Tips on Cooking for a Crowd

Our Christmas party

Another Christmas has come and gone and I must admit I made it through the holiday season with a modicum of Christmas spirit.  Not exactly Scrooge, but certainly not my usual self, overflowing with cheer, going overboard on the present buying, drinking gallons of egg nog and annoying Bones with an endless stream of carols on the iPod.  Maybe it’s because this is my forty-seventh Christmas (that’s a lot of Christmases).  Maybe it’s because Audrey is almost 12 and way too cool to pretend to believe in magic, even for my sake.  Whatever the reason, it was a quiet Christmas this year.

Except for the parties.  My lack of Christmas spirit didn’t seem to extend to the kitchen.  I doubt I’ll ever pass up the chance for a good cookup with family and friends.  I usually go all Southern at the holidays and the table groans with regional favorites like country ham, biscuits, pimento cheese, gumbo and bourbon cake.  But this year I was feeling Italian.  Probably a holdover from our summer vacation.  After much deliberation and flipping through cookbooks, I came up with the following menu for our Christmas party.

Antipasti
Salumi - Spicy Wild Boar Salsiccia, Salami, Cotechino *
Formaggio – Gorgonzola, Caciocavallo, Parmigiano Reggiano with Chestnut Honey *
Grilled Red Peppers, Zucchini, Artichokes and Mushrooms
Pizza Bianca
Yael and Steve’s Hanukkah Latkes *
Assorted Cured Olives and Kettle Chips *

Secondi
Grilled Pork Shoulder Stuffed with Fennel and Rosemary
Penne alla Norma
Salad of Arugula and Shaved Parmigiano Reggiano with Lemon Vinaigrette
Country Bread and Baguette *

Dolce
Brownies *
Banana and Passion Fruit Pavlova *
Trinidadian Black Cake
Cranberry Cornmeal Cake *
Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies *

I’d wanted to keep it small this year but these things have a habit of getting away from me and next thing I knew there were 40 people expected for dinner.  For pasta.  I’d never done pasta for that many people (lasagna doesn’t really count) but I took a deep breath and dove in.  It turned out well, if I do say so myself.  Nothing to be nervous about at all.  I thought now would be a good time to share a few things I’ve learned over the years about cooking for a crowd.

Antipasti

1.  Confidence is everything.  If you think you can do it, you can.  Really.

2.  Preparation is everything else.   Make lists, lots of lists.  Shopping lists, lists of dishes to be made ahead, lists of the serving pieces you need (you know, the big ones that only come out when you’ve invited a crowd so they need a wash), time lines and schedules.  This is one time when organization pays off, big time.  Anything you can make ahead, make ahead.

3.  Consider your guests when planning the menu.  I occasionally threaten to throw a party and invite only our atheist, carnivorous, allergy-free friends who are not on a diet.  Because it can be difficult to cater to the dietary requirements of friends and family.  But they are just that, family and friends, and I want them around me at the holidays and I want them to feel welcome.  So I plan my menus accordingly.  Now, I don’t mind putting a dish out that I know some of my guests can’t eat, like the pork I served this year.  I just make sure there is plenty they can eat.  Hence the vegetarian pasta and the chips and brownies for the kids.  One exception to this rule…I do not cater for weird soup diets or imaginary, self-diagnosed ”food allergies.”  (Real food allergies are another matter entirely.)  Luckily, my friends are relatively sane.

4.  Almost every cookbook I’ve read says never, ever cook something for guests that you’ve never made before.  Bollocks.  I know how to cook and I know what I’m capable of producing.  I always think of a party as the perfect opportunity to try something new.

But I do occasionally shy away from a recipe that requires a technique I’ve not tried.  For instance, on Christmas Eve I wanted to make a dish with salt cod and found a wonderful sounding Venetian recipe, baccalà mantecato, a sort of garlicky salt cod paste.  But I’d never had it before and the recipes I found were all wildly different.  I couldn’t even find a good photo that showed what the finished dish was supposed to look like.  So I passed on the Venetian recipe and made a cod and chickpea salad instead.  I’d never made that either but I had a good idea of what I wanted it to taste like and I was confident it would work.  And it did.

More antipasti

5.  When help is offered, accept it.  I used to be something of a control freak in the kitchen, to put it mildly.  I wanted to do everything myself, my way.  I’ve lightened up with age and these days when someone asks if they can do something, the answer is usually yes.  Not necessarily help in the kitchen, because my kitchen is the approximate size of a postage stamp and I can’t turn around if there’s anyone else in there.

But if you look at the menu above, all of the items marked with an asterisk were either brought by guests or purchased ready-made.  People love to be helpful and a lot of them love a chance to contribute a dish to your party.  Loosen up and let them.  Men love to play bartender or help with the barbecue.  Kids feel very grownup when asked to pass a tray of hors d’œuvres.  And don’t forget invite some Brits to your party.  For some reason, English people just love to help with the washing up.

6.  Speaking of washing up, if you’ve got more guests than you have dinnerware (I have 26 dinner plates and had 40 guests, you do the math), make sure you invest in good-quality, heavy-duty plastic plates, cutlery and cups.  I love those pretty, festive holiday plates and cups as much as the next gal.  But they always seem to be made of flimsy paper.  And a lap full of pasta is not festive.

7.  Going back to tip number 5, if you live somewhere that has access to good ready-made food, then don’t be afraid to take advantage of it.  You don’t think those chic Parisian hostesses turn out all that wonderful French food in their tiny, ovenless kitchens do you?  Mais non, they take advantage of the amazing prepared food on offer at the traiteur, the boulangerie, the pâtisserie, the chocolaterie, the fishmonger, the boucherie and the neighborhood markets.  If you’ve got it, use it.

8.  I love finger food.  Meze, tapas, nibbles, hors d’œuvres…whatever you want to call it.  I love cocktail meatballs and canapés and bite-sized pastries.  And they’re so festive.  But I’ll tell you this for nothing.  It’s at least 3 times as much work to produce finger food for 40 people than it is to produce a meal for the same crowd.  Maybe more.  I can confirm from much experience that making lots of little bites is much more time-consuming (and often more expensive) than producing a full-on meal.  Nibbles are just so darn fiddly.

Anthony - a most helpful guest

9.  I do like to have a glass of wine when I’m cooking but it’s a very good idea to limit your tippling while you’re in the kitchen.  Bad things happen to drunken cooks.  Just wait until your guests have arrived and dinner is served.  Then feel free to tie one on if you must.

10.  One odd thing about spending days preparing for a meal is that I never seem to eat much at my own parties.  I’ve been planning and preparing and tasting as I go along (you do taste as you cook, don’t you?).  And I’m just not hungry.  No worries, I always plan for leftovers for the next day.  And not eating does make the process of tying one on that much quicker.

11.  Never apologize for anything you cook.  I learned this one from Julia Child and she’s right.  Unless you’ve made a total mess of things, most of your guests won’t even notice unless you point it out to them.  Why would you want to do that?  And your guests are really there for the company, not the food.  Or they should be.  If any of your friends complain about the food, you need new friends.

12.  Last but certainly not least – don’t forget to enjoy yourself.  This should be easy if you’re confident and well-prepared.  And your guests will have more fun if they see you’re having fun and not sweating in the kitchen.  After all, it’s your party too!

Tagged as: entertaining, family, holidays, tips