Help me plan a dinner for 120 people with $200~300

Originally Posted by foodguy

Click to expand...

just for a little perspective, what's the average expenditure for a school lunch?

-_- my school's food is super super expensive. we have all you can eat places, but you have to pay $12. a la cart gets $6, 7 on average.

it's better than most schools and most everything is locally sourced, but argh expensive.



that couscous idea is kind of appealing

i mean if a bunch of people are struggling and stressing out about this why don't you guys just pitch in some money out of your pocket?

If you are buying 40 or 50 lbs all at once, try negotiating with the butcher to see if you can get it cheaper. Maybe you can get it down to 1/lb if it isn't cut for you (hope you have a sharp knife and a strong arm to cut 40 or 50 lbs into cubes).

Originally Posted by daft

Click to expand...

i mean if a bunch of people are struggling and stressing out about this why don't you guys just pitch in some money out of your pocket?
well. ok this isn't the first time we've been doing this. last time we did it we pitched in $25 per person and it was pretty stressful as we're all very poor students. this time we're trying to keep it down to $15 as this is what we spent on another dinner last year. edit: i should have said more. this is a valentine's dinner thingy and the guys are in charge of everything. we have 50 guys and we need about $150 for overhead (decorations, gifts, whatnot), which leaves us $300 to work with

Originally Posted by Milpool

Click to expand...

If you are buying 40 or 50 lbs all at once, try negotiating with the butcher to see if you can get it cheaper. Maybe you can get it down to 1/lb if it isn't cut for you (hope you have a sharp knife and a strong arm to cut 40 or 50 lbs into cubes).
unfortunately all we have are supermarkets nearby, but i will try this and ask if we can negotiate prices. Thanks a lot guys for the help. really appreciate it

But is the $ 300 including booze?

A great Chef can probably get this done. Any Chef that's worth a damn has connections, knows how to squeeze the most out of anything (Including staff ) that's useful. Find a Chef for help (Chef's love this because of the size of their egos) and since you don't have money to pay him... take two pretty school sluts to him, and call it even. Don't feel bad about doing this. Girls love men that can cook, and you can't spend more then $300.

no money for booze and no involving girls. what if i take a pretty boy? would that work?

Originally Posted by indesertum

Click to expand...

no money for booze and no involving girls. what if i take a pretty boy? would that work?

Find a gay chef or a female chef and it could work.

Try negotiating with the supermarket anyway. Do they have meat counters? If all they have to do is order in 50 lbs of beef and hand it to you and pocket some profit, they'll at least hear you out. Especially in this economy.

Originally Posted by indesertum

Click to expand...

I should have specified

right now we've planned

crostini
some kind of cheap salad
bouef bourguignon
squash ravioli
stewed pears

the real killer here is the beef.

we tried cooking it last night with about 5 oz of chuck per person, -_- but 5 oz is really really small.
for a proper dinner we need at least 8 oz per person and right now we're estimating 100 people. 100 people * 8 oz /16 oz a pound = 50 lb of chuck *2.99/lb = $150 on meat alone

and our budget is $300 max.

i don't want to, but we might have to give ppl 5 oz of meat and add starches like pasta or potatoes.

really at a lost to what to do.

you should never serve stew with ravioli on the side. that's just bad. and unless you've got a place that sells the ravioli, you're going to go crazy making them for 200. here's one suggestion:
serve commercial tortellini in a broth made with beef bones. serve the small 5-oz portion of beef on buttered rice. maybe some blanched green beans on the side. finish with a green salad, then pears.

Originally Posted by Hombre Secreto

Click to expand...

Well... Schools use companies like Sysco, and buy in bulk. And Sysco won't make deliveries unless it's getting $1000 weekly for it's products, and since it's a school and the city is paying for it $1000 should be easy to come by for the school. So let's break it down to $200 just for the product. Now someone has to bring in all that product in to the walk-ins, and the storage room, and that person does this maybe 3 times weekly. Now you have to pay him to stock everything, and the average cost of this is $9.00 here in California, but since it's a city job he will be payed at least $10 for an eight hour shift. So now the total adds up to $280, and have $20 to pay the prep workers, and cooks to make the lunch. Good luck with that.

uh, the point i was trying to make wasn't a suggestion that the school prepare the food ... it was the utter poverty of school lunch programs today. IIRC, they average about $1.35 per student. yes, they do get government cheese and milk to help.

Originally Posted by foodguy

Click to expand...

uh, the point i was trying to make wasn't a suggestion that the school prepare the food ... it was the utter poverty of school lunch programs today. IIRC, they average about $1.35 per student. yes, they do get government cheese and milk to help.
The average K–12 student gets fed garbage that's why it's so cheap to feed them. Unless you're suggesting that the same crap kids eat at school should be used for this dinner to save on cost. Really no need in trying to compare K–12 food to good food on a very low budget.

For Crostini - Big french loaf sliced diagnolly (obviously) - try buying large jar of olives... blend with some stuff = tapanade. (places like Walmart/Costco will have these large jars)

For cheap salads - you can buy for like $6 a large mesculine mixed greens thing, a few of those plus a bag of walnuts or something cheaper, something sweet like cranberries or canned mandarines and a homeade honey mustard dressing will go pretty far.

Another idea is some sort of Indian curry. Small pieces of beef, cans of tomatoes, onions, carrots, potatoes, etc and go to a market and buy a few bags of masala. Serve rice and flatbread (naan) on the side. It's rich and hearty and not too expensive.

ADVICE -
1. For most courses try to avoid "single item servings", eg like your pears. Each person gets one and so you need 120... if it's fancy pudding or icecream or whatever, it's not as clear how much each person has and it's easier to serve according to how much each person WANTS.
2. Stick to things that are small portions but TASTY and RICH, so they're filling, or just go for mass VOLUME, whichever strategy you prefer i geuss.

Originally Posted by Hombre Secreto

Click to expand...

The average K-12 student gets fed garbage that's why it's so cheap to feed them. Unless you're suggesting that the same crap kids eat at school should be used for this dinner to save on cost.

Really no need in trying to compare K-12 food to good food on a very low budget.

i suppose irony really is dead.

i am terrible at communicating.

crostini - tapanade (thanks for the suggestion. was really trying to think of something to put on it)
salad - not sure what to put on.
2 choices for main
boueuf bourguignon
squash ravioli for the vegetarians/womenfolk who don't understand the concept of refined carbs
2 choices for dessert
cheesecake that some guy is making
pear

costs

crostini (for 100) - $10 worth of baguettes
tapenade (for 100) - not sure yet. need to head back for price check (-_-;; 5th time already)
salata caprese (for 100) (spring mix, mozz, tomato, eggplant, basil) - $28 + $18 + $4 + $6 +$10 = $70
bouef bourguignon (for 75) (chuck roast, mushrooms, onion, celery, carrot, beef stock, garlic, herbs, red wine) - $90 + $20 + $1.50 + $1.50 + $1.50 + $12 + negligible + $10 + $64 = $200
squash ravioli (for 25) (acorn squash, wonton wrappers, vegetable stock, sage, butter, walnuts) - $10 + $9 + $3 + $10 + $3 + free (in fridge) = $35
stewed pear (for 60) (pear, red wine, vanilla beans, cloves, whiskey, sugar) - $15 + $12 + $30 + $12 + free + free = $72
cheesecake - one of the guys said he could make 5 for $25

total comes to $10 + unknown + $70 + $200 + $35 + $72 +$25 = $409


right now i can think of eliminating the caprese part of the salad, getting rid of the vanilla beans, which would save me $62, bringing total to $347

-_- argh this is hard. chuck i can get at 2.50/lb and i need 37.5 pounds of it to feed 75 ppl. if I give ppl 6 oz of chuck instead of 8 i can save 25% =~$70

total cost now at $327

i guess i'll have to go to wegmans tomorrow and try and catch the meat guys at work and ask if i cut the chuck myself if i could get extra discounts.

They are cooking for college girls. College girls are not going to touch liver, tripe, or any of the other odd meats that have been suggested. In addition, beans or curries will not appeal to college girls.

My recommendation:
1) Splurge on the Appetizer and Dessert (cranberry & walnut salad w/ cranberry vinegarette for
the App and maybe cheesecake for dessert); and
2) Seasonal veg soup w/crusty french bread for the main.

Keep in mind that most girls are extemely picky when it comes to food, and some will likely be vegetarian. This meal is economical and will appeal to all.