How Much Food Do You Need To Serve At Thanksgiving? We Asked The Experts

Hosting Thanksgiving is basically an adult rite of passage. While you might have the fancy tools, recipes, and ingredients at the ready, doing the complicated math of figuring out how much food to serve can be tricky. In preparation for the festive day, we spoke with two executive chefs to get some serving-size tips for hosting large groups. 

Bryan Ogen, the executive chef at Bourbon Steak New York, has had a lot of experience serving restaurant-sized groups of people at his spot located in New York's JW Marriott Essex House. Chef Ogen's approach to cooking for large parties is to break down a balanced meal for each guest using some culinary math. "[The] general rule I have is to plan for about 8 ounces of protein, 3 to 4 ounces of carbs, and 3 ounces of veggies per person," they share exclusively with Tasting Table. If you've already planned out your Thanksgiving menu, this is a great way to reverse-engineer an appropriate serving size for each party. 

We also spoke with Freda Sugarman, the executive chef at Sarabeth's Greenwich Village, who had a more general approach to calculating serving sizes. Chef Sugarman says, "I like to figure 1 pound per person in the restaurant and 2 pounds per person at home where seconds and leftovers are a big part of the holiday fun. [For a group of 8], I am a believer in two of everything. Two sauces (gravy and cranberry), two starches (stuffing and mashed potatoes), two vegetables (green beans and Brussels sprouts), and two desserts (pumpkin and apple pies)." Sugarman says this helps offer your guests a lot of variety while keeping prep to a minimum.

As Chef Freda Sugarman mentioned in our exclusive chat, keeping things manageable when it comes to planning the right amount of food for a dinner party will help keep you present and less stressed during hosting. An easy way to keep things manageable is to consider one-pot recipes when sketching out your menu. By limiting kitchenware and burner space to one dish, you'll be able to spread out in your kitchen and add a variety of dishes to the table.

Another way to alleviate some hosting anxiety is starting the festivities off with a grazing table. You can add the protein, carbs, and veggies on your grazing table into the portion size calculations Chef Bryan Ogen recommended. Having a grazing table pre-made before you start cooking lifts some of the pressure of having food cooked and ready to go as soon as guests arrive. Or use a show-stopping charcuterie board to lure family into coming early and helping with meal prep and cooking.

A general rule of thumb in the hosting world is more variety calls for smaller portions. While it's tempting to take a favorite recipe and just multiply the serving size by the number of people you're hosting, the math for holiday cooking is not quite one-to-one. Most people will be getting full from the sides and snacking, so if you were to make a brisket, for example, you would want to take the ¼ cooked pound per person and minimize it to a slice or even half a slice divvied up into thin strips. Overall, if you follow the tips from Chef Ogen and Chef Sugarman, you can rest assured that no one will leave your home hungry.