# Advice on serving shrimp in chafers...



## jc30058 (Jul 20, 2017)

I'm making Cajun shrimp in butter sauce for an event for 60 people. There is no kitchen onsite. My plan was to cook the shrimpin my kitchen, store in Cambro, and place in chafer 30 min before serving. I'm nervous it will overcook and become a chewy, rubbery, mess. Any advice?? I'm a new caterer with almost a year of experience. The other time I did this dish I had a kitchen. This client is someone who was at that event.....


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## chefbillyb (Feb 8, 2009)

Welcome to Cheftalk! Shrimp is a real hard item to cater. All I could say is, when I catered and had an item that was difficult to cater, I had that item delivered to the catered affair separate from the other items. In other words, if I was doing Nola style BBQ shrimp I would send my crew early and I would follow with that dish closer to serving time. Not all items are equal when catering. In fact if I were catering or trying to sell a menu I wouldn't have this item on the menu if I didn't have a kitchen to do on site cooking. I my case I had portable ways of doing some of these dishes using demo Wok cooking on the buffet......Good Luck...ChefBillyB


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## jc30058 (Jul 20, 2017)

chefbillyb said:


> Welcome to Cheftalk! Shrimp is a real hard item to cater. All I could say is, when I catered and had an item that was difficult to cater, I had that item delivered to the catered affair separate from the other items. In other words, if I was doing Nola style BBQ shrimp I would send my crew early and I would follow with that dish closer to serving time. Not all items are equal when catering. In fact if I were catering or trying to sell a menu I wouldn't have this item on the menu if I didn't have a kitchen to do on site cooking. I my case I had portable ways of doing some of these dishes using demo Wok cooking on the buffet......Good Luck...ChefBillyB


That's great advice and doable for this situation....I can have my mom bring the dish right before service...and I'll follow these instructions for the future. Thanks a million!!!


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## cheflayne (Aug 21, 2004)

I would recommend using these on site if at all possible


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## chefbuba (Feb 17, 2010)

Cheep insurance.


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## meezenplaz (Jan 31, 2012)

im sold as well, i own 3 presently and would never sally forth to a catering event without them, with 2 cannisters each.


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## quelper (Feb 28, 2007)

I would partially cook them on high heat for flavor, chill and let the chafer finish from COLD!


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## cronker (Mar 3, 2016)

We use the individual gas canister hobs too, but the only thing I would suggest you keep in mind is the environment versus temperature - if you're outside on a cold, windy day, this will greatly affect their temperature conduction.
But, I'm sure you would know that!


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## Cdp (Aug 31, 2017)

yeah man transporting this is asking for headaches,
make it last item or even a demo this buys exposure and a meet greet plus the aromas will draw a crowd.
so those camp stoves are a plus


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## chefross (May 5, 2010)

...or perhaps the more logical thing to do...(in the future now...) would be to check out the venue beforehand to see what the kitchen looks like and gear the menu to that rather than take a chance on poor food quality simply because the guest wants it.


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