Big Event

[smoke1198]

Just got the news today, have secured a 1000 person gig. Will be doing pulled pork,drumsticks, 2 apptizers, slaw,tatar salad.

How much pork will this take?slaw?salad?
Will be serving lunch 11:30-1:00pm then will be able to serve to the public that will be in the beer garden with band.

What should we serve atfer the lunch crowd?
Was thinking ribs/brisquet....
thanks or all the input brothers

[Ford]

You're doing this big an event and you don't know how much Do you really mean a party for 1000 + the people at the beer garden or is there a smaller group for feeding then a max of 1000 at the beer garden Then the question is how many vendors and how many do you think will eat? 500 - 250?

If you already have the gig do you mind telling us what you priced it at? I'd expect it to be in the $18 range depending on the appetizers.

Pork 1000 people times 4 oz cooked witght = 4000 oz +10% = 4400 oz at 50% yield = 8800 oz raw weight or 550 lbs or 74 butts or 9.25 cases.
Also 1100 drumsticks.

4400 oz of slaw and potato salad. Not sure the weight to volume calculation on that but if you order in 1 or 5 gallon buckets you need roughly 35 gallons of each.

Good luck. Hope you have an army to pull the butts and cook the chicken. And you'll need a number of buffet lines. At 100 per hour you need 6 or 7 lines with teeams to stock each one.

[Jacked UP BBQ]

Ford you are right about that!

[Lake Dogs]

Holy tamale!!! Hmmmm, IF you had 20 people pulling the pork, taking care to use all
the meat but throw away any fat, how long would it take them (all 20 people) non-stop
to pull 74+- butts? Basically, that's 4 each+-. I'm thinking a GOOD hour, realistically
they're not going to all stand there and do this non-stop, so you're looking at 2 hours,
IF you can get all 20 folks to stand there and pull the heck out of pork....

Wow at the scope/size of this. You need a crew, a BIIIIIG crew.

What, perhaps 16+- people cooking (dedicated)? 20 people on prep? If folks serve
themselves, I'm thinking the 36 people should be able to keep the food stocked...
You're right, 7, really 8 lines needed.

[Chuckwagonbbqco]

is it 1000 attending event? or is it feeding 1000?

[smoke1198]

1000 paid lunches....beer garden is not icluded in the event...
Will have 8 people working the lines,will be on site 24 hrs before event..
My partner is part of the guilde that got us the gig and we had to lowball previous caterer(italian restaruant owner)...contacts will be amazing...
I know this is going to be a ****load of work,but what a way to get into the catering side of the biz....
If we can pull this off we should be good to go
Thanks for the info...I'll take all I can get and we post pics of this when it is over...

[Ford]

Good luck. I'd want more than 8 people even if you work 48 hours straight. And I think you'll have problems with only 1 person per serving line and 8 lines sounds about right. And the HD may visit you as you're also selling at the beer tent so watch the hot and cold serving temps. That's a lot of Cambros and chaffers. I'd plan 12-20 people for the main gig then if you sell to the beer tent folks you'll need additional cookers and cooks to do ribs and brisket. You'll need them ready to serve as soon as the main event is over. I'd use additional people that just focus on this part of the event.

My rough numbers say you need 6 FEC100's or more to do this. Or a Klose Rock's smoker. What are you cooking on?

Plan this out carefully as a screwup will also ruin your chance of catering in the area.

If you want someone to talk with PM me. And if you search the older posts there are a few that have done events of this asize who can probably also talk with you. Maybe somebody will PM you and offer.

[big brother smoke]

Whoa, hope you've catered at least 200 ppl before or you are going to need a quick tutorial. You may need to do some subcontracting.

If, I scored a gig like this I would be calling my seasoned catering buddies in SOCAL for some assistance.

[C Rocke]

Confused about the Ribs/Brisket line(?)

I wouldn't get close to this with just 8 people working it (Needs about 20), much less on a "lowball" price - What did you have to lowball it at to get this? What equipment are you cooking on and what is your timeline?

As for contacts, be sure you don't get known as the guy who can feed 1000 the cheapest - Very slippery slope for sure. If you're too busy the day of the event, you may never get to talk to anyone amazing in order to make any contacts. And if the food quality comes up short, well, that's another story...

Be prepared with back ups for refrigeration and power, and plan for the worst case scenario. Contingency planning is mandatory. Go through all the "what ifs", and plan for each one.

Is the contract you have with the group prepaid? Dependent on weather? How far in advance is your payment required? What is the cancellation clause? Is there a rain date? What sort of insurance will you need for this? HD inspection? How will you keep track of the people who have paid for the lunch? Not trying to take air ot of the balloon, but you've got a lot of moving parts here, and this thread is just scratching the surface. Good Luck!

[grillfella]

Good luck my friend, I hope you have the capacity in your cookers. Thats more then we could handle

[JD McGee]

Yousa...that's a monster gig neighbor...I'm doing a luncheon for 50 next Tuesday at work and had to get my comp partner to help...good luck!

[PorkQPine]

Oh boy!! It scares me that you got a gig and don't know how much food you will need to serve. I would pay Leonard at Chuckwagon BBQ to come up to help you out. He has had a lot of experience with large catering jobs and you will need a lot of advise and help. You have a great opportunity to get your name out so make sure it is attached to the words like competent, quality, service, value and make sure your CPA attaches the word profit.

[Dr_KY]

I can't give you any better advice then these folks already have. PLEASE listen to them and get more help. I know how good it feels to secure huge jobs and the feeling of desperation when things start going south.

You need to NOT let these people serve themselves or you will run out of food in short order.

1.How are you going to boil up all those spuds for the salad? How large are your pots? Have you figured what amount of ingredients you will need to mate the tater salad?

2.Where are you bulk buying from?

3. How are you going to keep that sort of mass refrigerated?

4. Do you have a licensed kitchen to do the prep work in?

5. What cookers are you using?

6. Paper plates, forks etc?

7. Appetizers- what are you making/serving? Will it go out before the other food and where/how? How will you regulate it? Who is in charge of it?

Remember to delegate people at each station to see that each task is done. When things get going all you want to hear is the solution to problems and OK them. Trying to be the head chef and getting told someone somewhere needs napkins or trash bags is simply not supposed to happen so don't let it.
Get staff in that know what they are doing and can take direction, putting out fires because Jim didn't like the way Tom spoke to him so he and his four friends are going home isn't something you need.