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£50 Buffet
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
in General Chat
Perhaps someone who works in food or catering can help answer this question but if I gave you £50 to lay on a Buffet what could you do for me? And how much would you say is reasonable to spend on raw materials / food compared to profit? considering I'm also bringing in 95% of all the customers that walk in through the door that night and spending money on drinks.
The bar owner I did my Salsa thing in today did a Buffet for me, I said I'd give him £50 + a share of the entrance fees so he got £80 and make a load on the bar from all the people I brought in BUT to be honest I was totally apauled by the Buffet, it was like peanuts, crisps, tiny midget sized sausage rolls, cocktail sausages, a plate of french bread with cheese on it, spring rolls and to take the total piss a plate of hair-thin sliced cucumbers (WTF??) .. I reckon total cost of the food was less then £10 maybe even £8 and that's being generous.
And there was no additional staffing costs involved cos he made it all himself whilst we were dancing.
He's damn keen to have us back again on a regular basis but I'm not so keen if he's gonna take the piss on food!!
The bar owner I did my Salsa thing in today did a Buffet for me, I said I'd give him £50 + a share of the entrance fees so he got £80 and make a load on the bar from all the people I brought in BUT to be honest I was totally apauled by the Buffet, it was like peanuts, crisps, tiny midget sized sausage rolls, cocktail sausages, a plate of french bread with cheese on it, spring rolls and to take the total piss a plate of hair-thin sliced cucumbers (WTF??) .. I reckon total cost of the food was less then £10 maybe even £8 and that's being generous.
And there was no additional staffing costs involved cos he made it all himself whilst we were dancing.
He's damn keen to have us back again on a regular basis but I'm not so keen if he's gonna take the piss on food!!
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as an example, every friday company near us orders about £60 worth of chinese food, that's off the lunchtime special menu and off the normal menu and that's for about 20-25 people, and we still make about £20 profit off of that.
so what you got offered does sound a bit pitiful to be honest
mmm ... chinese
DG - I am afraid to say it but I think you were done.
My boss came back to the office and said
"Oh we had a poofey (buffet) lunch with the accountants meeting"
Oh how I laughed
I catered for my 21st birthday party which had about 70 - 100 people at it for £70 - which was basically lots of dips, bread and cheese and sausage rolls and some quiches etc - there was quite a big table ful of food though.
But if pushed I recon I could do a nice 3 course hot buffet meal for about 30 people for £50.
Having said that for my wedding the cheepest quote we got was £50 a head for a buffet going up to well over £100 a head and thats before VAT, drink, table hire and everything else you can think of.
It was to provide something to eat for like 25 people (i.e. £2 per head) - I know if you do it on a per head basis it don't seem much but when you take into account for less then £3 you can buy 2 loaves of bread, several cans of Tuna and Mayo and make about 25+ Sandwiches. Which would have been far better then what we got.
I think I'll suggest to him maybe we keep the £50 next time and order in Pizza, since he claims £50 wasn't much money!! He'd obviously done the bare minimum possible.
What really annoys me is that if I'd order £50 worth of food from his standard menu I'd have got more food and more variety, except he'd have to have taken 10 times more time to prepare it all.
£50 per head for buffet is taking the piss ..
I think these days it's cheaper to hire out an entire resturaunt then book a hall in a hotel.
Snacks and Nibbles
Tomato & Avocado Salad (V) £2.75
Sliced Tomato and avocado topped with red onion on a lightly dressed mix salad.
Soup £2.95
Today's soup served with a chunk of baguette.
Cheese & Bacon Potato Skins £3.20
Baked potato shells topped with melted cheese and crispy bacon
Spicy Meat Balls £3.25
Served on a bed of salad with a chilli dip
Chicken Satay Skewers £3.50
Marinated chicken satay served with a peanut sauce, pitta bread and a salad garnish.
Nachos (V) £3.60 (both dips £3.85)
Large spicy tortilla chips covered with melted cheese served with garlic mayonnaise or salsa.
Falafel £4.10
Mediterranean mildly spiced chick pea nuggets served with houmous, salad and pitta bread.
Sqid Strips £4.25
Dusted squid strips in a crunchy style coating served with a lemon wedge and tartare sauce.
Mediterranean Platter £4.50
Taramasalata, houmous, mixed olives, feta cheese, jalapeno peppers, salad and pitta bread.
For 30 people you could beat that menu, with little effort and do it for beans.
I worked in a hotel for three years doing buffets for 10-350 people, so if you would like a few easy ideas for self catering PM me.
so he got £80 in cash in total from me and made loads on drinks cos of the way the lesson were structured with breaks inbetween which people used to buy more drinks.
I actually have no problems in keeping the £50 and making the damn buffet myself. I am also a member of two wholesale companies and can get really good party food packs for like £20 which would have given a lot more food and better quality then we got on the night.
The real point is though I'd expect him to want to do the catering cos out of the £50 he's probably made a pure £40+ profit by buying next to no food. Even the spring rolls were like 2 cm long they were tiny!!
Even things like Nacho and dip cos next to nothing to buy from the supermarket, for less then £1 you can get a big bag from Asda of Nachos
Mums and aunties tend to like catering though lol
yeh i guess you werent asking for alternatives, just to know that you werent crazy! His arguement would probably be that you got the room 'free' but if you didnt use him as your caterer would you have to pay for the room? See one room ive looked into renting before was £40 to hire or free if you used their buffet, but this started at £3 a head and minimum order had to be 75
lol i wrote buffy
I actually find cold finger buffet food quite fun to make.
Little Volevonts (spelling??) filled with tuna and sweetcorn or salmon
Sandwiches cut in quarters.
etc, etc
Well a lot of that stuff you can prepare several hours in advance cos it don't have to be hot, and just keep it in an airtight container!!
If we'd been at a Wetherspoons we'd have got 2 meals for £5.50 - which I'd gladly have paid the difference 50p per head to get food of that kind..
And I assume they'r stil making a good profit on it.