Help me plan party food!

[MyPuppyLulu]

I'm just starting planning my birthday party this summer.
Hopefully, weather permitting, we'll be in the garden, but inside if not.
Still waiting for RSVPs so not sure of exact numbers yet, but I'd hazard a guess it will probably be around the 50 mark.
Vast majority will be omnivores, some veggies and just a few vegans.
I have one GF person, but she'll mostly just eat off the main omnivore table, with just a couple of alternatives.
I'm intending to put veggie/vegan food separate to the omnivore table so there's a protected amount of the food that's suitable for them.
List is pretty basic for now - once I know numbers I'll scale up as needed - so for example where it says "salad", it won't just be one basic salad - likely to be say chicken caeser, greek, green, tomato and onion for the omnis, greek, green and tomato and onion for the veggies, green and tomato and onion for the vegans for example (exact salads to be chosen at a later date). Likewise "bread" will be a selection of baps/flatbreads/baguette etc not just a loaf of sliced white!

Any thoughts? I want to make it easy for myself - quiches and tarts I'll make the day before or on the morning, pulled pork/jackfruit in the slow cooker, rotisserie chickens on the bbq. Most other things are really just a case of buying, prepping and putting out.

Anything I've forgotten? Is it too boring?

Have you catered for this many before? Your list looks good but it seems like an incredible task to get all that prepared for 50. Even just a few simple salads is a hell of a lot of chopping in those quantities.

And these better be mumsnet chickens if you're making 4 chickens feed 50 people I'd definitely up that number!

Do you have enough fridges to keep it all cold - its a hell of a lot of food when you are feeding 50. Then you need to chill drinks, alcohol and soft.

Will the omnivore table have a good selection of veggie food ? things that are on the veggie vegan table should be available on the omnivore table also

Id almost try to slim it down - less hassle

I now see the image - ignore first question!

Yes, I have experience of catering for that many! But I've not really done it since pre-Covid on a big scale, and the number of different dietary requirements has definitely gone up since then. In general I tend to be an over-caterer, and this is my simplified/slimmed down version. I have the day off work before hand, plus the morning of the party, so not really worried about making salads or the quiches/tarts etc. I'll almost certainly buy ready made pastry, and generally make it as easy as possible for myself. Most things can be prepped or cooked in advance, it'll only really be salad chopping and laying things out that will be needing to be done on the day. Chickens will look after themselves on the BBQ, pulled pork/jackfruit will do it's thing in the slow cookers, salad potatoes will need cooking /dressing, but that's not a big deal. DH is a pretty good helper too when I need an extra pair of hands, and I have a couple of teenagers who could be roped in if necessary:)

Re the 4 chickens feeding 50 - well it'll likely be more like 35 meat eaters. With pulled pork, quiches, tarts etc too, I'm assuming not everyone will want chicken, most certainly not a full portion. I can only fit 4 on the rotisserie on the BBQ! I could do an extra couple in the air fryer I guess or even the oven? If I do that, it'll be serving approx 6 per large chicken, which surely works out as a roast dinner sized portion, rather than a hot buffet sized portion? I guess I'm worried about food waste, as on a hot day any chicken not eaten would have to be binned.

Storage wise, I have a huge full height fridge and a huge full height freezer, plus a wine fridge, plus a massive cooler box (10+ bags of ice needed to use it!), so I think we'll be fine. Alcoholic drinks will be in the cooler box (along with ice lollies etc if its hot), 2 big glass decanter things full of ice and nice squash as well for non-drinkers. The wine fridge will be repurposed for salads etc if we run out of space in the main fridge.

Bought puff pastry with Richmond Vegetarian sausages in are great, I add a little mustard or chutney to some for sausage rolls, can then cut to size as suits.

A bean salad with vinaigrette will go well for vegans (and everybody else!) I always make one for parties.

You could do the salad potatoes dressed two ways, two dishes, minimal extra effort, one with a mustardy vinaigrette and one with chives and sour cream/mayo.

Jarred artichokes and peppers are really tasty, but zero effort to serve. Would be nice with the olives.

Why not have a few back up extras, shelf stable like good quality breadsticks, or extra crisps in case of gaps on the table.

Well, I've just discovered that Jus-Roll puff pastry is vegan! So I'll probably do puff pastry "tart" for the vegans too, possibly with vegan pesto. Or of course pasta/pesto/tomato salad.

And I do like the idea of sausage rolls with vegan/veggie sausages.

Perhaps order rotisserie chicken from your supermarket or butcher? (I am in Aus).

Seconding the call for inspection of fridge space for food. That needs to come first. All else falls in after that.

All sounds lovely!

I've taken to boiling the salad potatoes and then crushing them with the back of a fork onto a baking tray, add a drizzle of oil, season and add chopped herbs (rosemary works well) and bake for 20 minutes. Delicious! Thought I'd share my idea.

Sounds fabulous. I do love a good list and plan.

You have probably already hot this covered, but for me, catering at scale, the most helpful thing is to have at least one person available to 'bus' the food, keep it tidy and replenish as you go along. Also to clear away any soils snd old plates, glasses to stop the area looking a bit tired.

A really trusted friend who is prepared to give up the party or, ideally, someone paid to do exactly this.

Your plans to cater sound wonderful, I hope you have sufficing support so that you can enjoy the party, too. It is, after all, to celebrate you.

Happy Birthday.

You have quite a lot of overlap, especially between the omnivore and vegetarian table, and quite a lot of the omnivore food is vegetarian, obviously.

I'd make the main table all vegetarian with free access and enough food for everyone, with the specifically vegan options like pulled jackfruit, vegan pizza and vegan cake labelled, or separated so the vegans know which this is, but can also take olives, falafels, hummus, bread, salad etc from the main table. Maybe have 2 different coloured serving plates to show which is vegan/vegetarian to avoid confusion about mayo, butter etc.

Then I'd do a separate table with the meat platter, chickens and pulled pork, so all the meat is away from the main table and it's obvious what has meat in it. I wouldn't bother doing separate quiches and tarts I'd just do one vegan one and a couple of vegetarian ones.

The vast, vast majority of the guests will be omnivores, and would prefer meat, fish and dairy in their foods such as quiches, tarts, even some salads etc. So the main table will cater to majority, although of course there will some overlap with bread, olives, salads etc.

To simplify, I could, of course, just have an omnivore table and a vegan table, but I get the impression that vegetarians don't like that (although of course they'd be welcome to help themselves to cheese etc from the main table).

Much as I'm very happy to accommodate everyone's food preferences, I wouldn't want the preference of the minority to dominate the food choices to the detriment of the majority.

I've updated my list - anyone have any further comments? I think I need an extra salad for the vegan table - something grainy or pulse based - would welcome any suggestions.

Oh my @MyPuppyLulu it sounds incredible! Maybe a Tabbouleh style salad for the vegans? I always put chickpeas in mine too which makes it lovely and filling.