Office Holiday Party of 30: How Much Food?

Thirty people is the size at which an office holiday party stops being a tray from the supermarket and starts needing a plan, and the plan is a weight. For a table that people graze from across two hours while they still have dinner ahead of them, plan on 200 to 300 grams of food per guest, which for thirty people is six to nine kilograms on the table across the event. Where the party runs after hours and the table replaces dinner, the figure rises to 300 to 400 grams a head, nine to twelve kilograms in total, with the substantial savoury category roughly doubled. Everything else in this guide is that weight divided sensibly.

Weight and pieces describe the same table from two sides, and it helps to hold both. A two-hour afternoon table where people eat elsewhere afterwards plans against six to nine pieces per guest. An after-hours table that is the meal plans against ten to fourteen pieces per guest. For thirty guests that is roughly 180 to 270 pieces on the afternoon table and 300 to 420 on the evening one, and the difference between those two counts is almost entirely the substantial savoury items — tartlets, mini sandwiches, filled pastry, skewers — which is why “is this the meal” is the first question a caterer asks.

A grazing table holds its shape because it covers six jobs at once, and the thirty-guest weight is spread across them. Rich: a hard cheese, a soft cheese, a blue if the team will eat one, cured meat and one spreadable. Fresh: seasonal fruit, cut vegetables, whole herbs used in the layout. Salty: marinated olives, cornichons, roasted peppers, pickled vegetables. Crunchy: seeded crackers, crostini, breadsticks, toasted or candied nuts. Substantial: the tartlets and small sandwiches that carry an evening. Sweet: small pastries, chocolate and dried fruit to close. Hold all six and a December swap — pears for peaches, roasted roots for tomatoes — happens inside a category without the table losing its balance.

Cheese is the category people over-order and under-eat. On a table with substantial savoury items beside it, 60 to 90 grams a person covers it, so thirty guests need roughly two to three kilograms across three or four varieties. Where cheese carries the table — a short afternoon with little else substantial — the figure rises towards 120 grams a head. Crackers and crostini run six to eight pieces a guest, 180 to 240 for thirty, which is more than most hosts expect and the reason a table runs out of crunch before it runs out of anything else.

Thirty guests want a 2.4 m surface. A 1.8 m trestle — the standard six-foot folding table — carries a grazing display for roughly twenty to twenty-five guests at appetiser level, a 2.4 m surface takes thirty to forty, and fifty guests want two 1.8 m tables joined or run as a pair. In an office that means the boardroom table, a long kitchen island or three desks pushed together and covered, and the composition is planned to the length and depth you send. Allow about 30 cm of open table edge for every guest standing at it in the same moment, which is why a table pushed against a wall queues twice as long as one you can walk around. A meeting-room table pushed against the wall and reachable from one side queues for the first twenty minutes; pulled into the room so people reach both long sides, the same table clears.

Time is the last variable. A table holding dairy and cured meat comes down after about two hours at room temperature, and after about one hour once the space is warmer than about 32 °C. An office in December runs warm rather than hot, so the two-hour window is the planning figure, and an afternoon that starts at two and runs to five is planned as two waves with the second held in the office fridge. Held-back food also solves the office party’s particular problem: half the team arrives at the start and the other half drifts in when a call ends, and a second wave placed at the forty-minute mark means the late arrivals meet a table that looks composed.

At the published figures, a thirty-guest office holiday table costs $1,260 for the food and the build at the starting rate of $42 per guest, plus applicable taxes, and $1,950 at the top of the $42–$65 per guest range where the table is the meal, plus $45 delivery within 25 km. The full arithmetic for twenty, thirty and fifty guests is in our guide to what Christmas party catering costs in Ottawa, and the terms are on our pricing page.

Two pages take this further. Our office Christmas party catering page covers the workplace formats, the building access and the invoicing; our Christmas party catering page holds the December calendar; and our how it works page walks through what happens between the enquiry and the empty platters. Send the guest count, the start time and the surface, and the quantities above become a written item list for your date.

Food for an office holiday party of thirty, by the role the table plays

The six categories on a thirty-guest table

Office Holiday Party of 30 — the short version

• Afternoon table, dinner elsewhere afterwards: 200 to 300 g per guest, six to nine kilograms for thirty.
• After-hours table that is the meal: 300 to 400 g per guest, nine to twelve kilograms for thirty.
• Pieces: six to nine pieces per guest across a two-hour afternoon; ten to fourteen pieces per guest where the table is the meal.
• Cheese: 60 to 90 g a person with substantial savoury items alongside; up to 120 g where cheese carries the table.
• Crackers and crostini: six to eight pieces a guest, 180 to 240 for thirty.
• A 2.4 m surface takes thirty to forty; a 1.8 m table carries twenty to twenty-five at appetiser level.
• Two-hour ambient hold; a three-hour afternoon runs as two waves with the second in the office fridge.
• Thirty guests at the published figures: $1,260 to $1,950 before delivery and taxes.

Planning this kind of event in Ottawa? Read how OH! handles Office Christmas Party Catering in Ottawa, or browse the service areas we cover.