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.

Jamies 5 ingredient sweet potato salad is a great one for this. We use it every time we have mass airbnbs.

Pack the oven out with the sweet potatoes. Probably need all 3 layers - so 3 trays. One medium potato each. Very big ones 2-3 per person.

When finished wrap in foil to keep warm and whack in a Chicken Kiev per person (or veg alternative). Assemble salad with sweet potatoes, mixed-color tomatoes, spring onions, rocket (arugula), and feta.

Another favourite of ours is skewers medley. Pack out the oven with a bunch of skewers and kebabs.

Can have with a variety of side salads, potato salad, couscous, and pitta breads.

Burritos as a build your own meal should be quite doable, though tacos tend to be a bit easier as a few people are bound to have problems rolling up the burrito (on the other hand, that's built in entertainment...). But I wouldn't try and do 22 Rolled up ones if you have a 45 minute window for getting a meal on the table. That's a lot of work. Have done DIY tacos for big groups on several occasions and it works well - smoothly handles picky eaters, different spicy tolerances, veggie v. omnivore, etc. Burritos would probably be just as easy if you prefer them. And if you have some people with larger appetites, they'd probably meet that need better.

Have been to cottages where similar has been achieved - to make things much easier I would home cook a veg and non veg dish for first night - we recently did Tagines plus salads which is easy for a big crowd. Waitrose pre order do a good selection of buffet food including salads. M&s do lunch platters fresh delivered- Costco have a variety of salads, fresh ready meals, though their vegetarian selection is often limited to mac n cheese though it is very nice. I have had this in a very busy cottage weekend plus garlic breads and salads plus Costco desserts -they are huge. Costco have also got large cooked hams, and plenty other items easy to have cold of heat up for lunch, their pizzas aren’t great in an oven but honestly are elevated in a pizza oven! Cut into 4-6 parts. Also they do large bags of rolls and really good burgers plus huge trays of cheese slices - if you don’t have a Costco card go with a friend who does it’s really set up for this. They also do huge packs of good quality paper plates….. is it possible to do a meal out or delivered ?

As well as all the food and drink, don't forget bin bags; foil, kitchen roll; storage clips; dish washer tablets; washing up liquid etc. Extra tea towels. Loads of loo rolls too. The Air BnB will provide some of course but probably not enough!
Bags of ice.
Sounds like it should be a great family get together - like Christmas but in Summer!

I've done it for nearly 100, my advice is go for an enchiladas. Otherwise you've got lots of things on the go and the filling is getting cold.

Honestly, I’ve NRTFT. Do you have a Costco nearby? They do amazing ready meals. Lasagnes, cottage pies, curry’s, enchiladas. Go there. Get some in and freeze them. Take them to your holiday house and defrost through the day. Look up the Batch Lady for recipes for breakfast and lunch. Again, make in advance and freeze, bring out when appropriate and you’ll be sweet!! Meal plan and get a supermarket delivery on the day of arrival for fresh items and cheese.

Such a great thread!!
Don't forget to stock up on tongs and serving spoons especially if you go for the make your own burrito, kebab/yeeros, roast potato option. Airbnbs often aren't great with those.
Also I'd double check everyone can have dairy eggs and gluten (is everyone of the 9 just veggie or actually vegan?) because most of the options so far contain those.
For dinner I'd pre-prepare and freeze as much as possible. I'd do a selection of curries one night, nachoes baked in trays another night (one bean one mince), bbq chicken kebabs in pita breads with salads - do your own toppings, look at RecipeTinEats Chicken Shawarma (edited to add with falafel for the non meat eaters), and maybe paella or fried rice another last night - could do one veggie one fish.
For lunches I'd do ploughmans platters with nice bread, soups and salads.
For breakfast I'd let people get their own and just make sure there was eggs bacon bread pastries etc available and maybe premake some bircher muesli pots?
For dessert I'd be premaking trays of fruit crumble, clafoutis/cobbler, or baked self saucing pudding that can just go in a couple of ovens and be served with cream or icecream.
Definitely get everyone involved. You're organising the meals and paying for the food, but you're not running a restaurant

We do similar get togethers, can be between 40 to 50 people. It's obviously a bit different as the cost is spread between everyone.

But to ease the pressure a bit, and seeing as you have so many kitchens. Could you do a curry night? Every family makes and brings along a curry. Could cater to the veggie/meat eaters nicely.

It's a tenner a head so £220, so massively cheaper than the £2k per day quoted by the caterer and well within the £375 per day budget, seeing as it's a big meal.

They might even get it cheaper than that as most people couldn't eat a whole portion so they could ask for smaller fish and perhaps around 15 portions of chips and a selection of peas, curry, tartare sauce etc. Plus I agree it's a good meal to offer to people coming from all over the world. If there's leftover chips, they can be used to make breakfast tortillas the next day.

Given that there' a few vegetarians, I would do chilli with rice, tortillas, salad, cheese and guacamole, sour cream etc. Big pot of meat chilli and another with mixed beans and chick peas. Can you borrow a rice cooker?

Lol at continental breakfast. I haven't heard that in years

They can't bring a Curry on a plane

Breakfast, DH and I would want bread to make toast, butter and jam as well as bacon and eggs. Coffee and juice and water.

Lunch, someone above suggested soup. That’s a good idea but also bread or decent rolls and a selection of fillings for people to help themselves is a good idea. Juice, water, crisps, may be a cake/biscuit. Tea and Coffee.

Dinner wise you’ve had loads of suggestions. Costco could really help here if you can get a membership or go with someone who does. Marks and Spencer also do family sized lasagne, beef bolognaise bake, mac and cheese. I use those when catering for large numbers with salad and garlic bread.

A BBQ is good for large number catering. I’d also make sure I had a selection of fruit so people can help themselves.

Cook Cook Cook. It’s the only way:

https://www.cookfood.net/menu/entertaining/all-entertaining

The food is delicious - better than Marks - and there will be options for veggie / GF etc.

I have seen this range at my local farm shop. Must give it a try.

That doesn’t sound like a holiday for you

I think the actual kitchen space is going to be really problematic. If you have several holiday cottages, they won’t have any serving dishes, big pots, etc etc. You will have a huge challenge just getting the food out, with enough forks and cups and then washing it all up. There’s no chance this won’t take the majority of your time all week.

Would they be up for self catering breakfast and lunch and everyone works together for dinner? You could stock each cottage with breakfast and lunch options and they can have what they like, then you can focus on dinner.

And 45 mins to prep and cook dinner for 22 across multiple properties is impossible. You’ll spend that much time going into and out of each kitchen gathering dishes and finding which fridge has the butter etc.

If there’s a BBQ under cover I’d use that a lot. You’ll just need a rain plan too so I’d be hesitant to entirely rely on it.

Otherwise, I’d think about various make your own things to cater to dietary needs - taco bar, pizza (can you borrow or buy a couple pizza ovens?), poke bowls maybe if this group would like that, one catered meal for the last night.

What about takeaway? Order in 15 pizzas one night. Or COOK lasagnes?

what sort of catering companies have you approached? I didn’t do the organising so don’t know the cost but at a previous workplace we used a few local social enterprises for buffet catering, often vegan / vegetarian and they’d do really delicious and unusual salads and tray bakes, often set up to support refugees etc so Middle Eastern or African flavours.

so If it was near me I’d do that on night 1.

night 2 - borrow a few slow cookers / rice cookers do some chilli with wraps.

night 3 - BBQ (preorder large meat pack from local butcher) and some supermarket pizzas

COOK is a good shout. I’d stock everyone’s holiday home with some milk, porridge, bread, cheese, salami etc and maybe everyone can do their own lunch and breakfast. I hate eating on other people’s schedules!

Breakfast-

1-scrambled eggs, sourdough, yoghurt fruit berry compote. (Bag of frozen berries, slowly cooked on hob, simmered down with some honey. Pre make)
2- bacon baps with sauces. Fruits
3- yoghurt, granola, compote and a selection of frozen pastries (pret do good frozen ones in Tescos)
4- last day sourdough toasts and jams, fruits

Lunches
1 make a bagel station with all the toasters. Supply sliced toms, cream cheese, cornichons, smoked salmon, dill, capers, salad leaves

2- frittata- pre make this freeze it and bring with (freezes beautifully. Serve with green salad
3- pizza station. Have basic pizzas and then people add their own toppings. Serve with salad
4- chicken tenders with blue cheese (home made) and wing sauce wraps. Serve with celery and carrot batons more dip, salad. For the veges switch the chicken to quorn chicken

dinner
1- spag bol- pre made and frozen from home. Serve with garlic bread and green salad
2- 5 bean chilli with roasted sweet pototoes served with home made salsa and guac. This can also be pre made and brought
3- butterfly lamb on the bbq served with salsa verde and roast potatoes. Fry off hallumi for yeh veges and cauliflower “steaks”
4- order in- Waitrose or cook or research a half decent take away

have lots of
Crackers, bread sticks, crisps, hummus and other dips , cold meats,fruits, crudités, sliced sourdough, olives, cold cuts of meat. Soft drinks, mixers, ice. Cheeses.

If you have a freezer batch cook a huge chilli for one night to take with you, you could serve with french stick instead of rice or with jacket potatoes. another is to batch cook a huge curry and instead of serving with rice you could serve with just naan. Another thought is prepared salads or make your own with different meats, salmon etc. You could make some quiches to take. Obviously you would need to cater for all dietary requirements
make one night a takeaway night in which everyone gets to choose.
Hope you all have a great time.

Another lunch option would be to have a few rotisserie chickens ready with a big Greek salad and some nice fresh crusty bread.

Came here to say COOK! Ready meals which taste anything but…they are fab and will be well within budget.

Cooked brekkie x 2 days, continental the others (those frozen pastries which take 10mins on the oven are great), plenty fruit and yogurt.

sandwich platters ordered from Waitrose Entertaining for lunches maybe?

https://www.cookfood.net/menu/main-meals/meals-for-8

From experience, there aren't many ways to feed 22 people quickly if you are cooking yourself. Jacket potatoes are the only one I can think of but not really a proper meal. Cooking for 22 people is quite involved.

We go away with large groups like this and we always have a cooking rota - so there will be 2 or 3 people each day responsible for the cooking. They say in advance what they are going to make and what ingredients they'll need, and whoever is responsible for the shopping adds it to the order.

It means a few people have to give up a few hours each day to cook, but it works brilliantly and is inexpensive (and can also actually be quite fun!)

You then may need to also name people on a cleaning rota each day. We generally just all chip in informally on that, but if your family are the type of people who don't, you might need to name people to clean each day too.

It depends what you are doing though and if everyone needs to be present all day every day, it obviously wouldn't work.

But it's a hell of a lot cheaper than caterers. Even if you had caterers for 2 days and cook yourself for 2 days?

There's just no getting around that the cooking will take time, though. Cleaning and laying the table, too, and finding all the stuff you need in an unfamiliar kitchen. Even making sandwiches takes time if you are making that many, unless people can just make their own? We have informal breakfasts and lunches where people just help themselves.

This company hires out all sorts of catering equipment from pizza ovens to a potato baker. Might be worth considering. https://www.gardenpartyhire.co.uk/product-category/catering-equipment/lpg-catering-equipment/page/2/
You could also hire someone to do a hog roast.