I am going to be catering an allumni dinner for about 200-250 and am going to serve ckn parm, fett alfredo, salad, breadstix was looking for another entree and maybe another side any help would be appreciated also would you recomend that we go with salad already oiled like Olive Garden or provide several types
I wouldn’t add another entree. You have a red and a white option. By adding another entree you will be substantially increasing your cost and their cost. When you cater you have to have enough for everyone and the likelihood of everyone equally wanting the three is low.
I would add a couple of sides to make up for it. A very cheap option is green beans almondine. Literally green beans a bit of butter and some slivered almonds. Looks great on the plate and very cost effective.
You could also do a veggie tray…when we cater this is probably one of the most popular things we have. We get some really nice looking Kale (green and purple), broccoli, cherry tomato, cauliflower and baby carrots. Effortless to put together. We take our ranch dressing and add cheddar cheese to thicken it for a dip.
As for your salad we usually make it just before service and mix the dressing, assuming you will have kitchen facilities. If not make it last before heading out the door. If you have two bowls I would make one and while service is going I would make another that way it is crisp. Note of caution, use parm cheese not shredded and only put croutons on the top. Cherry tomato is a better option than sliced.
Hope this helped.
Kris
A Balsamic Vinaigrette would work well for this. I would not want to mess with a selection of dressings; it just gets too messy.
If you pre-toss the salad, be sure to wait until right before it’s served or you will end up with soggy lettuce.
When we do large catering gigs with salads, we do two kinds of salad. Ceasar and garden. We add the dressing and toss a few minutes before the buffet line opens. We do ceasar on the ceasar (and add croutons last) and italian on the garden salad. We buy $2 plastic tongs for serving and just leave them behind. We use large aluminum foil turkey baking pans to serve it.