Most people have attended a range of potluck feasts, from small to large, on various occasions … and of various qualities. But do you know how to organize a potluck so that it’s not all potato salads? A little advance planning goes a long way towards making your potluck a success.
The Steps
1) Set a date and time, and a location, for your potluck feast. Include details about whether any food preparation space and equipment will be available. Announce this information well in advance, so everyone invited knows when and where to show up.
2) Consider the theme. It’s not obligatory, but it does give people ideas about what to bring, and makes coordination easier. Good themes include ethnic (Italian, Indian, Chinese, etc.), seasonal (whatever’s ripe in your garden or farmer’s market), or holiday (Beltane, Christmas, Earth Day, etc.). Specialized themes include medieval, vegetarian, kosher, etc.
3) Ask people to tell you what they plan to make for the potluck. Recipe choice is first-come, first-served so people who reply quickly get the most freedom regarding what they can bring. Periodically give people an updated menu. LuckyPotluck has an online organizer! Know how to handle food safely. Be aware of what foods and ingredients are higher or lower risk for serving at potlucks. This includes things like milk and eggs that can spoil easily, as well as common food allergens.
4) As the menu takes shape, apply some traffic direction. A small potluck might only need 1 main dish, 2 side dishes, and 1 dessert. A bigger potluck could have 1 appetizer, 2 main dishes, 5 side dishes, and 2 desserts. A huge potluck may have dozens of dishes; just make sure the categories are reasonably balanced.
Once you start getting multiple items in a category, branch them out. Split main dishes by meat type or carnivore/vegetarian. Split side dishes into vegetables, fruits, breads, casseroles, etc. Split desserts by type (cakes vs. pies) or ingredients (chocolate, fruits, etc.). Avoid close duplications (like creamed corn and corn-on-the-cob) unless the potluck is really big.
You, as the feastocrat, may or may not contribute a dish. If you do, there are two common options. A) You provide the main course. This is convenient if the potluck is at your house, where you have access to your whole kitchen, whereas other people are transporting their dishes. B) You decide on your dish late or last, so you can fill in a gap left by others. 5) If people ask you what they should bring, check your menu and request something you don’t already have. Cover main dish, side dish, and dessert in that order; then add 1-2 more sides before doubling up on the main dish and dessert. For people who can’t (or don’t want to) cook, suggest bringing beverages, bakery bread, fresh fruits, or a cheese tray.
6) Decide whether you’ll be using regular dishes and silverware or disposables. If you’re using disposables, noncooks can bring paper plates, cups, napkins, plastic forks and spoons, etc. Reusable ones are more Earth-friendly but not always practical — especially if your location has no washing area. Recycled or biodegradable disposables are a good alternative; see sources such as Green Party Goods.
7) Arrange at least one person to help with setup and one to help with cleanup, if at all possible. (You can’t do everything yourself.) During setup and cleanup, pay attention to food safety.
8 ) When laying out the potluck spread: Put plates and silverware first. Next lay out appetizers, then main dishes, side dishes, and desserts. Beverages can go either at the beginning or end of the spread. Make sure there are serving utensils for everything; have spares, because somebody always forgets theirs. At a large gathering, name tags on dishes may be prudent.
9) For small and medium potlucks, tell people what the dishes are and their important ingredients. This is helpful for folks with allergies or related issues, though it gets impractical at large events. Some groups like to have recipe cards or ingredient lists with each dish.
10) Pay attention to the line. If there are people who need to eat first, put them at the head of the line. If children, elders, or handicapped folks need assistance, make sure a relative or friend is there for them.
11) Clearly indicate where people can sit down to eat, where to leave dirty dishes, any recycling or compost containers, etc. Keep an eye on your guests because somebody will not be able to find those things, having had their mind on their belly during the announcements.
12) Clean up as you go. As serving dishes empty, remove them from the spread. If you’re using washable tableware, start washing as soon as dirty dishes start coming off the tables; if you’re using disposables, start bagging them. This encourages people to bring in the used tableware and maybe volunteer to help with cleanup.
General Tips
Scale recipe size to group size. For a small potluck, each dish should feed 4-6 people. For a medium to large potluck, each dish should feed 8-10 people. For a huge potluck, most of the dishes can still be sized at the 8-10 range, but you should have some “feed the masses” recipes that may be sized for 25, 50, or 100 people. A good potluck, bake sale, or church-social cookbook will have some recipes suitable for huge events. Online sources can give you some good ideas on portion size per person, group serving estimates, or more detailed things like dessert amounts.
Be flexible. Sometimes people change their minds when they see what else is coming. Other times, someone has to cancel at the last minute, or a recipe fails. (”The Yule Log disintegrated into a pile of crumbs and is now inside the dog.”) If possible, have something in reserve that you can fix quickly if it’s needed.
Don’t be sexist. That is, don’t assume that women can cook and men can’t. Observe your guests’ cooking skills and/or listen to them talking so you’ll have an idea who cooks fluently and who doesn’t.
Encourage but don’t demand repetition of favorite dishes. It gets boring to make the same thing for every potluck — but most cooks enjoy hearing what people really love.
Let people experiment, unless they have a consistently bad record. You never know what will turn out to be a hit. If something is way outside the norm for your guest list, consider offering it in small amounts at first.
If you gauge the amounts correctly, you’ll have a modest amount of leftovers. It’s not rare to have abundant leftovers, though. Make sure you have some baggies, aluminum foil, cling wrap, and disposable containers. Encourage people to take home some of what they liked. This is also a great way for a community to provide extra food to guests who are broke: let them take first pick of the leftovers.