effort, but that menu just makes it really obvious that you have dropped a meat substitute into the meat-shaped hole instead of thinking about what would be special for vegetarians.

Oh dear, you've all got very adventurous kids! I've got 3 teenagers and the youngest (who does have some serious issues with food) would only eat the roast potatoes. The eldest would probably eat the main but neither pud. The middle one would eat the main and pud. None of them would eat the starter!!

Jeez, Catwalker!

We had a family round a few weeks ago where the children ate barely anything, even though it was fairly basic (puttanesca spaghetti for main, homemade butternut squash soup for starter, trifle for pud). I could have cried at it all going in the bin.

OP, I think crostini would go down well. I'd do bruschetta, some with chopped tomatoes and basil, and some with pate.

I wouldnt be happy with my kids having a coffee based dessert

Mrs Kravitz, these are teenagers! They spend half their lives in Starbucks and still go through life like stoned up zombie three toed sloths!

What's wrong with a coffee based dessert?

I was brought up on sherry trifle and never did me any harm.

Just something I wouldnt serve to an 11 year old. They can be quite strongly soaked in coffee.

I've done weekend scout/cub camp catering and would never have dreamed of serving anything like that. Also regularly feed 12 to 15 year old boys and in general they are faddier than little one.
I suspect a small minority would eat it but for most it would be too unfamiliar.
No doubt most people on here will say their own DCs would love it. My two would try anything but at a youth club camp which is presumably very active I'd go for simple fillers that the majority will eat.
The aim, I presume, is for them to enjoy the food not to be impressed by it?