How do I cook for a lot of people?

Cooking for a crowd is a scheduling problem more than a cooking one. Recipes assume you're cooking one thing; the difficulty is doing several at once with one oven and finite hob space. Menu choice — specifically how many dishes need last-minute attention — determines whether it's manageable.

Step by step

1. Choose a menu where most things hold well.Braises, roasts, traybakes, salads dressed at the last moment. Anything that needs to be served within two minutes of finishing is a liability.
2. Limit yourself to one dish requiring last-minute attention.Two things needing your full attention at 7:55 is how the panic starts.
3. Check what actually fits in your oven, at what temperatures.The most common failure is three dishes needing three different oven temperatures at the same time.
4. Write a timeline backwards from serving time.Serving at 8, so meat rests 7:40, out of oven 7:35, in at 6:00, and so on. Include the things that take no cooking but do take time.
5. Prepare everything possible the day before.Chopping, sauces, marinades, desserts, laying the table. The day before is calm; the day itself is not.
6. Scale quantities sensibly — don't just multiply.Seasoning and liquid rarely scale linearly. Season to taste at the end rather than multiplying the recipe's salt.
7. Plan serving dishes and check you have enough.Running out of serving bowls at the last minute is a classic and entirely avoidable problem.
8. Build in slack, and accept that something will run late.Have something people can eat while waiting. It converts a delay into a course.

Tips

• One-pot dishes scale brilliantly and free the oven. A large braise plus bread and salad feeds a crowd with almost no last-minute work.
• Cook a large piece of meat rather than many small ones — one thermometer reading rather than twenty.
• Ask people to bring something specific rather than something unspecified. It reduces your load without producing four desserts.
• Clear as you go. A kitchen that's already chaotic at serving time makes everything harder.

Common mistakes

• Choosing several dishes needing last-minute cooking — You can't be in three places at once, and everything arrives cold or late.
• Not checking oven capacity and temperatures — Three dishes needing three temperatures simultaneously is a discovery best made the day before.
• Multiplying seasoning linearly — Salt and strong flavours don't scale proportionally. Season to taste at the end.
• Trying a new recipe for the first time — You have no sense of its actual timing, and a large group is not the moment to find out.

Questions people ask