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.

I came to say COOK too!

id alternate continental one day and cooked breakfast the next - or go out for cooked one day

Freeze it at home and take in a cool box with ice packs for day 1 or 2

Fajitas would be easier

Why not do a WhatsApp poll beforehand with options for some of the choices. One of the problems with this number is that small decisions make a big difference to the food you use. For example - if you want to have enough eggs for everyone to have one egg for breakfast - that is nearly 100 eggs. And then on the first day one person makes themselves a lovely yougurt/fruit/granola breakfast - and 5 or 6 people decide that looks great- and then you end up with loads of eggs leftover, and not enough yogurt.

You can make it as prescriptive or as vague as you like.

For example - if you are having cereal - which cereal do people like, and which milk.

For anything involving bread - white/wholemeal

Try to keep it to closed choices and say people can private message about allergies/strong preferences.

A friend in siimilar situation got a local Indian restaurant to quote, they turned up with mountains of food and the big buffet chafer dishes to keep it warm…lots of leftovers too. It was excellent and not super expensive. A big chicken curry, a dal and a lamb one. From experience our American visitors and Canadian love a curry.

I would say that you have to draw some lines. So personally I'd say

• breakfasts: you provide cereal boxes (maybe a pack of those min boxes in every house), bread, spreads and a carton of eggs. Everyone sorts themselves out from that selection and if people want other stuff they should bring it
• lunches: I would definitely go for platters from Waitrose or similar (you can get these delivered each day as it's only £40 min spend for delivery). This way you can cater for all the different requirements by just ordering a selection of different platters
• dinners: I think the suggestion of a bunch of prepared traybakes is perfect. Given you have so many ovens available this should be very doable. Then bagged salads or similar for sides. You can also have baked puddings in this way eg sticky toffee if you want

Good luck ! Sounds fun!

For breakfast I would not expect cooked every day but I’d expect:

• toast
• jam
• butter
• peanut butter
• Nutella
• croissants
• cereal like Weetabix, cheerios, granola
• berries
• bananas
• Apples
• yoghurt

for cooked - maybe on the weekend or every other day
• sausages (veggie and good quality meat)
bacon
eggs
beans
hash browns
mushrooms
tomatoes

Breakfast - toast with choice of jam or Marmite.

Lunch - sandwiches. There’s some bread, there’s some cheese, make your own.

Dinner - more sandwiches but if you think that’s boring, wouldn’t it be fun if we all chipped in for a takeaway!

Another vote for COOK for evening meals. Nice and very affordable compared to catered options. Mails work out about £5pp for the ‘main’ bit (like a lasagne for example). You’d probably want to add some bits (like veg / salad or carbs depending on the main)

Bread, bread, more bread. What a grim weekend of catering 😂

I agree with putting stuff for a continental breakfast in each cottage. Lidl do good croissants / pain au chocolate. Also a snack box with crisps, chocolate, sweets.

Most supermarkets will do platters of sandwiches if you want to do that for one meal.

A slow cooker is useful not just to cook but to leave things in to keep warm.

Is there a supermarket in easy driving distance? One day just pick up rotisserie chicken, put out with soft bread rolls, salad, dips.

Rather than going for huge pizza / pasta / quiche I'd go for small ones, then you can bring a selection to the table while more are heating up.

For another lunch I'd go for hummus and dips with pita bread and cous cous etc.

Definitely a BBQ one evening.

A take away of fish and chips one night.

Are there any children?

This would be my plan for the trip….

Breakfast - cooked shared buffet breakfast on one day (I’d take my air fryer as it’s really good for cooking sausages and keeping things warm), the other days I’d get choice of help yourself cereals/pastries and toast/toasted teacakes for the hungry ones and let people get on with their own in their cottage.

Lunches - we would probably be out during the day and either take packed lunches or buy a sandwich at a cafe.

Dinners I’d make at home and freeze.
Chillis or Curries (one meat one veg) plus naans/rice pouches/whatever you fancy
BBQ one night with veg skewers/veggie sausage options
Pasta - Arabiatta sauce can be made in advance and have chicken added for the meat eaters, with garlic bread/salad
For the other day I’d order in fish and chips or have them while we are out during the day then just have snacks/cheese later.

Definitely make a detailed shopping list and get it delivered, don’t forget sauces for the BBQ. I’d also bake some dessert goodies to take along - easy tray bakes/flapjacks etc

Fair enough, I’d offer baked potatoes for dinner instead.

No I'm assuming some kind of Tesco's food delivery could be arranged to the accommodation, silly billy 😆

I would check in with what people, especially kids actually eat. They might just want Cereal and toast for brekkie.
When we do big family catering my go to is
Big bowl of meat chilli ( not too hot)
Ratatouille or similar
Bowl of tuna/mayo
Salad
Jacket Spuds ( you can precook in oven and then reheat in microwave
Big bowl of rice
Cheese and beans
Almost everyone finds something they can eat from that.
A friend of mine borrows maybe 5 slow cookers and sets them off in the morning with different casseroles in them which would also work, just need to add Spuds

We frequently cook for a crowd including veggie. It helps to do 2-3 vegetarian side dishes with each main.

Things that have gone down well:

Bbq: don't do veggie burgers etc, instead slice up some veggies into large slices, brush with oil and herbs/seasoning then BBQ. Good options are: red and yellow peppers, large mushrooms, courgettes, aubergines, a couple of large chillies if the group likes heat. BBQ the veg first when the BBQ is clean, then do your meat options. Serve with bread, salads etc. Perhaps sprinkle feta cheese over the roasted veg or have it available to do so.

The bolognese idea above. If you don't get round to making one beforehand, spaghetti and meatballs always goes down well. Make double the tomato sauce and reserve sufficient for the veggies before cooking the meatballs in the rest.

Pork ribs: really low effort and inexpensive but popular - season, cover with foil and cook on low for a few hours. Then cover in BBQ sauce and cook a bit longer. Serve with a green salad with blue cheese crumbled in and pecans or walnuts to give additional protein, corn on the cob, slaw and rice. Grilled halloumi or saganaki for a veggie protein option.

Middle eastern: lamb (either roasted or bbq), roast cauliflower with a tahini dressing and pomegranate seeds, tabbouleh, tomato salad, couscous. Flatbreads.

BBQ fillet steak. Marinade the fillet, sear on the bbq then finish as desired in a low oven. Slice thinly. A nice salad option here is tomatoes, cucumber, herbs, peach and burrata drizzled with evoo and a splash of red wine vinegar. Plus a simple green salad. Roasted new potatoes. Veggie kebabs for the vegetarians.

Oh yes, id also second Cook. It's a good point that their mains are about £6 per head. Do that for one meal at least! Or you could do 3 massive lasagne in a roasting tray

I agree with this. Indian takeaway is often really reasonable for a large crowd.

Lunch - could you do a load of jacket potatoes and loads of different toppings / salads that people help themselves to?

we did a massive cheese board one night with 12. Loads of different grazing things, breads, crackers, olives, pickles, salads etc. it’s quite rich so very filling. It was a day we’d had a big lunch out so we didn’t want another hot meal.

BBQ more than once if the weather is good.

a lot of nice bakeries do sandwich platter catering.

agree re a huge pasta meal. A big curry/rice/naans might be good too.

can you stretch out pre-made nice meals like fancy lasagnas with lots of sides - salads, garlic bread, roast veggies etc?

maybe also look into catering suppliers. They sometimes do huge pre made things like lasagnas, pies, quiches, cakes etc. Even Morrisons and Waitrose do pre-order party size things like quiches, cakes, huge coleslaws, pasta salads, sandwiches etc.

https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/shop/browse/entertaining?srsltid=AfmBOoq0EDlC0qkEPmM8iNdOkYLuO8HQY8y2KP2DRemJp3wtv9m5YhTp

https://groceries.morrisons.com/shop-in-shop/food-to-order?srsltid=AfmBOorNcyy0Njfw61QOb85gbt0a51K0lDmXc8ibIdlW9N2T_GIxb9LW

https://www.thomasthebaker.co.uk/shop/platters/index.html

I’d try and do cold sides that people help themselves to as much as possible. So like - here’s a big quiche, add sides. That will make plating up much easier.

does anyone you know have a costco membership ?

you can, not only buy good in bulk, but they have amazing ready made lasagnas, wrap platters and countless party food /trays.

@worrisomeasset excellent - I’d welcome those spuds for some fibre at my age 🤣 xx

I would also ask each cottage what breakfast items they want rather than do a big communal breakfast as people get up and eat at different times. Maybe do a checklist on WhatsApp of bread, a couple of cereals, yoghurt, fruit, eggs, bacon, avocado, orange juice, milk, tea, coffee etc then just pop the relevant items in each kitchen

@bessaasyou could also offer to cater for everything but suggest that one night you’ll get caterers in if everyone will pay for it. Just explain it would be lovely but £££s so do people want to chip in? If they don’t it’s pizzas.

And depending on where the cottage is I might play lunch by ear - e.g. if you're near the seaside different people might prefer to go to the beach and get chips or pasties or a crab sandwich rather than eat back at the base so to speak. If you're in the middle of nowhere then your suggestion of sandwich platters and scones sounds perfect.

Just to add, chick pea/onion/garlic/ cumin salad with olive oil vinaigrette is cheaper than chips
lentil salad with garlic & ginger vinaigrette. Mixture if chopped veg.
both can be prepared & keep for days.
You are going to need to borrow lots of big tupperware tubs from your friends !
maybe see if you can rent a big freezer ?