HOW TO COOK LUNCH FOR 40
Everything I cooked this weekend
My mother hosts a summer lunch around her birthday at the end of June every year. Together with my siblings we pull out the trestle tables and overlap the tablecloths, fill jam jars with flowers and try to locate as many plates as we can. Depending on how many people are coming we will rent the cutlery or glasses, sometimes the chairs. But the food will always be cooked by us.
This year we cooked for 40 people, last year it was 60. There was a time where it would have daunted me to cook for so many people, but years of training has taught me that it can in fact be both simple and enjoyable. The key is the prep and if you've ben here a while you will know that I LOVE a bit of prep.
So I thought I’d share a realistic party menu. What we ate and how we cooked it. Ps the AMAZING hydrangeas were originally supermarket flowers that my mum repotted at home! Quite genius and wonderful I think
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THE MENU
Three Herb Marinated Chicken with Charred Spring Onion, Pea and Almond Salsa
Fruit & Nut Rice
Roast Romano Peppers with Mozzarella and Parsley oil
Baby Gem Salad with Vinaigrette, dill and chives
Strawberries & Cream for pudding
The party was on Sunday so we did most of the prep on Saturday. I timed it and it took 4 hours. Then there were 3 hours prepping on the day which given that we fed 40 is less work than you think. I’ve broken down what we did when in case you want to do the same.
SATURDAY
Marinate the chicken
Prep the dressing for the rice. Chop the fruit for the rice
Roast the Peppers
Char the spring onions for the salsa and the rice
Start salsa
Make salad dressing
allocate dishes to plates* see note
check glasses and plates etc are clean
Napkin, cutlery count
SUNDAY
Cook the rice
Finish salsa
Make parsley oil for peppers
Cook the chicken
set table
mix rice
chop chives
