Need to feed 22 people in air bnb for 12 meals

[bessaas]

Need to feed 22 people including 2 kids for summer.

We're having family stay in the UK for 4 days this summer. Everyone is coming in from abroad from really expensive places- Australia, USA, China, except my partner and I- for us its 2 hour drive.

I have rented an Airbnb which we are all splitting the cost of. Everyone is paying for their own flights.

We are however paying for all food as our contribution. Everyone is paying at least a grand for their flights.

We completely underestimated the cost of food. Professional caterers for four meals for four days have quoted £8k. We were originally thinking £1500 as a budget and feel we may have messed up.

The air bnb is 5 self catering cottages all grouped with separate kitchens.

Were thinking one professional meal catered. Three course. For that it will be £900. It was £850 for buffet so we thought may as well go sit down three course.

We are needing 4 breakfasts, 4 lunches, and 4 dinners total. Others can help cook but we are footing the bill. We invited everyone so it makes sense.

without giving away what were doing we will be onsite the whole time but not have a load of time to cook. So we can't have a plan that will take more than 45m from start to food on the table.

We have thought : continental breakfast all four days, sandwich platters for lunch. one lunch be sandwich platters and scones so 'afternoon tea' and bbq for dinner.

Are there any other quick and inexpensive meal options we can do?

We also looked at hiring a food truck but for so few people it was £25 a pizza.

Does the place have a pizza oven? Or you can do make your own pizza without one either buying the base pre-made or the dough pre-made. Get a load of cheese, cut veg, salami for people to put on it.

One night you could do Cook lasagnas or pre make your own and bring them frozen?

You could also make and freeze and load of bolognaise sauce and bring spaghetti and garlic bread

EIGHT GRAND!

Crikey!

Just scale up normal family meals and cook them in disposable trays if you haven’t got ones big enough - lasagne, cottage pie, chicken casserole etc. you could make a lot of that before.

Op seriously download Gemini and put it in there. The menus are unbelievable and well within that budget. Gemini says that equates to £17 per person per day which is double the average household spend. There’s limitless menus, you can keep adding preferences. The first menu it gave me looked fabulous and it included where to shop and a breakdown of prices.

If everyone has their own self catering kitchen then I would say they get their own breakfast and lunch and you just provide the evening meal. Are you able to all sit together for that meal?

1 meal pasta - pre cook at least 2 sauces (bolognaise and veggie) and put them in the freezer when you arrive. Have pesto, Parmesan and olives for people to add.

One meal pizza (shop bought frozen or fresh)

One meal rice with a pre-made chilli or curry.

One BBQ.

Definitely do COOK!! (It’s a shop that sells tray bakes of posh ready meals like coq au vin or casserole or tagine) You could easily feed loads of people quite easily with their lovely food. Get the roulades for pudding, loads of fresh fruit.

i would do cooked breakfast for 22 people for breakfast. Easy. Loads of scrambled eggs, and then bacon or avacado and toast. Coffee and orange juice. Ta dah

Breakfast 1 - porridge with toasted nuts (mis into a few tablespoons of maple syrup and roast for about ten mins before dressing porridge), mixed berries and Greek yoghurt

lunch 1 wraps with
red onion thin slices (soak in a little vinegar and brown sugar for an hour before serving) grated cheese, salad leaves.
Brie and bacon.
humour and roast red peppers

Dinner 1
chicken thigh tray bake with veggies and couscous
banana splits

I’d do a few different soups and serve with crusty bread for lunches, soup keeps well in the fridge if you don’t have freezer space. I’d also batch cook lasagne, cottage pie or a huge vat of chilli that can be heated and served with salads, tortilla chips (for chilli). Good ice cream, sauces and toppings for dessert or a tray of brownies - easy to make ahead of time and transport and serves loads.

Sorry for the annoying screenshots but this is the first example off Gemini. I didn’t add that you have 45 mins to cook each meal but you can add that yourself, though most of what is here should be achievable in that time

I’ve done this before for work away trips. Use Cook or Waitrose Catering to get ready made stuff for all the meals, they do big lasagnes, quiches etc, big joints for f meat. Add some home made salad or something if you want to contribute something home made. It will cost a lot less than 8 grand.

M&S good quality ready meals one night. That will be say £7 each x 22 = £154

Oven ready pizza, garlic bread and salad another night. Can be done for £150

A load of boxes of cereal, milk, fruit, yoghurt for breakfast every day.

I’ve done similar before, it’s very manageable with some planning!

Do you know what the facilities are like, eg how much freezer space, is there a BBQ or pizza oven, does everybody have an oven?

Are there any dietary restrictions? All adults or kids as well?

Are there local shops or supermarkets that will deliver so you can top up fresh food after a couple of days?

Just to add I’ve also cooked ahead myself of similar events but once you consider everyone’s dietary restrictions it can get complex.

Lasagne is a good one - you can make veggie and meat versions in large trays, freeze and defrost on the way/when you arrive. Serve with big salads, wedges and garlic bread/baguettes.
Ditto chilli (but it may be too hot for that).

Would second Cook - they have ‘party’ foods - all freshly cooked and frozen. Not mega cheap but would be good for one of the nights. Desserts from there would work well supplemented with a big fruit bowl and sorbets/ice cream, strawberries.

Breakfasts - is there a bakery nearby? Preorder baguettes and fresh pastries and send someone to collect. Easy to make a dozen overnight oats pots (not everyone will want one), cereals and very good quality meat and veggie sausages, boiled eggs in a bowl.

Easy breakfasts and lunches makes sense. What about jacket potatoes for one meal? You could have a range of toppings like baked beans, cheese, tuna mayo, coleslaw and some salady bits.

Pasta in tomato sauce with grated cheddar. Add some chicken if that's not enough protein/ meat. Pasta bake could also work.

I’d put bacon/eggs/milk/cereal bread into each cottage so people can get their own breakfast. And tea and coffee and juice

Big quiche or pizza with salad for lunch one day. Soup and sandwiches

take lots of part bake bread and sandwich fillings

big bag of grated cheese, vat of veggie chilli, wraps, salsa etc

BBQ for at least one meal? Precooked chicken wings, burgers, hot dogs? Remember the sauces!

Definitely get a delivery delivered straight to the cottages. Maybe a top up or two up later, depending on fridge space. Will help with bulky drinks etc.

I’d do

-a bbq
-huge chili or spaghetti bolognaise cooked at home in advance
-a cook or Waitrose catering meal x 2

with ready prepared salads and sides, would be quite simple. Pre made desserts or ice cream too.

You basically don’t want to be doing any actual cooking whilst you are there. Just assembling it or reheating.

The men can do the bbq whilst the women shove the ready made stuff into bowls and drink wine!

Have you considered Costco. They do lovely ready meals.

Just do a selection of cereals, croissants, cheeses, meats fruit platters and yogurts for all the breakfasts.

Do you belong to Costco? buy their big ready made lasagnes, pasta bake, cottage pie dinners I haven’t tried them but hear they are ok, there is the logistics of this. They also do platters of party food, it’s £20 for a big sandwich platter.

Buy loads of wraps and have a lot of fillings available, make it a bit like a subway sandwich bar people can pile on their own and serve with wedges.

Where in the country is this ? I’m assuming it’s the South. Unless a buffet was amazing you would get laughed at trying to charge that round these parts.

Can you borrow a Pizza oven or two? Loads of people have them now. The downside is that you can only cook one pizza at a time but they only take a minute or two. We do a big pizza evening each year for similar numbers. We tend to slice the pizzas and offer them round so people graze through the evening, finishing up with child-pleasing sweet pizzas covered in Nutella, etc.

pasta and sauce or lasagna one day.

curry, rice, poppadom and naans another.

Yep can just see everyone who's flying in from all round the world for a holiday being delighted with nursery food like baked beans and potatoes.
OP was considering catered.

Are you near a Costco? They do excellent platters that you could stock up on and just heat up or use as needed. You might be able to order and collect too. I think Sainsbury’s and m&s also sell platters of various things. I would just buy lots of these

Breakfast
I'd get everyone juice, nice bread, jams, cheese, eggs a cereal selection box with mini serving size cereal.

M&S does nice preorder sandwich selection foods. They have a nice variety. You can get salads and fruits.

Dinner. I'd do BBQs or pizza. You could batch cook and freeze chilli, bolognaise, shepherd's pie. Freshen it up with a nice salad or adding fresh herbs at the end of cooking.

One dinner suggestion is to buy loads of frozen cheese and tomato pizzas, then loads of typical pizza toppings - veg, meats, fancy cheese. Let everyone make their own pizza, you will have enough ovens to do this.

Serve with garlic breads and salad.