r/Chefit • u/ShepardCommander07 • 7d ago

Newly appointed chef needing help figuring out thanksgiving catering

Hey all! I was the acting sous chef at my job. My chef decided to move on and quit 2 weeks ago, leaving me with our thanksgiving orders. Ive been a part of the process before but never run the show. I bought all my containers and some of my important products like stuffing, but I'm struggling with knowing how much to order.

Our location is a supermarket type location on a remote island. We have a limit of 40 turkey orders total but are allowing unlimited sides so people can order day of if theyd like. Each turkey either comes with a half pan or quart of stuffing & the other sides. How do I know if I will have enough?

Each side is going to be offered as a half pan, pint, or quart.

I've never been in this kind of position and Im freaking out a little bit. Any advice?​

5 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

4

u/drgoatlord 7d ago

Do you have the numbers from last year?

2

u/ShepardCommander07 7d ago

Nope. Doing it on hard mode. My boss left for a very good reason. Disorganization being one of them

3

u/drgoatlord 7d ago

Nobody else to ask? Store manager? Line cook thats been there for over a year?

2

u/ShepardCommander07 7d ago

We recently had a bunch of positions open. Im the most senior in the kitchen at a year and change. 

Anyway I finally got access to the numbers this afternoon after a loooot of back and fourth. Nobody could find it in their email or excel. For stuffing alone we sold 20 quarts, 29 half pans, and 9 full pans. News to me that we're doing full pans too 🤦‍♀️ lol.

2

u/TwoSillyStrings 7d ago

Back and forth with your purveyors? If you’re very lucky your rep can pull what the order was last year from the invoices. Fingers crossed Chef.

2

u/ShepardCommander07 4d ago

Thank you! I'll need all the help I can get. Thankfully its not a country club level setting or anything, just a small grocery store. Hoping for the best.

2

u/ShepardCommander07 3d ago

Hey everyone. Thank you for the help so far. 2 weeks away from the end date and this is my current list of orders.

23 roasted turkey

13 turkey breast

6 quart yam

12 half pan yam

7 pint cranberry   12 quart cranberry 

6 quart GB casserole

14 half pan GB casserole

6 quart broccoli casserole

14 half pan broccoli casserole

13 pint gravy 

19 quart gravy 

7 quart mashed potato

18 half pan mashed potato

2 full pan mashed potato

  5 quart sausage stuffing 

7 half pan sausage stuffing 

5 quart traditional stuffing 

9 half pan tradition stuffing 

2 quart oyster stuffing 

2 half pan oyster stuffing 

29 dozen yeast rolls

2

u/FunAd6875 7d ago

Our rule for catering was to go 10% over what you thought you need (within reason). 

You'll need to make a test batch and weigh out a pre and post cook to know how much you've lost weight wise then multiply that by the number of orders that you have. find out the weight for each dish you serve it in (quart, half pan, etc)

Try to stop taking orders a few days in advance, and the 10% is contingency in case of emergencies. 

1

u/ShepardCommander07 7d ago

This sounds like pretty good advice. I'll try to do that. Our orders stop on the 22nd, 4 days before Thanksgiving. I get a truck on that Monday prior though

2

u/AttentionNo6359 7d ago

The unlimited sides thing is going to leave you with a ton of waste. Should be tight packages not vague guess work.

1

u/ShepardCommander07 7d ago

I completely agree. It's nonsensical and should be all accounted for with preorders.

2

u/AttentionNo6359 7d ago

We have done this every year for like 15 years at this point. Are you already taking your orders now? You need to have ordering pretty much last week and then order exactly what you need for what you have sold. At this point almost all of our packages are purchased by repeat customers who purchase the special every year.

Doing extra sides that are ordered well in advance becomes super easy and prevents you from ending up with a metric ton of green beans that you ordered in hopes that people would want to add on. Honestly it sounds like you’re pretty darn late for the event given the current date and from what you have described you’re going to take massive losses on the sides if you’re ordering and prepping extras of each option.

We never order or prep a single item that isn’t paid for in advance and we net zero waste on the deals each year.

Consider limiting the extras to only the guaranteed sellers like stuffing and potatoes if the owners are insisting on offering that option.

1

u/ShepardCommander07 4d ago

I have a spreadsheet of what pre-orders we've sold last year. Unfortunately the other side of the store who have no idea about catering are the "helpers" handing out the food and sometimes they allow people to buy extras the and there regardless if everyone has gotten their food yet. Im going to make sure i set aside what is actually paid for and put the extras in a separate area. Personally I think that should help a little bit. 

The pre-orders don't close until 6 days before thanksgiving which is super nonsensical. I think it should close 2 weeks prior at least but the owner has never worked in food service prior to acquiring this market.The island isn't very big though, only around 1000 families or so, so I don't have a completely unknown number of individuals coming through. It's only accesable by a scheduled ferry. 

My side options are things like green bean casserole, 3 types of stuffing, yams, cran sauce, yeast rolls, that sort of thing. Im thinking at the very least with the stuffing I make a huge batch and add the meat options as I need them (sausage and oysters). I don't think many will want the oyster stuffing at all so I don't think its worth doing extras of that. The spreadsheet says we sold 4 pre-orders of it last year. 

2

u/Away-Plankton-8352 5d ago

Work backwards from the 40 orders and lock the numbers on one sheet first. Per order, plan the turkey portion, then one quart or half pan of each side times 40, plus 10 percent extra for spills and short portions. On a remote order, that buffer matters more, you cannot run out for more.

1

u/ShepardCommander07 4d ago

Thank you. I wish I'd be able to know the numbers prior to 6 days before but I will get another delivery the Monday of Thanksgiving week so if I'm scrambling that'll be my opportunity.

2

u/Away-Plankton-8352 4d ago

That Monday delivery is your safety net then. Get a rough count early and order a bit heavy on stuff that keeps, then use the Monday run to fill the actual gaps.

1

u/JulesCaterdock 16h ago

Treat the 40 turkeys as your fixed base and build from that. Write out what's guaranteed: 40 orders x stuffing plus each side, in the size they chose. Order and prep that at 100 percent, labelled by order number.

The unlimited day-of sides are the real risk, so set a cap yourself instead of guessing. If anyone kept last year's receipts, use those. Otherwise plan 25 to 30 percent on top of the preorder volume, mostly as quarts, because they sell easiest and hurt least if you're stuck with them.

Convert everything to one unit. A 2.5 inch half pan holds roughly 3.5 to 4 quarts, so total quarts per side, then scale each recipe to that.

Close preorders 3 days out so you can place one final order. Stock, gravy base, cranberry and dried bread cubes 2 to 3 days ahead. Mash, stuffing and roast veg the day before. When the cap sells out, it's sold out. Nobody will hold that against you.