catering a men's breakfast

50 hungry men, offsite....limited standard stove.....

I used to make breakfast for 170ish on a regular basis, cook, shlepp, setup all by 8:30am. Got up at 4am to bake off the muffins, pastries, make coffee/tea, package fruit cups, setup.....

Everything was prepped night before so that all I needed to do was add liquid and bake, plug in coffee pot, turn on stove....

 

Biscuits with ham & or sausage gravy, you're in NC so finding good country ham should not be an issue.  Cream Gravy, made at your kitchen and heated on site  (chafer)

Biscuits OK room temp.... or warm.  I cut mine in squares to expedite making them and having no waste. 

 

 

Egg Strata, potatoes, onions, egg, cheese.....cambro to keep warm....the potatoes will bulk up the dish and you won't have to worry about cold hash browns.

 

Fruit...Can be made day before, better to make day before from a time perspective.

 

Baked goods... puff sheets filled with shtuff....chocolate/coconut, fruit, cream cheese & dried fruit....whacky crazy how many people love chocolate at breakfast.  Puff gives you oh ah factor is easy to work with and realitively cheap.   You can bake these things off early and they are good room temp....waffles aren't and really are difficult to cook in bulk if you are making from scratch. 

 

Cheese Grits....NC is still in grit country. Anson Mills is in South Carolina....can be made in casserole form and will hold heat in a cambro. Again, cheap filling, yummmmy. 

 

Oatmeal setup is another good one....50 guys, I'd just have a bunch of toppings around a roaster or chafer or soup pot of oatmeal. 

 

JMTC...

If you do waffles for 50 hungry guys, unless you have 10 waffle machines ,you will get killed, and they will be on line 2 hours. OR you can make them ahead of time(not asGood) and keep warm. Your biggestproblem is keeping everything hot. I suggest cambros and  chaffing dishes. Don't get fancy with Brulees and such , just good comfort type breakfast  and a lot of it as.\These guys will hit like locust.

Ham over bacon.....think of how many pieces of bacon guys will go through on a buffet....

How's this:

Cinnamon Toast Crunch French Toast

 

You'll need a tilt skillet, at least, but I can guarantee that 50 dudes will enjoy the hell out of it. I'm at CIA and I live off campus- my roommates are 3 voracious eaters- all culinary students, and this one gets em' every time. 

 

Heavy Cream Royale with shaved coconut and cinnamon, I use Challah for the bread, but whatever you like, then roll it in Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal that's been robo couped. Cook in clar. butter until crisp. 

 

AMMENDMENT TO PREVIOUS POST:

I neglected to read the bottom part. You's be able to do it with a stove, but it'd be long and tedious. They'd hold for an hour, though. 

                      Since you are not getting payed you will want to minimize the stress level . I suggest the day before grill 50 6oz steaks to med- rare , cover with fried mushrooms and onions , let cool , put in 2 inch hotel pan ,  wrap with plastic wrap , then with foil . Mark foil with marker " steak" . Reserve . In another hotel pan put bacon ,  nice sausage , small grilled ham steaks . Repeat covering steps and write on with marker

"breakfast meat". In another make your home fries cover and mark . In another make your egg dish or bring egg mix with you and make 2 types off scram eggs , one with veggies and cheese , other plain , using the church stove .  Dont bring whole eggs as you will be doing eggs to order .

                All this food will be in a walk in at the first kitchen , you can heat it there and transport it in portable cambro hot boxes , which i suggest .

Have a themometer to check reheat progress , the reason all food is marked is so you dont have all kinds of people opening them over and over , cooling them down . If toast is too hard to serve , have trays of croissant ( good with eggs ) , danishes , banana bread , muffins etc. You can even tray these up the day before , but try to warm them somehow , just dont serve them from the fridge .

               A waffle bar is easier if you make the waffles the day before , then heat slowly in oven uncovered ( so they crisp) . Maybe a few big boxes of cereal.  Coffee , tea , a few diff juices . Make a checklist and check it alot also make an action plan with times . Make it an old school man's breakfast . remember the more items , the more chance of error . Happy cooking , Mitchell

 

I think you're all way off the mark. All you need to do is serve three(3) things: bacon, coffee/beer and toast. You should be the favorite chef of the church. 

Full english, -- 2 bacon rashers, 2 sausage, 75Ml Baked Beans, 75ML tinned tomatoes, 50G sliced mushroom, 2 fried eggs, 2 sliced fried bread,

Don't make it complicated, Only do what you can produce well forget bacon go ham and sausage patties

I'd have to agree and say keep it simple.  Larger potato cubes will keep/hold better than shredded brown.  Some form of eggs,  B&G, ham and/or sausage links.  Whole fruits maybe if you want to keep it really simple.  Gallons of coffee!  For 50 hungry guys, I'd probably do 5-6 eggs per, maybe 2 slice ham and 2-3 sausage dep. on size of saus.

 

Shroomgirl's suggestion of strata is a great idea.  Nice heavy hitter, hold wells, simple and full of goodies. Muffins are great - you could do corn muffins, maybe with rst grn chiles, bacon and cheese?

 

Side note: We do brunches pretty often, and every time there is that one person who takes approximately 1 dz. eggs in a go and eats a few bites only :)  What can you do?  You feed them breakfast = they will love you!

We make caramel rolls from scratch.  When we have leftover rolls & get a breakfast catering we make a blueberry cream cheese french toast.  Cut up the rolls. Mix together eggs milk sugar & vanilla. Cover cut up rolls in a pan & dot with cream cheese & blueberries.  Serve with whipped honey butter & syrup.  It always gets great reviews. Holds & transports nicely too.

I would suggest always going with something that can sit for a while. Scrambled eggs in a warmer have always done me right. Also fresh fruit can sit out but won't be quite as popular. (Melons are a good route.) Waffles sound like a nightmare unless you prep them... Anyway my 2 cents.

Steaks cooked the day before???? Not in my kitchens.  French Toast good,  Chipped beef on biscuits good, fruit ok , muffins, bagels , ham. scrambled, corned beef hash  all of these easy to keep hot, sausage cakes.

I made mashed potato/onion/bacon cakes this morning with fresh tart applesauce....awesome crowd pleaser.

 

Getting ready to do this again- I'm not a pro, just a FRG volunteer. Last time, I brought hash browns (ran out too soon, after 3 bags) & a spicy cheesy shrimp & grits casserole, this was a success, since it's kind of rich, I could get away w/ small scoops, & I had people come back for seconds. This time, I'm doing sausages (fried ahead, in an electric skillet) & the shrimp& grits. If it's anything like the last time, it'll be an an extremely fast line, serving 50-100 people-I'm looking forward to it, my only taste of what real catering might be like...I've learned so much from this group, & others, just wanted to say, " thanks"....

Although I thought it was funny, first time I served the shrimp& grits, how many people asked, "what's in this? What's the calories/fat?- I'm watching what I eat"

Admittedly, it's a little rich, but in small amounts, it's ok for breakfast...(myself, I definitely prefer savory for breakfast) .

To make things easier,

 

You can always make your panckaes in muffin tins.

 

 Ever hear of the ' Mississippi breakfast bake' .

 

 

 

Corn fritters are a big hit. Make a big batter , cut in half , make corn fritters (serve alone or with salsa) and the other half, make apple fritters with a sprinkle of icing sugar & cinnamon, all can be made ahead of time.

 

 

just a thought.

 

Petals.