BUFFET Food Amounts .... for 100 - 150 people
100 - Servings
150 Serving

pre dinner
appetizers
(optional)
8 lb.. tortilla chips, salsa, cheese etc. to go with these
or 6 lb.. potato chips
or veggies & 3 c. dip
or indiv. appys, 2-3 pieces per person total,
6 kinds
10-12 lb. asstd. cheese with crackers with grapes for
garnish, or veggies and 6 c. dip 2-4 pc. per person,
(suggest 3 platter 18" of cheese -crackers and 3 of
veggies and dip)
or individual appys, 2-3 per person 6-10 kinds
salads
~Potato salad made with 30 lb. potatoes
~Caesar salad, 15 heads Romaine
~3-4 smaller salads, your choice, approx. 7-10 lb. each
~Potato Salad, made with 45# potatoes ( approx. 45# of
potato salad)
~Caesar, 23 Romaine
or 20 lb. tossed salad mix,
~ 2-3 med. salads, half the size of the potato salad
~make pasta salad using 3# dried pasta.
or 2 salads & veggies & dip, and/or fruit platter (sliced
really thinly, 4-5 cantaloupe, 1 watermelon, 3-4 lbs.
grapes
meats
~50 lb (raw weight) beef roast
boneless served hot, or large ham, bone in or 4 15-18
lb. whole turkey, or 25 lb. cooked boneless ham or
turkey or equivalent. or 2- 25 lb. bone in hams
or 25 lb. turkey meat (2- 25 lb. turkeys)
~10 lb. extra sliced deli meats, optional
~75 lb. (raw weight) beef roast boneless or 40 lb cooked
boneless ham or equivalent, or
or 60 lb. whole turkey and 8-9 casseroles 9x13 or equiv.
~or allow 2-3 meatballs per person, or 1 piece of chicken
(1/2 boneless chicken breast or whole boneless thigh)
plus 30%, and serve in a large chaffer next to a chaffer of
rice.
~meats can be served cold or hot.
casseroles
or in place of meats:
10 -12 -9x13 casseroles or equivalent
~or halfcasseroles and half amt. meat.)
or in place of meats:
1 5 -9 x 13 casseroles or equivalent
or 7-8 casseroles and some meat (see above)
or meaty or seafood salads
desserts
~4 ea. of 3 desserts, cake, cheesecake
or fruit salad (one decadent, one
chocolate, one low cal.)
or 8 x one dessert
or 4 -10 1/2 x 15 1/2 sheet cakes
or asstd. tiny bars, 2-3 per person
20 pies, or 15 cakes, or 6 large trifles or 6 sheet cakes
or an assortment of bars, tiny cream puffs, or small
cheese cake squares (tiny 2-3 per person)
or keep it simple, do only 2 desserts, each x9 reg. sized
desserts.
beverages
~1/2 c. punch per serving.
needs 4 gal. (allow 1 1/2 -2 serving per person or more)
~coffee, tea, flavored decaf 1 lb = 50 cups
~punch, 1 gal. =24-32 punch cups, allow 3-4 drinks per
person if only punch is served otherwise 1 1/2 cups per
person.
1 bottle of wine serves 5 servings
misc.
9 doz. small soft rolls or 9-10 garlic bread sliced or 8
variety breads cut in sm. slices (rye, tomato, whole
grain etc.)
2 qt. whipping cream whipped = 2 tbsp ea.
2-3 qt. up to 1 gal. salad dressing
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(Amounts to base your per person
serving calculation for 100 servings:
spaghetti or noodles =3/4 c. cooked needs 12 lb.
uncooked
rice 1/2 c. needs 6 1/2 lb. raw
1/3 c. veggies, =22 lb. frozen.)

there is a 40-45 % waste and shrinkage with raw meat
weight, use 50 lb. raw wt. for 100 people
6 gal. soup =1 c. serv. for 100
6 lb. potato chips
1 gal. salad dressing

If cooking burgers or chicken pieces or such, allow one
per person plus 1/3 more.
.
1 1/2 x the amounts on the left.

Allow 15 lbs. of potato salad for every 50 people.
Homemade is best but be sure that when you are
assembling the salad everything is already cold, for
health and food safety reasons. Potato Salad is always a
good buffet staple.
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If you are serving just appetizers, allow 6 items per
person if it is NOT at a meal time, otherwise allow 12
items per person. If there is a meal following the
appetizers, just allow 2-3 per person Appetizers served before a buffet are OPTIONAL. This is just to fill-in for a
time lag and to keep those people that are 'really starving' from eating the flowers!!
If you do choose to serve an appetizer, remember there is a meal following
immediately, you do not have to server a big variety or large amount of appys.

A Buffet is a variable meal which can be served either cold, hot or with a
combination of both hot and cold dishes.
The more dishes you add, the less of any one particular food you will need, many people will take a smaller portion of each
item, many intending to 'taste' everything, others will be less likely to try every variety of salad etc. People prefer to be able to
eat the meal with a fork, large items don't fit well onto plates (whole bone-in chicken breasts, spareribs, large dinner rolls, etc.)
so avoid those.
Dishes that people can serve themselves easily with a spoon or fork, whether main dish,
salad or even dessert are best suited to a Buffet, use tongs to serve a tossed salad, not two spoons, people will be unable to use
them with a plate in one hand.
A Caesar salad, (or tossed) and a potato salad, seem to be the normal 'salad staples', along with the newer pasta salads which
are wonderfully interesting, with coleslaw, fruit salads, marinated vegetable and jellied salads working as terrific 'fill-ins'.

Special treats, like baked salmon, shrimp or seafood in a casserole, and 'real' sliced
turkey are popular, as well as ethnic specialties that are suited to a particular crowd.
Hot roast beef is a treat, but cold slice beef and ham are always acceptable. Add some hot casseroles if you have the oven
space, if not add some meat or seafood
salads for a large crowd.

Desserts can be sheet cakes, cheese cakes, trifles, fruit platters, cookies and squares. They can be cut into portions, and
placed whole (cake) allowing everyone to help themselves. Squares or 'non messy' desserts can be cut and placed into muffin
paper cups (slightly folded), then these 'little boats' can be arranged on fancy trays (I'd hesitate to do this for more than 50). I
would also use cakes etc. that will not take
up additional refrigeration space, although pre frozen goodies would work well.

The larger the crowd, the simpler things should be kept, as you will find it
a 'challenge' dealing with massive amounts of food.