What do you think of my party menu for 60 people?

Question

This is my Luau party menu...

Jerk chicken-12 chicken breasted sliced

Pulled pork sandwiches-2 large shoulders

Meatballs-2 bags of the cocktail size

Sausage and peppers (this is being catered) along with the pasta salad, macaroni salad, and fruit salad

Brownies-2 box mixes

Mini pineapple upside down cakes-2 batches (48 in all)

Veggie tray

Chips and dip

cheese, crackers, and peperoni

popcorn

lots of beer, wine, soda, water, mixed drinks

and a lei for everyone!

Am I leaving anything out that should be there?

Answer 1

I think there are far too many things going on.  

You should offer enough of all items for each guest to have a, reasonable, serving.  

The first thing I would do is cancel the sausage and peppers as that's a standard Italian offering.  The chicken b*****s - if bone-in, figure 7 oz. per person and, if boneless, 4 oz. per person.  The pork shoulder - there's a lot of weight in the bone with this cut so, assume you mean boneless in which case you would need 3 x 5-lb. pieces due to losing, about, 20% in the cooking process since this, as you know, is a fatty piece of meat -- this will allow, about, 3 oz. per person.  So, just the two meats as these are in keeping with your island theme.  But - no fish?  How about the tuna salad on second link?  Just reading the recipe reminds me it must be time for dinner!  

You could use your fruit salad as a decoration if you included 3 pineapples, halved and made into "boats". If these are placed on a platter, you can mound them with a mix of diced pineapple (dipped in lemon juice to prevent browning and brush lemon juice on the pineapple halves), red grapes, cantaloupe and honeydew pieces. Place each on a platter covered with some red-leaf lettuce - the additional fruit salad can be placed to surround the pineapple boats - fill boats to be overflowing onto the platters so won't look too contrived and sprinkle with some macadamia nuts and shredded toasted coconut. Eight cups of fruit salad per platter will be enough - about 3/4 cup per person.

You haven't mentioned bread and, it seems, people would want to make sandwiches esp. using the pulled pork for which you'll need to borrow some pitchers for sauce and will need to order 5 dozen small (4-inch?), hard rolls from your bakery, 5 dozen croissant plus 5 baguette.  Some of the baguette can be used with crackers for cheese platters (cheddar, blue, pepper-jack, Brie).  I wouldn't add pepperoni to this as, again, it's Italian and you, already, have more than enough proteins with the chicken, pork and tuna.

One pasta salad is enough - this and large bowls of "ordinary" mixed greens salads with grape tomatoes, onions, etc., and, perhaps, raspberry vinaigrette? Figure 1 cup per person.

You don't need a vegetable platter and I suggest forgetting the chips, popcorn, and all that as it's messy (someone will be finding it in the furniture in January) and, totally, unnecessary when you offer the high-quality items you're planning to serve.  It's best to serve fewer Really Good items than add all sorts of non-descript things.

  

Chicken,  Pork,  Tuna,  Pasta salad,  Mixed salad,

Fruit salad,  Cheeses - this is, definitely, enough to be on a dinner plate with the assorted breads and crackers.

The dessert, as others have said, should include a min-cake for each person and, instead of brownies, I would buy 4 boxes of Russell Stover chocolates and place them in some cut-glass bowls mixed, perhaps, with a few cups of jellied fruit slices - these will look, very, pretty and the fruit is, again, in keeping with your theme.

Personal source= 400+ dinner parties (plus being a chef, of course!).

Answer 2

No... it looks fine.  Unless you wanted to add some dishes of FRESH coconut chunks, sugar cane pieces and macadamia nuts ......Since it looks Jamaican, you might also want sweet potato chips

Answer 3

ice cream

Answer 4

I think this sounds great but you should have enough of everything for each guest so more pineapple upside down cakes. Is the fruit salad going to be tropical fruit salad?

Answer 5

Sounds fantastic, Only thing I would change is the amount of Mini pineapple upside down cakes, there should be one for each guest.

Edit: little umbrellas for the drinks too ;)