How much salad to feed 40 people

[paul7979]

I usually do not sell salads but took an order to food 40 people lunch tomorrow and salad was one of the requirements. How much salad should I expect to go through? I will also be feeding them pizza, pepperoni rolls and dessert.

 

[Piper]

I would do 8.75 pounds of greens if it is for appetizer/side. I figure 3.5oz of greens per person if it’s an even mix of men and women. If it’s all women I go more, all men I go less. It never fails when I cater pizza and salad that the women eat mostly salad and the men eat mostly pizza. These numbers also include a decent cushion if you’re charging per person.

For forty people, beyond the greens, my catering salad would also have 10oz black olive, 10oz tomato, 10oz mozzarella cheese, 70 small pepperoni slices and 60 fluid ounce of dressing. It’s way too much dressing, but people load it on and I don’t want them to run out.

I charge $1.49 per person for this salad if they’re also buying mains from me. My menu price would be $1.89 per person if they’re not buying anything else.

If you don’t normally do salads you may not know this, but lettuce prices and quality stink right now. I’m only getting about half the yield from a case as two months ago and the price is up 40%.

Edited to add: The per person amount and the price come down if the party is dine-in where I can have more salad ready to serve if needed… no cushion necessary. I think you’re a DELCO so that probably doesn’t apply.

 

[brad_randall]

We chop one head of iceberg lettuce into four side salads. I ate a McDonald’s side salad this weekend and it was probably about half of one of mine. So, 5 to 10 heads of lettuce depending upon the male-to-female ratio of the group. Put out some sliced veggies if it looks like you need to stretch it farther.

Edit: Piper is way too fast for me.

Illegal Double Edit:

Piper:

and 60 fluid ounce of dressing.

How do you deliver that? Individual portion cups or do you have a jumbo container? I’ve purchased plastic squirt bottles in the past, but I wonder if there’s a better way.

 

[Piper]

brad randall:

How do you deliver that? Individual portion cups or do you have a jumbo container? I’ve purchased plastic squirt bottles in the past, but I wonder if there’s a better way.

I use clear plastic deli containers, the kind you might get if you bought potato salad at a local store. I have an assortment from 6oz up to 32 oz. They’re pretty thick and have a lid that snaps on so tightly you can turn it upside down and it won’t leak.

The name of the manufacturer is escaping me right now but I’ll look when I’m at the store. My local restaurant supply store stocks them. They’re expensive at about 50 cents each for the big one, but worth it.

I love selling catering salads - no additional labor, we can make them hours ahead of time and the margins are awesome.

 

[Pakula_s_Pizza]

4 aluminum catering trays 1/2 size med deep. Im sure there will be extra but its about 1 tray for 10 people.

 

[famouspizza]

depends if they are big salad eaters…if they just want some greens on the plate and don’t have a bunch of vegetarians I would do at least a full tray (deep) up to 2 trays. We include (2) 16oz deli containers of dressing, plastic serving forks, and plastic spoons for the dressing…make sure to include heavy-duty plates if they are having salad and plasticware