About party food calculator
Planning food for a gathering is a balance between running out and wasting too much. The calculator estimates quantities of rice, dal, sabzi, roti and sweets for your guests.
Planning tips
- Plan for a few extra guests, and include children as roughly half a portion.
- A wider menu means less of each dish per person.
- For a buffet, people take less than at a served meal.
Confirm with the caterer
Caterers know typical appetites in your region. Treat these numbers as a check on their estimate.
A worked example
For 50 guests, with two vegetable dishes planned at about 150 g per guest each, you would order roughly 15 kg of sabzi in total. For rice, a common planning figure is around 150 to 200 g cooked per guest. These are assumptions, so adjust them to your menu and guests.
Planning tips
- Order for 5 to 10 percent more guests than you expect.
- Serve the main course in two rounds so the last guests are not left with scraps.
- Arrange for leftovers to be packed or shared, to avoid waste.
