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

Most of them down cola at any given opportunity, too. Banning 11 yos from a small amount of coffee is a bit imo.

I supoose you could use decaff though, OP.

mumblechum1 my ds eats all sorts of things, but wouldn't have liked the puttanesca (hates chilli) or the soup (loathes squash). He'd have eaten some to be polite and claimed then claimed not to be hungry. He would have demolished the trifle however

Oops meant to say that ds would love your menu, OP.

I've done a few cub camps. We didn't have anyway of roasting . All cooking was done on gas rings or on a BBQ therefore had to be basic. If OP has the use of ovens I can't see what's wrong with roast veg etc.

My three are like Jack Spratt and his wife. DS cant eat cheese, DD1 loves chees but turns green at cooked fruit of any sort, DD2 - no cooked fruit, no sausages but at a restaurant will always choose from the weird end of the menu.

My suggestion would be to keep it simple:

• melon & ham (how about grilled haloumi instead of ham as veg option?)
• chicken wrapped in bacon but no pesto, do some without bacon. I wouldnt necessarily bother with quorn as it isnt always popular. Many vegetarians will be happy simply with veg and potatoes (not roasted in lard of course!)
• Eton mess for pudding but also offer a non-dairy option (brownie or something similar?)

Make sure there is lots (and lots) of bread. My DS can eat his own body weight in bread.

I'd still rather take the chance that the occasional fussy boy would turn his nose up at the suggested options than I would serve crap, predictable food. Only that way you compound any culinary xenophobia, imho.

All of it and all the suggestions sound fab! My hideous and evil slightly fussy spoilt brat dd would eat roast potatoes, salad and Eton mess out of all of it. Ifyou want an easy life, do the predictable.

But Pandemoniaa this isnt about a chef showing off their culinary skills this is making sure that 40 kids have a nice dinner which they enjoy. It is supposed to be a nice meal not torture!

I would keep the food simple in the sense of not mixing things up too much. This allows the kids to pick out what they like/can eat from a plate of food. This is important as there are bound to be a few people with food intolerances or allergies.

Mine (13 & 15) eat practically anything but I would not be sure about the goats cheese. Also DS has nut allergy so the pesto sauce maybe a problem depending on what the ingredients are.

Mine would enjoy everything but the pesto. If the chicken was "smothered" in pesto then they would not eat the chicken.
I am all for introducing my own children to a full and varied diet but many parents do not and if I am catering for a group of teens I will play it safe.
Agree about the bread. There will be a child who likes nothing on that menu but they will eat bread.

Agree, GnomeDePlumes but sometimes it doesn't hurt to be a little more adventurous or for children to enjoy the chance to eat food that's rather more interesting than the sort of chicken nuggets/chips/pizza option that can be the default mode for feeding young people. Only while I'd never suggest my dcs were a model of culinary sophistication, they truly hated crap food and I'm sure they aren't alone.

I also think your suggested alternatives would make for an ideal menu.

At 11, most of that menu would have been totally new to me. It just isn't the kind of thing we ate at home.

I don't think there's any harm in serving up something they might not eat, but it is a good idea to make it 'pickable' so that it is easy for real fusspots to just extract the bits they don't like.

I would pick eton mess for pud.

The Quorn was what the group leader told me to do. Goes against every fibre of my being tbh, because yep, it does seem bloody lazy and that I don't give a crap about the vegetarians. Which isn't true.

We're not camping - we have a fully equipped kitchen which is the size of my house so anything's possible. I'm not doing any of it to be showy-off chef-y, and yep I do just want to make sure they all eat something. But I want it to be 'nice' and in-keeping with the theme too. And as I said before my kids are clearly atypical when it comes to food!

Thanks all for your input

DD3 would eat the eton mess but not the other dessert she also doesn't like pesto, But I'm sure she have a taste of eberything else

i think that your menu sounds lovely, but very grown up.

i agree about the goats cheese...change it!

pate and french stick or melon/ham for starters.

chicken wrapped in cheese and bacon for main, with pesto available on the side

eton mess for afters, or brownie and ice cream would be good too.

do you know how many veggies you have in your group? if its a few, you could make something in its own right as a veggie main, rather than a meat sub as another poster said.

have a great time, and good on you for doing it

Hey OP I think you've got away very lightly here! apart from MrsKravitz's grasping at straws to find a health objection rejection of tiramisu

(FFS Mrs Kravitz btw )

It sounds lovely but my two (11 and 8) wouldn't eat goat's cheese. Other than that they would love it all.

Hope it goes well :o

I agree that the starter sounds a bit grown up.

You could do the chicken in cheese and bacon as has been said and put the pesto on the side.

What about a ginger and orange layer? Dead easy - gingernuts, dip in orange juice, layer, layer of tinned mandarins, layer of cream, layer of dipped ginger nuts, layer mandarins, layer cream etc?

My daughters (13 and 16, reasonably sophisticated eaters) would love the Eton mess, cope with the other pudding, love the chicken with pesto or without, and refuse the goat's cheese.
Good luck!

garlic bread x100 for starters- keep a few back sans garlic with some cheese to stick on for those who genuinely dont like garlic.( do not give them the option at the start, just keep an eye out and offer it to those who do not eat!)

Pandemoniaa - I certainly do agree about not offering chicken nuggets!

At 11-16 I think that young people can actually surpise themselves by what they will eat, wanting to look sophisticated in front of their peers.

OP will you be able to make the table settings fairly formal? It sounds like you are planning to offer a lovely meal. A bit of the old multiple cutlery, stemmed glasses could really add to the glamour of the event. Most of the supermarkets do a glass loan service if you dont have them in the kitchen.

Well I have very fussy kids and they wouldn't eat any of that, could you have a plain option available eg
starter - roll and butter
Main - plain chicken with plain pasta
Dessert - Chocolate cake

Zuke - eton mess:

whipped cream, broken up meringue, strawberries

all mushed up together - deliciously simple

Mine would only eat the roast new pots from that menu as lovely as it sounds. At recent camps mine have had pasta with a choice of sauces, jacket potatoes with a choice of fillings and baguettes with cheese and ham and its all been eaten.

The point is, it's supposed to be a posh / awards night theme. Not a cheese and ham baguette night

and wheredidyoulastseeit - really? A roll and butter for starters? You wouldn't expect a teenager to eat melon and ham. They are not toddlers!