Cooking for a Crowd

Whenever I have cooked for a large number of people, I have always been stumped by how much I should cook.  What if I ran out of food?  What if people favored one dish over the other and I didn't have enough?  As a result my rule of thumb used to be:  Cook enough food to last a couple of days.  Every time I cooked for a crowd, I ended up sending them home with leftovers, after which I had enough food to last me a few days to the point where my stomach would turn at the thought of having to ever eat any of it again.

So how would I know how much to cook without having leftovers to last a lifetime?  Have a friend like Tisha to help you with your conundrum :-)

I belong to a message board that was born out of our collective disdain for Food Network's Sandra Lee, but has evolved into a wonderful place where we share our problems, play games, talk about current topics and share recipes and the like.  You could say we are a family of people from different corners of the continent and further, who would probably have never met had it not been for the message board.  One of the topics that was discussed recently was "Off the Cuff recipes", where people threw together random ingredients.  This led to the topic of cooking for a crowd.  One of the members, Tisha, is a chef at a restaurant and very graciously put together and posted how to determine how much food to prepare for a crowd.  She has also given me permission to share this information here.

APPETIZERS - 1 and a 1/2 of apps per person. (p/p)
Example: For 12 guests, 18 pieces will be
more than enough.

STARCHES - 2 oz. of DRY pasta p/p as a side
2 oz. of DRY rice p/p as a side
4 oz. potato p/p as a side

Example: For 12 guests, 2 oz uncooked rice X 12
people = 24 oz. Divide by 16 to convert to pounds to
make your life easier = 1.5 pounds rice
Potatoes are the same math, but allotting 4 oz. p/p
4 oz X 12 peeps = 48 oz Divide by 16 = 3 pounds

VEGETABLE - 3-4 oz p/p as a side. That weight is after the
vegetable is cleaned/trimmed/prepped. For instance,
broccoli has more stem than florets.

PROTEIN - 8 oz p/p. A portion should be around 5 oz once it hits the plate. 8 oz will account for waste (bones, shrinkage during cooking, etc.) If your protein is boneless and does not garner much waste, like boneless chicken breast, of fish, or lean beef like a tenderloin, stick to 5 oz p/p, still using the above math formula.

For Vegetarian selections, sub 6-8 oz as a main portion.

These numbers are for plated meals. Serving buffet style merits the upping of numbers by an ounce per item or so. Starches as mains would require an up of 2 ounces p/p.

For sauces, like tomato, 6 oz p/p is more than enough. Also helps if you have a 6 oz ladle to portion it while serving to keep your numbers in line.

Although there are many unique situations, these guidelines do the trick in almost every situation. You will always have enough food, but not a truck load of leftovers, either. 


While these are your basic calculation per person, each situation will vary.  If you are entertaining a group that prefer appetizers and finger food, you will need to make a variety of more of those and cut down on the main course.  You don't need to have just one dish from each food group stated above.  So if you decide to make two vegetables, the total amount per person should be 3-4 oz.  The main point is that you don't have to prepare too much more than you should when cooking for a large group.

If you have any other questions about cooking for a crowd, please feel free to post them here.  Tisha will be more than willing to share her knowledge.

Thank you Tisha!