Catering planning runs on rules of thumb that are held in kitchens and passed between staff: how much food per head, how many servers, how much ice. They are rarely written down in one place, and the versions online are usually buried in a sales page.
This site collects them, states the assumption behind each one, and puts the arithmetic in calculators so the numbers can be adjusted rather than copied.
What this site is not
It is not a catering company. It does not sell food, take bookings, accept advertising or earn commission, and it does not recommend suppliers. No company, menu, price or review on this site is invented, because there are none.
Accuracy and limits
The figures are conventional planning ranges, and reasonable caterers differ on them. Food safety, alcohol licensing, allergen labelling and employment rules vary by country, state and venue, and local requirements always take priority over anything written here. Nothing here is legal, health or financial advice.
If something is wrong or a range looks off, send a correction and it will be fixed.
Photographs and clips
Photographs show tables, venues and kitchens. None is a client, a supplier or an endorsement. All are from Unsplash and used under the Unsplash licence.
The three moving scenes on the front page are generated, not filmed: they were made with Google's video model and cut into still frames. They are atmosphere, nothing more. No scene shows a real event, a real kitchen or a real dish, and nothing in them should be read as a photograph of anything that exists.
- A banquet table laid for service, by McFollis
- A buffet line, by Saile Ilyas
- Staff plating during service, by Haberdoedas
- Wine poured at an event, by Matthieu Joannon
- Working out a budget, by Aaron Lefler
- A plated course, by Louis Hansel
- Servers finishing a table, by CHUTTERSNAP
- Signing a contract, by Cytonn Photography
- Planning notes, by Walls.io
- A marquee before an event, by Sara Kozak
- A salad course, by logan jeffrey
- A room set with round tables, by Matt Benson
- A chef plating, by Sebastian Coman Photography
- A place setting, by Artem Beliaikin
Page revised 18 September 2026.