Party catering for 20-30

[MakkaPakkas]

Any ideas? Its a golden wedding anniversary and will be an afternoon event.
My first thought is to get someone else to do it, so if you know of any good caterers in the York area any reccos would be great. Otherwise - have you catered something like this & how did you do it?

Can't offer much help, but if you do it yourself the four questions to answer to start figuring out what to prepare would be:

1. is it a full meal, or canapés/snacky bits?


2. will people be seated at tables or standing?


3. how varied, and how serious, are the dietary requirements of guests?


4. what sort of facilities will you have to heat food?

For an afternoon event I'd probably do an afternoon tea, so sandwiches, cakes, scones.

I guess it depends on the venue to some extent but also time and budget. An afternoon even lends itself to a cold buffet which for 20-30 people is manageable, providing you have sufficient space to prep and store food. I guess the half way house is a mixture of homemade and shop bought.
In the savoury line I'd stick to fairly traditional finger food. Filled finger sandwiches or small rolls, wraps if you like them, bite size quiches or small slices of fritata, cheese straws, sausage rolls, crisps etc. The only problem with that is it can get quite beige.

A cold fork buffet is easier to make prettier as much easier to serve salads etc. Things like cold meat, green salad, sliced baguette, roasted veg cous cous salad, tomato, basil and mozzarella salad, homemade coleslaw, falafel, sliced scotch egg, pickles, chutneys etc.

If you were going along the afternoon tea route, which I think would be well received by Golden Wedding guests, you could consider platters of sandwiches, savoury items and small cakes from the likes of Ocado, Marks and Spencer or CostCo.
What is the venue?

I'd provide all cold food for that time of day, which would simplify catering.

Slow cooker with a chilli in and a rice cooker with rice in. Stays hot for 5 hrs plus some cakes for a desert

Hmm thanks, I think if I can't find a caterer I'll do all cold stuff I can prepare in advance. The venue is my house & garden.

For that sort of event I’d do afternoon tea - easy and would be well received I think. You could make sandwich fillings/bake cakes the night before.

I would consider an afternoon for that many people relatively easy to cater for myself, and would probably mostly do shop bought items.

Savoury:
Pork pies (bought)
Quiches - mini or full size and sliced (bought)
Sausage rolls (NICE ones, not the cheapo ones) bought
Really good cheese board, including some pickles/chutneys, fresh fruit and a selection of crackers and breads
Possibly a few sandwiches - home made or shop bought.

Interspersed with breadsticks/cheese straws, a few crisps etc.

Then I'd do homemade scones with jam and cream (scones cooked in the oven in large batches but the dough made earlier) and then slices of tart or cake, probably bought - eg a few lemon tarts and chocolate tarts.

Bake a large ham day before. Good German style potato salad, make day before, nice breads, cheese board, interesting coleslaw, pickles, chutneys, poached or roasted side of salmon, perhaps puy lentil salad or cous-cous and roasted vegetable salad, make day ahead.
Tray of gooey brownies and good vanilla ice cream.

Where did they go on honey moon? Eg if Spain then do Spanish tapas, or tacos for Mexico etc.

if it’s at your house then I will assume you don’t have proper sit down seating at a dining table for that many so I would go with finger food that people can eat standing up/on laps etc.
afternoon tea would be the easiest or an large cheese board and then a cake.

dependingnon how adventurous eaters everyone is you could do some sort of street food - make your own burrito bowls etc or homemade kebabs in pitta breads.

if going to be nice weather you could do a bbq - some meat and corn on the cobs with a couple of different salads.

You don’t say when this is happening. I know you say Yorkshire but do be aware of keeping things appropriately cold if catering yourself, particularly if this is high summer.

Whilst I agree that afternoon tea would fit the bill perfectly, it would be quite time consuming to prepare for 20-30 people, unless you bought most things ready made.

A fork buffet with a couple of mains and a selection of salads would actually take less time.
My favourite dishes for this sort of events:
Baked sides of salmon
Coronation chicken or tarragon chicken and grape salad (I use skinless boneless chicken thighs, ans poach them rather than bake to keep them moist).
Rice salad, pasta salad, new potatoes (or potato saad if i've not used mayo in the others)
Either slices of baked ham if everyone can be seated, else cubed ham, sweetcorn and red pepper in a honey & mustard dressing
Massive mixed salad
Ratatouille (this is good as a main for vegetarians & vegans)
Roast butternut squash and chickpea salad (also more of a main for non-meat eaters).

Desserts:
I love making desserts so usually make a selection, but one time we were having a big barbecue when we were just back from holiday so I just did a massive bowl of mixed soft fruit (blueberries, raspberries, chopped strawberries and nectarines) served with ice cream and bowls of crumbled shop bought meringue nest.
If you are having a Golden Wedding cake (that was sponge rather than a fruit cake), you could serve with aforementioned fruits and jugs of cream.
Cheese & biscuits

I'm not a professional cook but have catered for enough large family events over the years (up to a hundred on a couple of occasions) to know now to keep things simple, don't do too many dishes, focus on doing a few that go together and doing them well.

Anybody tried Sainsburys sandwich platters for parties? And they do sushi too. You have to collect from the shop. This may be the way to go for me. Im hosting a similar party for 35 people in June, and all the caterers I have tried are already booked up.

Ooh if you want to get outside caterers in, look at Nomad Catering in Harrogate. Their food is AMAZING! 😋

No but the M&S ones are amazing.

We have used Sainsbury platters. They were very good.