Planning Food for 30 Guests
Wholesale quantities start to pay off
Thirty guests is where warehouse-club pack sizes stop being too big and start being exactly right: a 6-pound bag of wings, a full flat of burger patties, or a case of soda maps cleanly onto the quantities in the table above. Buying party-size packs at this head count usually costs noticeably less per serving than grocery-store portions.
Service is the other change. Thirty is the practical limit for one serving line; expect the line to take 15 to 20 minutes to feed everyone, and hold back part of each dish so late arrivals do not face empty trays. Chafing dishes or a low oven earn their keep here, because food sits out through a long serving window.
For the general rules behind these numbers (the 1-pound-per-adult baseline, how to mix mains and sides, and when to add a buffer), see Party Food Planning 101 or the serving size chart.