Working out how much food to cook for a crowd is the thing that catches people out. Twenty adults and twenty children do not eat the same amount, and a toddler eats a fraction of what a teenager does, so a single “per person” figure is wrong for almost everybody in the room. Put your numbers into the calculator below and it works out what to buy.
The portion sizes come from years of cooking for large numbers in professional kitchens, most recently a school kitchen serving several hundred people a day. They are on the generous side on purpose. Running out halfway through service is a great deal worse than having a bit left over.
How Much Food Do I Need?
Who are you cooking for?
Put in how many of each you are feeding. The quantities update as you type.
What is the protein? pick one
And what is it served with? pick one
Show me how that was worked out
These are raw weights to buy, before trimming and before cooking. They lean generous, because running out is worse than having a bit left. If you know your crowd eats lightly, drop the portion sizes on the second tab and everything here follows.
Portion sizes
Grams per person, raw. Change anything here and the quantities on the first tab are worked out from your figures instead of mine. Your changes are kept in this browser.
Appetite scales the whole table at once
These are catering quantities from years of cooking for large numbers, not nutritional guidance. If you are cooking in a nursery or a school and need to meet a standard, work from that standard rather than from this.
How to Use It
Enter how many of each age group you are feeding, then pick your protein and what it is served with. The quantities update as you type, and every figure shows its working if you open the panel underneath, so you can see exactly where a number came from rather than taking it on trust.
Everything is a raw weight, before trimming and before cooking. That matters most for rice and pasta, which are dry weights and roughly triple once cooked, and for anything on the bone, where you need to buy more than the figure shown.
The second tab holds the portion sizes themselves. If you know your crowd eats more, or less, change the figures there and the calculator works from yours instead of mine. Your changes stay in your own browser.
Where These Portions Come From
They are catering quantities, worked out from what large numbers of people actually eat rather than from any published table. The clearest check I have is a real service: a main course of chicken for four hundred portions used forty six kilograms of meat, which is a shade over a hundred grams a head across a room of adults, teenagers and children mixed together. The defaults here land in the same place when you feed them the same mix of people.
Two things they are not. They are not a nutritional standard, and they are not a substitute for one. If you are cooking in a nursery or a school and have to meet a published standard, work from that standard rather than from this calculator. And they assume a main meal. A buffet where people graze across several dishes needs less of any one thing, so drop the portions on the second tab accordingly.
FAQ for the Food Quantity Calculator
How much meat per person for a party?
Around 140 g of boneless raw meat for an adult, 130 g for a teenager, 90 g for a child of primary school age and 55 g for a toddler. That is for a main course where the meat is the centre of the plate. If it is a stew or a curry stretched with plenty of vegetables and rice you can come down a little, and if it is a barbecue where people go back for more you should go up.
Is that raw weight or cooked weight?
Raw, every time. Meat loses roughly a quarter of its weight in cooking, so a 140 g raw portion lands near 105 g on the plate. Rice and pasta go the other way and roughly triple, which is why a 75 g dry portion of rice looks so small in the bag and is plenty on the plate.
What about bones, skin and trimming?
The figures are boneless. Chicken thighs on the bone need roughly a third more by weight, and a whole chicken more again, because you are paying for carcass. Same with fish: a whole fish is about half fillet once it is off the bone. If you are buying on the bone, take the number the calculator gives you and add a third.
How much should I allow for a buffet rather than a sit down meal?
Less of any one dish, but more in total. People eat roughly the same amount overall and spread it across whatever is on the table, so if you are putting out four main dishes rather than one, each dish needs somewhere near a third to a half of a full portion. The simplest way to use the calculator for a buffet is to work out a full service first, then drop the portion sizes on the second tab.
Why is a toddler portion so much smaller?
Because a toddler is a fraction of the size of an adult and eats accordingly. A nursery age child eats roughly a third to a half of what a grown up does, and children of that age also eat unevenly, with a big lunch one day and almost nothing the next. Cook for the figure and expect some of it to come back.
Can I use this for a wedding or a hall event?
Yes, and the age split is exactly why it helps. A hundred and twenty guests with forty children in the room is a very different shop from a hundred and twenty adults, and treating them all the same is how people end up with trays of food going home. Put the real numbers in and the difference shows up straight away.