Catering & Events Calculators

Party food quantity, drink planning, catering cost, and bulk cooking calculators for events of any size.

Cooking for a crowd is a different discipline from cooking for a household. The arithmetic changes: per-person quantities depend on event format, duration, guest demographics, and menu variety in ways that a simple recipe multiplier cannot capture. A four-hour wedding reception with 150 guests requires a fundamentally different food calculation than a two-hour afternoon BBQ for 30 — even if both serve the same menu.

The tools in this section apply catering-industry per-person guidelines to your specific event parameters. The food quantity planner estimates total food weight across categories — proteins, sides, salads, breads, desserts — adjusted for buffet, plated, BBQ, or cocktail formats. The party drink calculator handles beer, wine, spirits, and non-alcoholic beverages with customisable preference splits and ice estimates.

For proteins specifically, the meat-per-person calculator accounts for bone-in adjustments and cooking yield so purchase weights reflect what guests actually eat. The recipe cost calculator tracks ingredient costs, labour, overhead, and food cost percentage for anyone pricing homemade goods or catering services. Complementary tools for brining and canning and preserving cover preparation techniques commonly needed at scale.

Every estimate includes a category caveat explaining the assumptions and limitations of the calculation. Read the methodology page for details on data sources and verification.