Food quantity per person calculator
How much to prepare per guest, split across the choice of mains you are offering, and converted into the raw weight you actually have to order.
The menu
Guests serve themselves and take more than you would plate, so the protein figure is HIGHER than plated, not lower. This surprises people every time.
Starch, vegetables and salad count as one dish each. Serving two of one kind, such as two salads? Make about 60% of that row for each.
What to prepare
of food per guest, served weight
69 kg to prepare for 100 guests, with extra for 2 main options
Item by item
| Item | Per head | Prepare | Each option |
|---|---|---|---|
| Protein | 200 g | 24 kg | 12 kg |
| Starch | 140 g | 14 kg | - |
| Vegetables | 140 g | 14 kg | - |
| Salad | 85 g | 8.5 kg | - |
| Bread | 1.5 pieces | 150 pieces | - |
| Dessert | 85 g | 8.5 kg | - |
Per head figures are served weight. Only the protein row is converted to a raw weight to order. Rice and pasta gain two to three times their weight as they cook, so order them by dry weight, which is far less than the figure here. Vegetables lose a little to peeling and trimming, so order slightly over. Yields vary by cut and method, so treat them as a starting point and yield-test what you actually buy.
A planning estimate, not professional or dietary advice. Check anything you rely on against your own menu, suppliers and local food safety rules. Use of this tool is subject to our Terms.
Served weight is not purchase weight
Every portion chart you will find, including the one further down this page, gives served weight: the food that reaches the plate. Your supplier sells you raw weight. In between sits butchery trim and cooking loss, and together they are far bigger than most people expect.
A 200 gram buffet portion of roast beef is about 308 grams of raw beef on the order, because a beef roast yields roughly 65 percent once you have trimmed it and lost 25 to 30 percent in the oven. Order the chart weight and you are a third short, and you find out during service, which is the worst possible moment.
The loss is not uniform. Bone-in chicken and ribs yield around 55 percent, because bone is most of the difference rather than cooking. Fish fillet holds up best at about 75 percent. Braising and poaching beat roasting and grilling by several points, because some moisture goes back into the meat rather than up the extraction.
Starches run the other way. Rice and pasta soak up water and gain two to three times their weight as they cook, so a cooked figure copied onto the order would buy far too much. Order them dry. Vegetables sit in between: peeling and trimming take a little, so order slightly over the served weight.
Treat all of those as starting points. One study of 400 retail beef samples found cooking losses running from 24.5 to 35.8 percent within a single category, a ten point spread driven by ageing, salt and method. That is the difference between ordering correctly and ordering 10 percent wrong, so yield-test the cuts you actually buy and write your own numbers down.
Three mains does not mean three times the food
The most expensive line on a quote is usually the one where somebody offered choice and costed it as though every guest would eat every option.
You cannot simply divide by the number of options either, because uptake is never even and running out of the popular main at guest 60 is the failure everyone remembers. The answer sits between the two: prepare a bit more than one portion per head in total, and split it unevenly enough to absorb a surprise.
- Two options: about 120 percent of the headcount in total, so roughly 60 percent of each.
- Three options: about 132 percent in total, so roughly 44 percent of each.
- Four options: about 140 percent in total, so roughly 35 percent of each.
- Six options: about 152 percent in total, so roughly 25 percent of each.
Notice the total climbs quickly at first and then flattens. That is the right shape: the more options there are, the less any single one of them can run away with. It also means the jump from one option to two is the expensive one, and going from four to six barely moves the total.
This applies to the mains, where each guest picks one. Sides are different: a guest takes some starch, some vegetables and some salad, so each counts as one dish. If you serve two of one kind, such as two salads, make about 60 percent of that amount for each. And when guests choose a plated main in advance, you already know the counts, so cook to those plus a few spares.
How much meat per person, buffet or plated
This one is counter-intuitive enough that people assume the chart is wrong. A plated main is portioned in the kitchen at around 140 grams (5 ounces) of cooked meat or fish and nobody gets more than that. Put the same food on a buffet and the same guest takes what looks right to them, which is consistently more, so you allow around 200 grams (7 ounces) a head.
Family style lands in between at about 170 grams. Guests still help themselves, but a table of ten watching a shared platter self-regulates in a way a buffet queue does not.
So a buffet is not automatically the cheaper option. It saves you service labour, which is real money, and it costs you food. Which way that trade lands depends on the job, and it is worth working out rather than assuming.
Reference: served weight per person
Per guest, before the choice of mains and before the raw-weight conversion. These are the working figures the calculator uses.
| Service style | Protein | Starch | Veg | Salad |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plated | 140 g 5 oz | 140 g 5 oz | 140 g 5 oz | 70 g 2.5 oz |
| Buffet | 200 g 7 oz | 140 g 5 oz | 140 g 5 oz | 85 g 3 oz |
| Family style | 170 g 6 oz | 140 g 5 oz | 140 g 5 oz | 70 g 2.5 oz |
Bread runs 1.5 to 2 pieces a head and dessert about 85 g (3 oz) on every style. A grazing table is costed as one spread rather than courses: roughly 60 g cured meats, 70 g cheese, 60 g breads and crackers, 40 g dips and 80 g fruit and vegetables per head.
How much food for 50, 100 or 150 guests
Total served food to prepare, including dessert, with one main and a standard appetite. Add the extra for a choice of mains on top, and convert the protein to raw weight before you order.
| Service style | 50 guests | 100 guests | 150 guests |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plated | 28.8 kg 64.1 lb | 57.5 kg 128.1 lb | 86.3 kg 192.2 lb |
| Buffet | 32.5 kg 71.9 lb | 65 kg 143.8 lb | 97.5 kg 215.6 lb |
| Family style | 30.3 kg 67.2 lb | 60.5 kg 134.4 lb | 90.8 kg 201.6 lb |
Canapés for 100 guests: about 750 pieces over a two hour reception before a meal, or 1,200 pieces over four hours when the canapés are the meal.
How we checked these figures
The per-dish figures on this page come from a published catering portion guide. To check them, we compared them with a separate, widely used rule of thumb: a buffet needs 1 to 1.25 pounds (roughly 450 to 570 grams) of savoury food per guest, not counting dessert.
Add up this calculator's buffet figures for protein, starch, vegetables and salad and you get 565 grams (20 ounces) per guest. That is 1.25 pounds, the top of that range. Two independent sources giving the same answer is a good sign the figures are right.
The top of the range suits a buffet, because guests serve themselves and take more. And 565 grams is what one guest eats. If you offer a choice of mains, you also make some extra protein, because uptake is never even. The calculator adds that for you.
How many canapés per person
Canapés, appetizers or hors d'oeuvres: whatever you call them, they are counted in pieces over time rather than by weight, and the common mistake is to pick a per-hour rate and multiply. Guests arrive hungry and graze less as the evening goes on, so the first hour is always the heaviest.
Before a sit-down meal, allow about five pieces in the first hour and two or three for each hour after, which puts a two hour reception near seven or eight a head. When the canapés are the meal, start at six and add about two for each hour after, which lands a four hour party at 12 pieces. Counting six an hour across all four hours would have you making 24.
Quantities and costs from the same numbers
Working out quantities and working out price are the same job done twice, and they drift apart the moment they live in two spreadsheets.
In 1pm, ingredients carry their cost, recipes are built from ingredients, and menus are built from recipes. The quantity you need and the plate cost come off the same figures, so changing a supplier price updates both at once.
Next step: catering price per head. This page tells you how much to make. That one tells you what to charge for it.
Common questions
Around 565 grams, or 1.25 pounds, of savoury food per head across protein, starch, vegetables and salad, with dessert on top of that. The protein is the biggest single piece at roughly 200 grams or 7 ounces. That is served weight, so the amount you actually buy is higher once trim and cooking loss are accounted for.
For a buffet with one main, about 65 kilograms or 144 pounds of served food including dessert. Offer two mains and it rises to about 69 kilograms or 153 pounds, because you make 120 percent of the headcount in protein. If that protein is a beef roast, order about 37 kilograms or 81 pounds of raw meat to end up with 24 kilograms on the plate.
Because guests serve themselves. A plated main is portioned in the kitchen at around 140 grams, and nobody gets more. On a buffet the same guest takes what looks right to them, which is consistently more, so you allow around 200 grams. It catches people out because a buffet feels like the cheaper option.
No, and this is the most expensive mistake on a quote. You need about 132 percent of the headcount in total, not 300 percent, split as roughly 44 percent for each of the three. Uptake is never even, so you cannot simply make a third of each. Two options is about 60 percent each, and four is about 35 percent each. If guests choose a plated main in advance, cook to their counts instead.
Around seven or eight pieces per head if dinner follows, and about eight if the canapés are the meal, rising to twelve over four hours. The first hour is always the heaviest because guests arrive hungry, so a flat per-hour rate over-caters a long reception. This calculator loads the first hour and tapers each hour after it.
No. Portion charts give served weight, the food that reaches the plate. Between that and your supplier order sits butchery trim and cooking loss, which together take 25 to 45 percent depending on the cut. A 200 gram served portion of roast beef is about 308 grams of raw beef on the order. Ordering the chart weight leaves you roughly a third short. Rice and pasta go the other way: they gain weight as they cook, so order them dry.
Typical rather than exact, and worth testing against your own cuts. One study of 400 retail beef samples found cooking losses spanning 24.5 to 35.8 percent inside a single category, a ten point spread driven by ageing, salt and cooking method. Wet-heat methods like braising hold several points more weight than dry-heat roasting. Use these as a starting point, then yield-test what you actually buy.
Turn the quantities into a costed menu
1pm holds your ingredients, recipes and menus with the costs attached, so quantities and plate costs come off the same numbers instead of two spreadsheets that disagree.