Cooking for 70 brains

some time ago i was asked to cook for about 70 people. just last week i was asked to cook for another large group. both times my heart started pumping blood through my veins at stunning speed so excited i was: all those brains to feed at the same time, what a challenge and what an honor.

here are some tips when cooking for a large crowd - enjoy!

  1. Get help as soon as possible (Thank you Laura for agreeing to help me out with this!) and start planing way ahead.
  2. Choose recipes with minimal preparation time, focus on dishes you have done before and you feel comfortable with (if it's something new try it out before), include dishes that can be made in advance and reheated or held at temperature while you'll be running around in the kitchen wondering why you agreed to do this.
  3. Start calculate food's quantity guessing how much your guests might wanna eat.
  4. Choose a dish easily turned into a vegetarian one if needed, so you wanna make sure you're serving meat as well as vegetables and carbohydrates at the same time. 
  5. MISE EN PLACE! having time to prep and placing every single element there where you need it, might be THE key to your success. You wanna go through your recipe over and over again imaging it, living and re-living it.
  6. Plan WHAT, WHEN, WHERE and HOW. Be sure you know WHAT element has to be prepared WHEN. Think about WHERE you are going to plate 70 dishes and HOW. This will help you not wanting to try your plating over and over again while your food is getting cold. Assign each single dish component to one of your team (if you have one!!).
  7. No time to rest, no time to complain, no time to lose concentration. Just do it!

for this event i have thought to recreate a recipe i once saw online and to fulfill step 2 of my little Tips-List i'll try it out today.

chicken caprese with balsamic pearls & lemon risotto

this dish can be partially prepared in advanced, can be served to both meat eaters and vegetarians, is fresh and perfect for the end of the summer. it doesn't include too much preparation time and shouldn't cause any trouble in plating.

enjoy!

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