Dinner for 40 menu & logistics help

[skavoovie]

Dear Forum,

I've been a lurker for ages and learned heaps from the forum, but now I think I could use some help.

We're cooking a meal for 40 people. We have done similar stuff for 25 before, but now there are a few added complications. We are amateurs, and while this is not exactly a family party, but similar enough. It is a sit down dinner, but the food doesn't have to be fancy. It should be flavorful, and as seasonal as possible.

Mainly, the problem is that we need to cook at an off-site kitchen. We have a rental kitchen, so cooking is no problem, but I'd be happy if somebody with more experience could make sure I've the right ideas for transporting the food cold/hot:We are doing the bulk of the cooking the day before, refrigerating it and heating & finishing cooking at the kitchen. The transport is about 10 minutes driving, and we'll have chafing dishes with, um, the flame thingies at the site. (Sorry, English is not my first language.)

Are we alright with heating at the kitchen in the chafing dishes, packing with foil and transporting to the site? I guess the question is how fast a packed chafing dish cools down? Is half an hour off heat OK?

As for the menu, we are trying to come up with dishes that stand up well to reheating. Also, it's winter (freezing, couple of feet of snow), so warming, hearty food is in order. A third of the guests are vegetarians. I think I would like to start with a soup. We (and some outside helpers) will bake our own bread that the guests are expecting and looking forward to, and that should go well with soup. I'm looking at either mushroom soup (Les Halles with stock from our own dried wild mushrooms) or sunchoke soup. The problem with both is that they both look like gray baby food. Is sprinkled parsley (and bacon/reindeer bits) good enough, or would it still be too ugly for a festive meal?

For the main, the plan is a pearled spelt side dish with beluga lentils, lamb shanks as the main protein, roast parsnips, an eggy/cheesy vegetarian thing, and salads/cold dishes. Would a quiche be odd in this context for the vegetarian thing? The lamb shanks I get are quite big (450g or 1 pound), and I can't imagine eating more than one, but should I have extras or a backup protein? I mean, I will have a few extra, but should I be ordering 1.2x carnivores? 1.5x?

Creme brulée and wild berries we picked & froze ourselves for dessert, with coffee and truffles.

Does this make sense? Any comments would be appreciated, even (or especially) just to say it seems fine would be appreciated!

cheers, Skavoovie

[runwestierun]

Re: the soup. I think the herbs are a good idea. Bacon might be a pain because you have so many vegetarians. I just wanted to say that a spiral of sour cream/creme fraiche+cream from a sqirt bottle does wonders for presentation and takes one second. Even a dollop looks better than nothing.

Also, if you wanted to make 2 soups that had some body (not brothy), you can serve them in the same bowl by pouring them both at the same time from pitchers from opposite sides of the bowl. Then a spiral or dollop of cream in the middle. Pretty and easy.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2521/4178840579_abfac7c388.jpg

You can also put one soup in the bowl, then pour the other in the middle, kind of looks like a bullseye.

[Shalmanese]

I just did a dinner for 42 people in December. It's not too daunting if you approach it the right way. The key is to provide enough dishes that any one on it's own is not daunting.

Roasts are your friend (Costco is also your friend), we did a smoked brisket, a crown roast of pork and a slow roasted leg of lamb. Focus some attention on making a memorable rub/stuffing/marinade for each one and you can get 50% of the your calories taken care of in about an hour's worth of kitchen time.

We did a roasted zucchini & mussel soup to start off with which everyone raved about. Then 3 or 4 different salads, each of which was relatively easy to put together. For the meats, we paired it with some sort of starch; lentils, mashed potato, white beans etc. Finally, we finished off with 4 desserts.

I wouldn't bother with chafing dishes, just pre-slice and serve family style and let people help themselves.

We had 3 or 4 vegetarians and the range of options meant that they were happy but if you're 30% vegetarian, I would consider doing some sort of tofu style dish to make it seem meaty.

[baroness]

Looking at the proposed menu from the vegetarian viewpoint, the "eggy/cheesy vegetarian thing" and/or quiche would NOT go well with the creme brulée dessert -- too similar in taste/texture/ingredients. As suggested above, a tofu dish, or tempeh, or rice with beans or lentils would be welcome.

[skavoovie]

Thanks for your tips!

I was planning a bean salad, but I think I'll do a warm bean dish instead, and leave the quiche out. Possibly a fennel/potato/black bean thing with crumbled feta on top that we like and it's easy to make. For salads, I won't decide until I see what available and good, but I will do a coleslaw (with vinaigrette) and a root veg thing, either beets or celeriac, possibly with mayo. Roast cauliflower with nuts? It's not easy to come up with multiple salad items with winter veg and make them different enough to be interesting.

As for shopping, I should have mentioned I'm not in the US.. but we have access to wholesale place where cafe owners and small caterers shop, so we're fine for shopping.

[Fat Guy]

There are a lot of ways to garnish the soup to make it look more appealing, and you can do more than one. Chopped parsley works, as does a single whole leaf of something like basil. Bacon bits look attractive, and if they're optional then you can make a vegetarian soup that only becomes non-vegetarian when you add the bacon. Slices of sauteed mushrooms look nice scattered on top of a soup. A sprinkling of Parmigiano. As mentioned above, you can do a dollop of creme fraiche or sour cream. Your choice of bowl can also make a big difference: earthenware bowls give a rustic look, and the narrower the opening the less surface are you have to look at; you can even use coffee mugs.