How much food to prepare for a bar mitzvah?

ImaInIsrael

Tue, Apr 22 2014, 6:12 pm

For anyone that caters events or has prepared a meal for a large crowd- how do I calculate how much food to purchase and prepare?

I'm going to be preparing all of the food for my son's bar mitzvah and have never done anything like this before so I'm having trouble figuring out how much food to get. It won't be anything too complicated- hotdogs, burgers, grilled chicken and shiskkababs, along with a nice dessert table*.

Do I assume that each guest will want two of each food item, to be safe? More?

I'm also not sure how many people will be coming. The 20 boys in my sons class are invited and a few adults. We'll also be issuing an open invitation to the people of the community (which we're pretty new to), since they're letting us use the shul for the party, though I don't know if anyone will actually come.

So based on this information, can any suggest how I can go about figuring out how much food to get?

Thanks so much!

*P.S. And if you have any ideas for elegant but easy dessert recipes, I'd love to hear them. I'll post this request in the recipe thread as well.

mandksima

Wed, Apr 23 2014, 6:26 am

I'm also planning a bar mitzvah - in 2 weeks- so I am down to making lists now and figuring out amounts of food and paper goods.

In terms of your food, I find people eat more than one hot dog often but not always two burgers.
Wings, cut in half are great for a crowd too and pretty cheap. A nice BBQ side is grilled halved potatoes. Just bake or microwave them most of the way, slice in half lengthwise, brush with oil and grill. Cut up veggies with a dip is simple too and good finger food. Teenage boys eat a lot so I doubt there will be much fleishig food left no matter how much you make. A big bowl of doritos and mild salsa are also great for that age, as are plain old potato chips. Are you BBQ-ing outside the shul right before or during? You could always keep extra ready made burgers and raw hot dogs cold until you see if you need more and then freeze the rest.

Easy dessert can be multi-color jello cups (individual) or in a big trifle bowl. Just make each color one at a time, pour in, let it gel up and then add the next layer/color. Watermelon is great too.

Raisin

Wed, Apr 23 2014, 8:24 am

How much would you or your teenage son eat? times that by how many people. At least one of each item per person. probably more hot dogs as mandksima says. Although, you may have leftovers.

Desserts - pareve cheesecake is easy and elegant. Brownies, choc chip cookies are generally popular. you can do an ice cream bar. Cupcakes. Chocolate mousse or fruit mousse in little stemmed cups. mini trifles in ditto.

ImaInIsrael

Wed, Apr 23 2014, 3:01 pm

mandksima, can you tell me more about your bar mitzvah plans?
I'm a bit worried about ours being boring since I'm not planning anything, other than the food. Most people seem to have live music, usually a guy playing the keyboard, but I've decided to go with recorded music, which I hope will still enliven the party enough for there to be some dancing.

And my son refuses to let us do a slideshow of pictures of him, which seems to be the other thing that people do at bar mitzvahs. Do you have any activities planned?

mandksima

Wed, Apr 23 2014, 6:04 pm

Funny, my son totally wanted the big party and I would have rathered a more casual BBQ!

I'm doing most of the planning this week so I am not sure what I will come up with in terms of activities yet. Mostly eating, short speeches and dancing takes up 99% of the time slot. We have a teenage neighborhood band that will play. We are also doing it in the AM on Yom Hatzmaut so are having dairy/pareve. I also think most of the guests will be adults so it will be geared a little less towards kids than your's will.

Make a fun sign-in board with pictures of him growing up around the edges if he doesn't mind. I know people always like seeing the transformation into adulthood and you said he doesn't want the slideshow.

A guessing game is fun for that age. Something like make up 10 funny questions for the boys and whoever gets it right first, wins a small prize. "Shlomo likes to eat this ------" and make up 3 wrong sounding answers with the strangest true answer you can think of. Kids laugh and it is cute.

cbg

Wed, Apr 23 2014, 6:50 pm

I think caterers usually calculate about 1/4lb. each food per person.
I agree to double hot dogs, and buns of course. Teens inhale them.
Lots of condiments (pickles, ketchup, mayo, mustard, relish)
How about potato salad, macaroni salad, and coleslaw
Also you can grill corn on the cob easily.
Lemonade

For dessert you can set up a dessert/candy buffet.
With a little planning you can do this very economically and kids love it.
Its also very elegant
Jello cups
Pre-cut brownies
Skewered toasted marshmallows
Jelly beans in martini glasses (plastic)
Licorice sticks in a short vase
Other assorted candies
Cut fruit nicely presented

The tables need to be set very nicely.
Maybe table runners and something unique for centerpieces

Google search BBQ themed parties to get lots of ideas

ImaInIsrael

Fri, Apr 25 2014, 12:49 am

Thanks for all the suggestions.
I particularly like cbg's candy buffet idea, it sounds like a lot of fun and relatively simple to set up.
I was thinking of putting a package of pop rocks by each place setting just to get things started in a fun way (plus I really like pop rocks Smile

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