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.

You could cook and freeze a big baked potato each. Wrap them in foil on the freezer and let them defrost en route, heat up

Or the women could BBQ and men get the sides ready?

Or.. maybe just get a grocery shop in for each house, and let people do their own thing?

I ws going to suggest this, Im confused about the kitchen arrangements, are any of the kitchens/ovens enough to cook for 22 people at the same time, if not, you'd be using several of the kitchens which seems disorganised

Also are people wanting to eat at the same time, so 22 people ating breakfast, 22 people ating lunch, I take it you're doing some sort of onsite activity from how you describe it so perhaps you will be needing to eat together

But apart from a few joint evening meals it seems more prudent to get bags of shopping and items for each cottage and let them do it, its not your labour you've promised is it? Its the cost of food because of them paying expensive flights?

Costco is your friend here. I’d focus on easy to precook and freeze crowd pleasers like lasagne and chilli, roast chickens, curry and pizza, served with lots of salad, bread, coleslaw, etc.

For lunches I’d do buffet wraps, rolls, or jacket potatoes -ham/cheese/egg salad/tuna mayo, or a ploughmans, or sausage rolls (premade or bought) and other savouries.

Breakfast can be continental - croissants, cereal, toast, etc.

I’d also have lots of:

Fruit
Tea and coffee
Cakes, biscuits, sweets and chocolate
Cordial

We go away with 15/20 regularly.
First night is fish and chips or ready prepped lasagnas. Second night we have caterers. Third bbq or roast. Persiana slow lamb shoulder and Ottolenghi confit chick peas with jewelled rice has gone down well.
Breakfasts, first morning always cereals, pastries, cheeses hams yogurt granola type of stuff.
second morning smoked salmon avocado scrambled eggs
third morning cooked breakfast
or adjust as desired!
Pancakes are another hit on the first morning after a lighter cereal breakfast, served nearer lunchtime.

Lunches we do a pasta with sauce, soup and doorstep sandwiches
bacon or sausage rolls.

We did a group trip for 16people on an activity trip, our meal plan included:
breakfasts - a mix of cereal, muesli, porridge oats, plain yogurt, fruit, toast and bagels.
lunch - homemade soup (we took large slow cookers to keep it warm during the morning), those ready to bake rolls with cheese / ham. We had bacon and sausage rolls one lunch (keep it warm in the oven until it’s all ready).
dinners - spaghetti Bol, chilli and nachos, macaroni cheese, chicken roast dinner (chicken breasts wrapped in bacon), jacket potatoes with fillings and salads the night everyone arrived so they could help themselves and eat at different times.
pizza isn’t great for large groups even though it requires no prep as you can only get a couple in the oven at a time which means everyone gets a slice and then has to wait for the next ones to be ready!

There's not really any need to be this rude. OP is also considering ready made lasagne and macaroni cheese and hasn't stipulated it needs to be high end.

Nothing wrong with potatoes and beans in any case. Oozing wth butter, different toppings and mixes, steaming hot after a day of activity or whatever they're doing

And well suited to vegetarians which you have quite a few of. You might get a really good quote for a fully vegetarian Indian order. I'd look at this for at least one night. Local takeaways in general are a good bet as they will save you the effort and be cheaper than catering.

Please don't do this. There's not much more grim than a reheated frozen baked potato.

Could you really make a full cooked breakfast for 22 people in 45 minutes from start to finish, in an unfamiliar kitchen? Finding everything, getting it all out, getting it in a state that can be served, etc (even if people are helping themselves it takes some thought and rummaging as to how to serve it!)

From experience I would say 90 mins absolute minimum. Depends if you're doing it on your own I guess but even with help, 45 mins is optimistic.

Personally I would not bother with a cooked breakfast. I would leave all the stuff in the fridge and let people cook for themselves if they want to, or alternatively cereal, bread etc.

Cook - depends on freezer space. We once hired a cottage which claimed to have a freezer compartment - it was tiny, really just big enough for ice. We had a load of frozen dog food and nowhere to store it.

Re take aways, we stayed in a cottage with a big group once - it was middle of nowhere, and there were no take away options.

I also think freezer space will be your biggest limitation. Ask the Airbnb host for photos/measurements of each freezer so you know what you’re working with! Also may be worth asking them about local options for takeaways/deliveries?

Breakfast

To feed a crowd (I used to cater at a youth hostel) - I'd put some trays of bacon/sausages in the oven and also do a large pot of scrambled egg - and put out with rolls.

This is good advice. It may be more hassle to freeze the sauces. With bolognese stir while there is heat under it until it is fully cooked, then turn the heat off and put a lid on it.

Decant olives, pesto, etc into bowls so the table looks nice.

Is there a bakery nearby so you can have fresh loaves, croissants/local pastries on the table alongside cold cuts and cheese for breakfast. Add some local fruit sliced and tomatoes.

Have you got a Costco nearby? For a similar size of family group and accommodation arrangement we grabbed several of their enormous lasagnes, mac & cheese, pizza, desserts etc. There were other options too.
We used all 3 kitchens and gathered together at a communal table which we’d already set with pre-prepared salads, pasta salads, fruits etc.
It worked brilliantly and the food tasted better than I had expected!

They also do sandwich platters which could work for lunch. Love Costco 😂

Christ alive! I love bread but not for 3 meals a day.
Breakfasts, big trays of bacon, sausage, black pudding in the oven, huge pot of scrambled eggs, hash browns or potato bread. Day 2 pastries, good bread and lux jams spreads pate cheese etc Day 3 Shakshuka, fruit yoghurt, overnight oats
Lunches day 1 sandwich bar day 2 jacket potatoes bar day 3 salads cold meats abd all the trimmings pickles potato salad pasta salad etc
Evening meal. Pasta bolognaise day 2 curry and rice day 3 One pot chilli chicken (BBC Good Food) with garlic bread

I would make the main meals in advance, freeze them and then just make rice or pasta to go alongside on the day.

chilli
curry
pulled pork
Order in pizzas for one of the nights.

Pancakes for breakfast on day 1. ( Plus Yoghurt & fruit) can be made in advance, & fine just in foil in the fridge.
heat up the whole pile over a pan of simmering water, cover them in foil. . Serve still over the hot water. Turn the pile over top to bottom when serving. People can come back for more still hot

Breakfast would not be cooked. Toast, cereal, fruit and juice.

Lunches would be rolls or wraps with nice fillings and some good condiments like tomato relish.

Dinner would be big pasta dishes with nice salads one night, a big chicken curry with papadums and mango chutney etc.

Mexican another night.

Then maybe take away pizzas night 4?

Youll also need snacks including for the kids, and dessert. Costco for sure to help.

Sorry I’m struggling to picture this, but would love to be able to serve lots of pancakes! So I make the pancakes, let the cool, wrap the whole stack in foil. And then out the stack on top of a steamer tray over boiling water until they’re warmed through?

I'd swerve pizza unless you can get it delivered.
Not enough oven space/ never know how much people will eat/ toppings and people will just Mills around like they are the audience on Saturday kitchen live

See if Cook frozen meals are in any of the local garden centres or local small supermarkets. The Cook website have stockists (or an M&S food hall).

cook do large lasagna et cetera for dinner parties etc okay not the cheapest but put a lasagna with a large salad et cetera you’ll be grabbing so much time back