Food at a long open house party

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, as a guest at grad parties, I’m grateful to you for thinking of this! I suspect most hosts just refill, they don’t remove the old food.

As others said, I’d split the food in half and do a full replacement 2 hrs into the party. Maybe a couple of friends can be tagged to help you guys with this so it goes fast.

And has anything ever happened with spoiled food / poisoning at these grad parties? Nope. Keep in mind that, in another 3 months, your kid will be eating leftovers that sat out all night on their dorm floor.

At some point, people stop eating picked over food. So if your goal is to stop feeding them, don’t refresh. But if you want people in the second half to stay, refresh.

Of course, you should refresh. But you do not need to throw away the food that has already been sitting out for 2 hours. Grandma will be just fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ll also add, I doubt that guests coming at the last hour would expect to find the full meal still out. So another way is that you could just stagger the food - just snacky stuff out first 30-45 min, the main food out the middle 2.5 hrs (so no need to replace it), only dessert and fruit left out for final 45 min.

Agree totally. Put snacks out at first. Then the main food out. Then snacks and dessert for the last hour. I’d try to keep things like chips, fruit out in various places for snacks people.

[Anonymous]

12-4pm is far too long for DIY. You need a catering company or everyone is going to get sick.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:12-4pm is far too long for DIY. You need a catering company or everyone is going to get sick.

DIY happens all the time at grad parties and NO ONE gets sick.