What to Consider When Cooking For a Crowd

It is never easy to cook for a crowd it is never easy to cater to the taste of every person in that crowd but you can fine tune the meal to ensure that everyone will find something they will enjoy. Remember when cooking for a crowd you are also cooking to for people who may have certain food allergies or just those who don't eat certain kinds of food based on personal or religious reasons. While you want to please the masses you also want to make sure that everyone has enough to eat without offending those who have limited diet requirements.

Planning Your Menu

When cooking for a crowd you can almost guarantee there will be a few people in the crowd that are watching their weight and you want to have a least one dish that is going to be friendly to the person who is trying to take off pounds instead of adding pounds. Salads, fruits and vegetables are always a good bet just be sure to offer a bit of variety in these things so your guests don't feel they are limited in their choices.
Allergies are a large concern when cooking for a crowd and while you don't want to skimp on ingredients you do want to make sure someone with an allergy to a particular food does not get sick. To make your job easier just take recipe card and list the ingredients for each dish and tape them to the outside of the dish. Make your guests aware that ingredients are listed and it's up to them to check before eating if they are concerned about any allergies.

Create at least one meatless dish as more and more people are giving up meat these days. There are many pasta dishes that will not require any kind of meat and pasta is always a good bet when cooking for a crowd. You can even split the dish up and make half with meat and half without meat and not put into too much extra work to do so. Cooking for a crowd doesn't have to take days it just takes planning and a little bit of thought to the guests that may be in that crowd. With just a few small extra steps you can have the entire crowd happy and well fed without wearing yourself out or spending a great deal of extra money.