Catering for a finger buffet 90 people...?

[Paul M]

I have got 3 choices of menus and I know what menu I want... Have been told to cater for 2/3 of the guests as a rule of thumb. Which is fine... But, what age would you class children as for catering purposes?

Children like "picking" at buffets at a party, but, I assume, they eat less than adults... So, would I class an 11-year old, for example, as an adult, but a 7 year old "not an adult"?

Hope this makes sense! Might make the difference between say, ordering 60 "portions" rathan than 65, and all savings mount up on a tight budget!

[LadyDi]

A fine dining restaurant that catered our daughter's wedding last summer counted aged 13 and up as adults. Younger than that, we only had to pay half-price per child per place setting.

[cornishprincess]

i worked in a night club a long time agao and we had to do buffets for 500, the easiest way is to count kids as adults as many adults will eat more than you think, but have a sweet table if its in your budget, some disposable cups (clear) with different coloured jelly layered in them is cheap and looks great and simple if you use the crystals just dissolve the crystals in half the amount of hot water then when thats done add cold water up to the measure pour to a third of the cup height each colour, they will soon set ready for the next lot and some small cakes etc..with your budget take into consideration things like butter and mayonaise etcc, these are often forgotten, there are approx.22 slices of bread in a loaf without crusts and you need to do 2 slices per person and tossed salads you can do one with dressing and one without, dressing is easy to make, equal amounts of oil and vinegar in a jar and for each inch of OIL use one level teaspoon of mild mustard and put on lid and shake like mad and poor it on but not too much, 1 inch of mix will do a very large salad, the more you can do yourself the cheaper it will be and you will know the food is fresh, or you can do a hot and cold menu with baked potatoes with various toppings and salads this will also be good if you have any vegitarians but also keeping the sweet table for the kids,oh and make sure you have some sugarfree drinks for the kids and diabetics anyway hope this helps in some way.

[sweet_smile]

from my experience with organizing kids parties a few years back any age under 16 i classify as kids and remember a party with more girls than boys you will need less food. Also dont put out all the food at once so you dont end up with a lot of food thats been picked on, this way you can freeze and store any foods that have not been eaten and you wont have to cook for the rest of the week. I know this sounds stingy but trust me....with kids a lot of food goes to waste.