# Food Portion for Catering / Company Cafeteria



## h0tb0x (Jan 31, 2018)

hello , good day to all the chefs and professionals out there. I was given a sideline so it is somehow my first time in this kind of work. i would like to ask a question by how much is the proper food portion per person in a catering? 
If i were to do a recipe of a meat, vegetable and starch, how many grams should i calculate per person? 

Also, if i were to cook employees meal, lets say for around 100 people, how many grams should i give them for meat, vegetable and starch? Is it the same from above? Thank you very much


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## chefbillyb (Feb 8, 2009)

When you first start out trying to cost meals for catering everything is unanswered. How much, how many, how big, to much and so on. You need to take a few things into account. The size of your plate or container are important. I had a business that did the in-house employee meals and catering for large companies. A 4oz chicken breast will be ok with a chicken Parm and a side of spaghetti W/ garlic bread. If I'm doing Maryland fried chicken breast with country gravy, I may use a 6oz chicken breast. Entrees like Lasagna will be cut 24 in a 2" full pan. The each cost would be $1.25 to $1.50 a slice with maybe a side salad and garlic toast could bring it up to a meal coast to $2.25. Food cost and portions are important when your dealing with employee meals. The employees are there to make money and feel their employer should pay for their meals. That being the case they expect good food at a low price. When I cost my meals I cost out the most expensive vegetable and starch. That way I know all other vegetable and starch sides will be coming in below cost. 

The best way to cost your entrees is to get the size of plate or container your using for the service. Take frozen vegetables and see what looks good on the plate and then weight that portion to see how many ounces it weights. For the starch Rice portions are on the container, Baked potatoes are each cost and so on. If your doing Oriental Noodles take a portion and see how 3oz look on the plate. You don't know until you know. The good thing is you only have to do the weighing and measuring of your sides once. write don't everything so you can cost out other meals when needed.........ChefBillyB


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## h0tb0x (Jan 31, 2018)

Hi guys, sorry for the late reply as i was busy the past few days, thank you for the input. How about employee meals? I got assigned to do this for a month, with a budget of $1 per person, 2 meals a day. I was thinking what would be the portion for that? Also, i am in the Philippines so Rice is definitely on the menu together with some saucy entree


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## h0tb0x (Jan 31, 2018)

Up


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## thomas fontaine (Oct 2, 2016)

Hi All
in Europe it's frequent to use tables like this one (French in kg)
http://etab.ac-poitiers.fr/lycee-hotelier-la-rochelle/IMG/pdf/Grammage_3.pdf
https://www.collegelittre.net/restauration/attachment/305647/
sorry, didn't found in English
i hope it can be helpfull


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## h0tb0x (Jan 31, 2018)

Thank you about this Sir Thomas Fontaine!  Will check it out later once i get home


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## h0tb0x (Jan 31, 2018)

i already checked out the site that you gave me, and.. wow it is in French, hehe, will try to decode it by using a translator, and also glad that we did have French language at culinary school way back then. Once again, thank you


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