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Sit Down Dinner for 16
Warning - potential to be long. Thank you for reading and giving ideas.
I've hosted sit down dinners, three courses, for 10 but 16 ... eek. It is a holiday party/dinner for people who work for DH and DH's boss - it will be more formal. Heads up - I focus a lot on presentation ... from the table to the food.
We are in a temp. house - it's nice but on the smaller side - until our house is finished being built. I can manage a rectangular table to accommodate the guests but I feel like after that there isn't good space for 'buffet' serving. I think people would really be bumping into each other a lot trying to work there away around the kitchen island filling their plate.
Things I Know:
- I want to do a few appetizers (such as a few jumbo shrimp in a cup with cocktail sauce ... mini caprese salad skewers ... mini meatballs skewed ... )
- I have some mini soup tureens that have covers so I could in theory put those on the the chargers right before guests arrive and they would keep hot for a little while (I'll have to time this as I have not used them yet)
- I will do dessert in a 'tasting party' fashion.
The Difficult:
How to serve dinner so that 1) I'm not sweating everywhere, 2) everyone gets a hot bite, 3) ppl aren't looking at me/DH like nut jobs running around trying to get everyone the main course (aka them feeling uncomfortable eating while we work furiously to get everyone BUT OURSELVES served)
Based on the direction of my appetizers... I thought maybe more italian based main dish would be in order such as:
- mini lasagnas (perhaps without meat so to accommodate potential vegans). I figure those could be heating during appetizers/soup and then it wouldn't take too much effort to place the mini casserole dish on people's plates. But what would I put with it that would be equally easy to plate with nice presentation?
Thoughts appreciated!
Re: Sit Down Dinner for 16
1) Hire help. Really. I did a formal dinner for 18 in January and I paid a high school senior $10/hr to be my sous chef, dish-replenisher, and dishwasher. That $50 was totally worth it. I wasn't a frantic mess and my house was spotless at the end of the night. Consider hiring 2 people if you're really worried (which it sounds like you are).
2) Since it doesn't sound like your floorplan lends itself to a buffet, serve family style.
2.5) Does it have to be a seated dinner? Can it be a perched, heavy apps type dinner?
3) Just from brief descriptions, it sounds like you're creating lots of work for yourself with your menu. Step away from the individual portions of everything! Something like a pork chop or chicken breast, where there's obviously one, will make serving easier. Beef tenderloin would be very expensive, but it's also easy to serve. (Pork tenderloin's my favorite to entertain with, but I understand regional differences on here enough by now to understand that your eyes probably just bulged out in horror that I suggested that.)
3.5) Are you doing everything mini/individual because you think it looks prettier? Not true. Set out your good dishes, a nice, ironed tablecloth, and do a nice floral centerpiece and no one will give a hoot that they didn't have an individual X.
4) Here was my menu brainstorming post for that formal party from January. Dangit, I apparently deleted the review post - I do that sometimes if I feel like they're too personal. Lemme know if you have more questions about that - I still have the pics in photobucket that I can show you.
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I agree with PP about hiring help. You might even consider catering part of the meal to make it easy for yourself.
Did you mean vegetarian or vegan? Vegetarians don't eat meat but will (usually) eat animal products, like dairy or eggs. Vegans don't eat ANY animal product at all, even down to something like honey or chocolate (if you were considering that for your dessert). Cheese or veggie (non-meat) lasagna would be fine for vegetarians but not for vegans.
I am considering hiring an assistant, good tip.
I figured appetizers would be during cocktail/mingle time so the individual portions and presentation on pretty much all of it could be done the night before or that day in advance of the party.
For the dinner, I really like presentation on a plate instead of just putting a piece of XYZ on the plate. So that's why I thought baking lasagna (for example) in a ramekin type dish would be just as easy as putting a piece of chicken on a plate (but looks cleaner) ... but I just didn't know what to put with it (roasted veggies but I don't want to be doing a lot of cooking after the guests arrive ... maybe this is where the assistant would come in handy).
I 100% agree with the pork tenderloin. That is generally one of my main go-to dishes for dinner parties but in this case I am not sure who is a meat eater and I do not have a relationship with the guests attending - so I figure play it safe.
SORRY vegetarian to be more accurate (I said vegan in shorthand but realize they are really two different 'fruits' ;-) ). I'll meat (err haha) someone half way but can't serve 100% true vegan - given the minority likelihood in the market we live in.
Here's where I'm saying you're creating too much work:
16 shrimp cups + 16 caprese skewers + 16 meatball skewers + 16 soup tureens + 16 lasagna ramekins + mini dessert buffet. Instead of putting X ingredients in 1 dish and you're done, you're putting X ingredients in 16 dishes over and over. And think of all the dirty dishes you'll have to clean... There is great joy as a hostess in just dumping something in a dish and being done with it.
And yes, apps are made ahead of time, but so's the dinner! It's not like all these dishes are complete when they're made ahead - you've just cut some steps off - they still have to be heated/plated/arranged.
By presentation on a plate, do you mean where something is plated in the kitchen like in a restaurant? There's no way to do that at home elegantly (ie, without you looking like a crazed kitchen wench) for that many people without servers, especially if you're talking about having strict courses.
When you entertain in scale, you have to change your elements. It doesn't make them better or worse, just different. You can't plate 16 meals in the kitchen when you're at home without becoming a waitress instead of a hostess.
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First, I think your husband needs to find out if there are any dietary restrictions. If there is a vegetarian they will have caprese salad, maybe the soup if you don't use a chicken broth, and a vegetarian lasagna. What if there are 2 or 6? It's just too hard to plan without knowing.
I would put the apps in separate room from where dinner is. While people are eating and having a drink someone can plate up a soup or even easier a salad. I think you are going to be better off serving as a family style. Be sure to have some sort of side board to put dishes on to clear the table. Have more than one salt and pepper and bread basket. This just lends itself to being able to pick what you want or don't want.
If you are dead set on having an individual meal, maybe something baked in parchment paper with the protein and veggies all in one.
I vote for getting help too, anytime my parents do big formal dinners, I am always there working behind the scenes to get the plates together, and serve them.
Dito to the commenter who said too much mini will make for lots of dishes, you can easily roast a nice piece of meat (say pork tenderloins) and as long as someone who knows what they are doing can slice it, they are perfect.
I like this idea--a large piece of meat that you or your DH can slice at the table and serve the sides family style. Like someone else said, it's just too difficult to do a completely plated meal as a hostess. You'll be absent from the table a lot and not get to know and enjoy your guests. Either hire help or do things you can serve at the table. Even at a more formal dinner at someone's house, if they don't have hired help, I don't expect a plated dinner.