Posh buffet for 100 - general ideas & special diets

jjblondie

:eek: I've volunteered myself to be in charge of catering at our university ball in June, so for 100 ish people of different faiths. I will have the week before the ball to prepare things, and limited oven space on the day for hot things (we have one fairly large oven and 4 hob rings, but that's obviously not much between 100). I need to think of vegetarian, gluten free, dairy free and possibly wheat free options, and don't really want to restrict those guests to just one boring dish. However, I don't think 70% of guests will be diet restricted. I will probably have to cater for a few Halal eating guests, and definitely some Kosher ones (though my Jewish friends may sort some dishes out themselves). Food can't be liquidy or very messy (shame, as mass catering with shepherd's pie etc is easy!) and should be something special.

My list of ideas so far is below. I feel I'm missing meaty mains which aren't dairy/gluten/pie based, as well as non-potato based vegetarian stuff. Any ideas for other dishes/telling me some of these won't work or can be made well in advance/tips on mass catering much appreciated!

Nibbles/Starters
Sticky chicken wings - http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/634633/chicken-wings-with-cumin-lemon-and-garlic
Spicy wedges
Pigs in blankets
Sausage rolls
Couscous
Pasta salad
Bagel pieces?
Garlic baguettes (using giant supermarket baguettes)
Carrot, celery and cucumber sticks + homemade hoummus
Breadsticks
Pickles
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/chickpeafritterswith_90863
Pakoras
Satay sticks – tofu sticks also?
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/11610/summer-sausage-rolls - replace bacon for halal/kosher (?), add apple
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2219678/cheese-and-marmite-pasties

Mains
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2766666/cauliflower-rice-and-lentil-salad
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2738/real-spanish-omelette + pepper, other pepper, spring onion (and a chorizo version?)
paella (but sticky rice/saffron expensive?)
Dry veg curry?
Coronation chicken
Veggie burgers–in baby buns? Meat burgers also? (but edible cold?)
Pizza

Desserts
Flapjacks
Chocolate almond oil cake (dairy and gluten free)
Meringue stuff – dairy free pavlova?
Hamantaschen
Rugelach
Bakewell tart
Apple and raisin crumble pie
http://www.chefkoch.de/rezepte/58451021455026/Apfel-Rosinenschnecken.html - freezes well, need to get or make Marzipanrohmasse though (http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/almondpaste_8896)
mince pies? - could do non gluteny/dairy pastry
jelly!
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2138641/chocolate-teapots - needs baby cases/pots
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/limeandcoconutmacaro_71742 - macaroons

:beer:

joedenise

Can't really offer any advice but would say that Paella for lots of people, unless your experienced at making it, is not the easiest thing to mass produce. Also not particularly nice cold.

For the chocolate tea cups can you see if you and your friends can pick up odd cups from charity shops, the small coffee cups would be good as you could make more from each batch.

Denise

Callie22

I'd suggest that you limit the choices as far as possible, because catering for 100 is a totally different ballgame than catering for 10/20/30 and if you give yourself too much to do you're just going to end up with a mess. Try to go for as much cold stuff as possible (not really a problem in June) - you haven't got the oven space for too much hot stuff and it's easier (and safer, from a food hygiene perspective) to keep cold stuff cool than trying to keep hot stuff hot. Also, it'd be a hassle to get it all out on time when people want to eat and my experience has been that people all tend to want to eat at the same time, and if the food's not ready, it gets wasted.

Often it's not a case of producing a different dish for every special diet, but looking for recipes that will do for a number of instances. So a cous-cous and vegetable salad, for example, if you leave out the cheese, can be eaten by vegetarian, vegans, and most people with religious restrictions (vegan is usually ok for people who want to eat Kosher, it really depends how strict they are).

So if this were me, I'd be thinking outside the box of three courses. I'd go for a nice, really well presented buffet - lots of salads, good bread, cheeses, fruit and vegetable platters (although not dips, too much double dipping at buffets for it to be hygienic, but you could do things like veggies with a hummus dressing ...) cold meats and fish and some interesting nibbles. Then a big dessert selection, because people love puddings - tarts, individual jellies and desserts, cupcakes etc. Aim for 'portions' of stuff because it always looks better than whole cakes which tend to look at mess when people start helping themselves. For mains, I personally find that lots of dishes of warm brown slop (curries, chillies etc), whilst they're tasty, tend not to have that 'wow' factor in presentation and aren't great for balls - too much chance of drips and spills. I don't know what your budget is but I'd try to make everything look as well presented and nice as possible, and go for LOTS of disposable plates and cutlery.

Edited to add - also, don't underestimate how many people you'll need to help you. Getting buffet stuff ready and well presented takes ages, and if you can press-gang in plenty of people then do! You'll also need help whilst people are eating, just to stand behind the table, offer assistance if needed and keep the table looking tidy and well presented. And you'll need lots of help tidying up, cleaning and clearing away dirty plates etc.

Another thing I've just thought about is keep everything nut-free. It's a hassle for allergies and miserable for people if they feel they can't eat anything at all - also a worry with buffets is that people tend to move the serving spoons about, which is a nightmare for cross-contamination. So when I've catered for lots of people, I've kept nuts out of everything, sweet and savoury.

aliama

Off the top of my head, I'd add:

tabouleh
Maybe a side of poached salmon
Mixed bean salad

This potato pie looks tasty, but I think it could be adapted to be a tray-bake as it uses sheets of filo pastry. That might make it stretch further to feed more people. http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1039649/indian-potato-pie

For non-potato based veggie mains, what about a quiche or savoury tart? Something along the lines of: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/472629/slowroasted-tomato-and-gruyre-tart

Something like braised lentils? http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/864644/chilli-and-tangerine-braised-lentils

RAS

Lost a post.

Agreed reduce the number of dishes. Stick to chicken and either lamb of goat for meats. Possibly beef?

Frittata is very similar to spanish omelette but would use other veggies.

aliama

aliama wrote: »

Off the top of my head, I'd add:

By the way, when I say 'add' I mean as options to consider, not as dishes to serve. Callie22 is entirely right that you should limit the choices as much as possible (and her other suggestions are excellent too).

mrsjanebanbury2009

I made a huge Macaroni Cheese for a party at the weekend, and it was incredibly popular, I should have made twice the amount. It's great because it is veggie but meat eaters love it too. And I guess it's both Halal and Kosher?

Joe_Hennessey

Go with both Veggie curry and Meat curry and use the same base for each dish

ostrichnomore_2

This sounds like quite a challenge.

There are two things to really think about.
'posh' buffet. For a special event, a ball, I'm sorry but very little of what you are suggesting sounds very special - pizza? sausage rolls? chicken wings? garlic bread? sounds more like the sort of thing people buy from Iceland and bung on the table at every single family buffet. (no offence, but you've got a chance to have a bit of fun here and get a bit of wow! factor in).
Catering for a large number with several dietary factors. If you haven't catered for a large number before, it's natural to think 'more people = more dishes' but that's a mistake. It just ends up difficult to do properly and the table ends up looking a mess of bits and pieces. I agree everyone would appreciate a bit of choice, but doubling up does that. Everyone can eat vegan, for example, and most people can eat veggie. So if you based most of your food around that then give a few options for the meaties, you're making life much easier for yourself. another thing is that if you do loads of dishes, you'll have less of each thing, and some people will miss out. Which is disappointing sometimes unless you are a veggie and find that the meat eaters (fair enough if they were there first) have cleared up all the veggie options and then it's downright annoying.

On Halal - if you buy halal meat you'll be safe there. Not sure if Jewish people can eat Halal - ask your friends for advice, and in any case there is a lot more to their rules than 'no pork'. They won't mix meat and dairy at a meal, for example. Any really orthodox will bring their own as your kitchen/preparation won't be kosher.

So I agree with the others, fewer dishes in larger quantities, planned so that as much as possible is ok for as many as possible. And snazz things up a bit.

Budget makes a difference to what you can offer. How much do you have?

A big bug bear for me with buffets is the time it takes to get your food. Everyone queuing up for the single spoon to get a dollop of colslaw/salad. So I like to portion things out canape style so people can just grab and move easily. I also hate double dipping and it avoids that.

for the starters I'd do all cold that you can prepare in advance. Think of them as canape style to get the taste buds going rather than a substantial part of the meal. Trying to keep things fairly simple for you - while still nice and a bit different - but if you are a good cook then obviously there's more interesting things you can do.
raw Tomatos - cut in half, core and fill with your rice salad
raw Peppers - quarter and serve with a generous smear of humous
raw Celery - cut sticks to 2" lengths and top with cream cheese and herbs
Your chicken wings or satay sticks (if you are buying those in be careful to get halal) or even better, home-made chicken skewers (precooked and served cold). Use chicken thighs, bash them to flatten them out, and cut into 2 or 3 depending on size. Marinade in fav. flavouring avoiding gluten/dairy. then thread on to wooden skewers folding back and forth to make an S shape. Bake.

Gives you 3 ok for veggies, 2 ok for vegans, 4 ok for meaties, all gluten free depending on what the chicken has on it, I believe all ok for Muslims meaties, 3 or 4 ok for your Jewish friends depending on how closely they follow Kosher.
Presentation makes a huge difference to all of these. A few fresh herbs sprinkled on top of one, a few thin curls of spring onion stuck in another at a jaunty angle, if you make it look good, then that's half the fun of eating it.

Kanichen

On the gluten free side, one thing to consider is your buffet placement - and people being inconsiderate. My gluten free friend has massive issues with bread for example. People place it near GF food or in the middle of a buffet table, and then cut up their bread rolls - spreading crumbs over everything else! Or use the knife they've used to put butter on their bread elsewhere - spreading the 'contamination' about. It isn't just that coeliacs can't eat gluten, they can't eat things that have touched gluten - so using a knife thats been used for bread or butter that's had someones bread knife in it can still poison them.

You'll need to check ingredients really carefully - my friend was ill for days after her aunt served her a spag bog (a big vat to feed 6 people) that had a few drops of soy sauce in - standard soy sauce contains gluten - as do some stock cubes.

Salad and grilled chicken is an easy GF meal and can be served cold.

Desert wise my friend's favourite is Eton Mess. Tends to be popular and you could serve it in individual cups.

GinaG3

I'd plan very carefully to avoid a lot of waste. Do you have a budget to stick to aswell? I'd assume you do. People wont turn up starving hungry expecting a full blown laid on meal, but will want to nibble here and there. You will need a fair amount of food and variety of course but I think your list is excessive and will lead to a lot of waste. Correct me if I'm wrong by all means. I'll get back to you with some ideas when theres some more info and I can sit down and have a think.