Feast for Fifty

By S. L. Gore

If ever in a moment of madness, you agree to stage a dinner for fifty people, may my own experience help guide you through the odyssey. I want to establish right away that although I love to cook, I am no restaurateur.

So after succumbing to the guilt that the event wouldn’t happen without my direction, I set out to devise a menu that could be created in stages with the minimum of help. Then I braved the uncharted territory of calculating how much of each ingredient to buy and the best quality at the best price that it could be found.

A Google search was reliable for estimating the amount of meat per person as well as the asparagus. Ex: “How much chicken per person?” You must take into account bone-in or boneless. I found that the online advice overestimated the amount of rice needed and underestimated the gelato. The amounts I suggest below are corrected.

16 lbs of asparagus, trimmed and steamed 3 minutes.

Menu

Asparagus Vinaigrette and Baguette (bread)
Spinach Salad with Blue Cheese Vinaigrette Dressing
Chicken in Mushroom Sherry Cream Sauce with Wild Rice
Chocolate Gelato Sundae with Hot Fudge and Whipped Cream topped with Toasted Almonds and a Wafer Cookie.

As the New -+York Sardi’s recipe for asparagus vinaigrette calls for chilled asparagus, the veggie can be cooked ahead of time and refrigerated. Steam small batches of skinny asparagus 3 minutes. Thicker about 5 minutes. Test the first batch for correct al dente time. The bulk of the dressing can also be prepared a day ahead, leaving to the last minute the final touches of chopped parsley, pimiento, and hardboiled egg white.
Calculation for 50: 16 lbs raw asparagus trimmed to fit on the plate.

See photo on below for how to calculate vinaigrette for 50 people from a recipe for 6.

Two Mason jars of vinaigrette with olive oil, wine vinegar, chopped capers, chopped onion, chopped dill pickle, mustard and salt stand waiting for the last minute touches of parsley, hardboiled egg white and pimiento.

Chicken thigh fillets were marinated overnight in sherry and then sautéed in butter, paprika, diced onions and 5 lbs of quartered mushrooms. The chicken is cooked only 12 minutes, 6 minutes on a side, and then removed. After a quick reduction, the sautée mixture went into a giant pot to which I added copious amounts of Better than Bouillon Chicken Base and Mushroom Base, a large bottle of sherry, and 1 gallon of heavy cream. After more reduction, chicken and sherry cream sauce were combined and set aside for reheating and serving the next day.

Calculation for 50: 25 lbs of boneless, skinless thighs.

This luscious chicken dish sprinkled with chopped parsley is best served with wild rice. The cultivated “wild” rice was steamed in a rice cooker on the brown rice setting, using chicken bouillon instead of water at a ratio of 8 cups to 3 cups of rice. Caution: the cooking time is quite long, but the rice turned out perfectly.

Calculation for 50: 9 cups of rice = 27 cups cooked. Still plenty left over.

I make my own whipped cream using heavy cream, a cap of vanilla essence and a heaping tablespoon sugar per cup of liquid cream. The cream can be whipped 3 hours before serving but must be refrigerated. The slivered almonds are “toasted” in a small frying pan (a wok is best). Get the pan hot and toss in the almonds (smaller batches of 1 cup is best), stirring all the time with a wooden spoon. No oil! I like a small wok as it’s easier to lift up away from the heat from time to time to control the browning. When you judge the almonds are golden brown, turn them onto a large plate to cool.

Calculation for 50: Gelato: 16 pints. Heavy Cream: 6 cups liquid. Note: cream doubles in volume when whipped. Almonds: 3 cups slivered, blanched.

Serve to rounds of applause!