Line set up does matter - Cost control

I know portions of this topic has been covered in other topics before but I wanted to share a recent experience that made my jaw drop (in a good way).

Last year I catered a big corporate event for 500 people and we were pretty much spot on with the food. It was a one-time through lunch for the employees and the customer supplied the servers so, while it wasn't self-serve, the portion control wasn't a perfect as if it were our staff.

We prepared enough food for one meat and two sides per person assuming 5 servings per pound of meat and 8 servings per quart of the sides (10 for beans). The line was set up (in order) pulled pork, pulled chicken, slaw, mac/chz, beans. We used 8 3/4" plates.

We were invited back to do the event again this year and nothing changed except I decided to set up the line differently. This time is was set up: Slaw, beans, mac, pork, chicken. Again, we were spot on with the food except we had 21 pounds of meat left over!!! Yes, 21 pounds! Also, after about 400 were served, we still had lots of mac pans so we told that person to be generous with servings. We had about a pint of slaw, a quart and a half of beans and about a quart of mac left over.

It seems line set up really does make a difference. It's all about real estate on the plate and with slaw and beans first, there is less room for the meat.

I wanted to share this experience with everyone and hopes it helps you in the future budgeting your food amounts.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks for the replies, guys. Glad I could contribute something helpful to the community. As far as the bun, I use Sunbeam buns, not exactly sure of the diameter, my guess is 3", but they are a little smaller than others. 3 1/2 oz of pork makes it look like a HUGE sandwich.

Another operational note on the event. The first year I did everything in full pans but used half pans this year and I like the half pans better. When we replenished the line with the full pans, everything came to a stop. This year we were able to replace one while they kept serving out of the other half pan. Even though I used more pans (it was priced into the deal) it was much smoother and safer. Ever carried a full pan of baked beans through a line of hungry people hoping it wouldn't 'twist'? Yeah...don't want that stress again!