How Much Food for 20, 30 or 50 Guests at Home? A Simple Planning Chart

Every host has the same fear: running out of food with guests still at the table. So most of us over-cook, and the next three days are leftovers. With a little planning you can make enough, comfortably, without the fridge full of dal makhani all week.

The quantities below are a rough guide for an Indian dinner party where the meal is the main event. Adjust for your crowd. A group of college friends eats very differently from a kitty party, and lunch is lighter than dinner.

Start with the menu, not the quantities

How much of each dish you need depends on how many dishes there are. The more variety on the table, the less of each dish people take. For most house parties, this shape works well:

• 2–3 starters (at least one veg)
• 2 main curries (one paneer or veg, one dal, or a non-veg curry)
• 1 rice dish (jeera rice, pulao or biryani)
• Rotis or naan
• Raita and salad
• 1 dessert

If biryani is the star of the meal, cut the rice-plus-curry quantities and plan more biryani instead.

Per-person quantities (cooked food)

• Starters: 6–8 pieces per person in total across all starters, if a full meal follows. Make it 10–12 if drinks go on for a couple of hours before dinner.
• Paneer or veg curry: about 120–150 g per person per curry when there are two mains.
• Chicken or mutton curry: about 150–200 g per person (with bone).
• Dal: about 100–150 ml per person.
• Rice: about 150 g cooked per person (roughly 60–75 g uncooked rice).
• Biryani as the main dish: about 300–350 g per person.
• Rotis or naan: 2–3 per person.
• Raita: about 80–100 g per person.
• Dessert: 2 pieces of gulab jamun, or about 80–100 g of halwa or kheer.

Food chart for 20, 30 and 50 guests

Using the per-person amounts above, for a dinner with two mains, rice, rotis, raita and one dessert:

Food for 20 guests

• Starters (total pieces): 120–160
• Paneer or veg curry: 2.5–3 kg
• Chicken curry (with bone): 3–4 kg
• Dal: 2–3 litres
• Rice (uncooked): 1.2–1.5 kg
• Rotis or naan: 40–60
• Raita: 1.5–2 kg
• Gulab jamun: 40 pieces

Food for 30 guests

• Starters (total pieces): 180–240
• Paneer or veg curry: 3.5–4.5 kg
• Chicken curry (with bone): 4.5–6 kg
• Dal: 3–4.5 litres
• Rice (uncooked): 1.8–2.2 kg
• Rotis or naan: 60–90
• Raita: 2.5–3 kg
• Gulab jamun: 60 pieces

Food for 50 guests

• Starters (total pieces): 300–400
• Paneer or veg curry: 6–7.5 kg
• Chicken curry (with bone): 7.5–10 kg
• Dal: 5–7.5 litres
• Rice (uncooked): 3–3.75 kg
• Rotis or naan: 100–150
• Raita: 4–5 kg
• Gulab jamun: 100 pieces

If you serve both a chicken curry and a paneer curry, guests split between them, so plan each at the lower end of its range.

Turning cooked quantities into a shopping list

A few conversions help when you're buying groceries:

• Paneer: about 60–75 g of raw paneer per person for one paneer dish (so roughly 1.2–1.5 kg for 20 guests).
• Chicken: about 200–250 g raw (with bone) per person if it's the only non-veg main.
• Dal: about 30–40 g of uncooked dal per person.
• Atta: roughly 1 kg makes 25–30 medium rotis.

Buy onions, tomatoes, ginger-garlic, curd, cream and fresh coriander with a margin. They run out first, and they're the hardest things to get at 8 PM on a Saturday.

Things that change the numbers

• Kids: count two children as roughly one adult.
• Lunch vs dinner: lunch crowds usually eat about 20% less.
• Long drinks before dinner: more starters, slightly less main course.
• Mostly vegetarian guests: shift quantity from the non-veg curry to paneer and dal.
• Jain or satvik guests: keep at least one main and the dal without onion and garlic, and mark them clearly.

Common mistakes

• Too many dishes. Eight dishes in small quantities is more work and more waste than five dishes done well.
• Rotis made too early. They go hard. Plan for rotis or naan to be made fresh while guests eat.
• Everything in one burst. Starters, mains and rotis all need the gas at the same time. Plan what can be cooked ahead (dal, gravies, dessert) and what must be last-minute.

Let a chef do the maths and the cooking

With BMC Feast, you pick your menu dish by dish and the number of guests, and see the price before you pay. Once the booking is confirmed, your chef shares the ingredient list for your menu, so you know exactly what to buy. On the day, the chef arrives early enough to cook everything fresh in your kitchen and cleans the cooking area afterwards. It works for anything from a dinner for a few people to a party of 100.

Planning something specific? See ideas for a house party, a birthday or a kitty party menu, or book a party chef for your date.