These are the 7 biggest mistakes in hosting Thanksgiving, according to catering chefs

With the last Reddit thread Breaking down the many different reasons why people dread Thanksgiving, it’s clear that finding ways to de-stress is in order. But no matter how often you cook for yourself or your family, feeding a larger crowd for a holiday meal can make even the most confident cooks nervous. You are not simply scaling up Easy weeknight dinner recipe When it comes to Eid. Great roasts plus sides and desserts require time and space, not to mention a little patience and grace when things don’t go your way and you have to improvise.

Take it from a chef who serves food. Michael Riedel, Executive Chef of San Jose McEnery Convention CenterHe routinely cooks dinner for thousands of guests at a time. (Suddenly 20 people isn’t so daunting anymore.) “When you’re cooking for 20 people, it seems like that’s not a lot, but when you actually do it, it takes a lot of effort,” Riedel says. Here, he breaks down a number of tips and tricks to keep your sanity when it comes to feeding a crowd.

1. Going bankrupt

Start by removing it a little. (If you’ve bristled at this suggestion, we’re talking specifically to you.) One common mistake home cooks can make when it comes to big holiday dinners is being overly ambitious. While the elements of the cooking process may be the same whether you’re cooking for two or 20 people, “when you’re cooking on a large scale, you shouldn’t be making those complicated dishes that have multiple ingredients,” Riedel says.

Save that aspiration for a more intimate dinner party where you can be creative and stick to what you know for the holidays. “It’s creativity versus tradition,” Riedel says. “I’ll come to my wife on vacation with some crazy idea. I’ll take some dishes from the Southwest or the East Coast and try to bring them into California cuisine, and she’ll say, ‘No, don’t do that.’

Helpful tip within a tip: If you’re trying to be the only cook in the kitchen for a big holiday dinner, maybe your plan is run by someone who knows how to underestimate you a little.

“Stick with what you know,” says Riedel, and perhaps bring your creative spark to a dish or two rather than the entire plate. This is also your permission to take a look at the list of what you’re planning to make, and go ahead and cross one of those dishes off the list right now. Unless this is a beloved family tradition, no one will know it’s missing.

2. Not doing nutritional calculations

Granted, leftovers are one of the best parts of holiday meals, but if you give each of your guests a plate to take home, and you yourself still eat the same meal repeatedly for a week, you’ve probably overdone it. Former food critic Frank Bruni once wrote of his mother’s Thanksgiving celebrations that her method for dividing each dish was this: “If each guest decided to eat nothing but mashed potatoes, would there be enough to eat?”

Don’t do this. “Definitely count how many people are coming, and try to do some kind of math, like they’re going to eat four ounces of this, four ounces of that, and that way your spread won’t be as large,” Riddell says. One potato per person may make sense when you’re shopping in the produce aisle, but it makes more sense in a steak-and-baked-potato type setting, where that might be the entire meal, rather than in a context where the meal might also include several other types of starches.

Don’t know where to start trying to figure out what the normal parts of a vacation are? Whole foods have a benefit Holiday quota calculator For such purpose only.

3. Not making a plan

Of course, the chef at a convention center that accommodates 6,000 people sitting down to dinner at once would have to have a military-grade plan to get it all done, but the same thinking can apply to a (hopefully) smaller holiday meal.

The plan should consist not only of specific timings for dishes to be prepared from start to finish in a day, but also of dishes that can be fully prepared in advance, or ingredients that can be prepared in advance, starting several days before the big feast.

“When I’m putting together an event, that planning process is very important,” Riddell says. “So I know that several days before a huge event, I can plan and pre-prepare things, whether it’s sauces, dressings, aiolis, pickles, etc. That way when it comes to the day of — it’s seamless.”

4. Not cooking ahead of time

You can also prepare elements of certain dishes in advance, even if you want them cooked fresh. “If you do Brussels sprouts“For example, you can chop them up and peel them a little so that those little leaves don’t burn inside the pan.”

Look at your recipe list again. If you have a lot of items that require “careful” cooking, meaning they must be cooked right before serving, you need to rethink. Gravy, stuffing, casseroles, breads, even mashed potatoes—nearly three-quarters of typical holiday meals can, and probably should, be prepared ahead of time.

Read more: How to plan Thanksgiving dinner using artificial intelligence

5. Lack of consideration for space (or lack thereof)

Your plan should not only include the timings for each dish you plan to prepare, but it should also include the real estate required in the shopping phase, preparation phase, and serving phase. “Space in your kitchen, space in your oven, space on your counters,” Riedel says. “When you bring in all this product, where do you store and prepare it?”

A cautionary tale from my own experience: A roommate with whom I once hosted Thanksgiving suggested adding sweet potato biscuits to the menu, which we agreed sounded great, until the night of dinner we realized how much space would be required to roll, cut, and bake a few dozen biscuits on several paper trays, with everything else already underway in our tiny apartment’s kitchen—not to mention the very inconvenient flour dusting. the turkey It rested on my bedroom floor while all this happened because there was nowhere else to put it.

Plan not only when things need to start cooking, but where, and don’t forget every aspect of your kitchen. “If you have Toaster oven“Maybe you can put your green bean casserole in there, instead of having to use the oven,” Riedel says, saving yourself a little bit of the Tetris often required in major cooking appliances. Your microwave can also be used to reheat some previously made items.

Also consider whether you are serving the food buffet style, or served at the dinner table, and make sure you have enough space to serve your expertly prepared dishes. If not? Reduce, reduce, reduce.

And don’t forget about the space on your plate and your table settings. If you plan to serve a salad without a salad plate or bowl to accommodate it, who among your friends or family would prioritize plate space for several forks of leaves? “I’m not a fan of salad,” Riedel says. (And he’s from California, so if he’s advocating skipping it, you know it’s okay.)

6. Thinking that everything should be home made

Again, don’t let ambition be your opponent when eating a big meal. Professional chefs understand which elements of dishes are important to prepare from scratch, which are not, and will even use shortcuts in certain circumstances. If most of your friends and family are fans of canned cranberry sauce, for example, why bother cooking homemade, just to prove you can?

“There are great products that can help you achieve dinner success,” Riedel says. “They won’t know you didn’t make the pie crust, and I’m sure they won’t ask, especially if it tastes good.”

Cranberry sauce, whipped cream, bread, pie crust, and even whole pies can be purchased rather than made without sacrificing the integrity of your meal. If a local restaurant you love offers takeout during the holidays, feel free to add a dish or two from their selections, so you can focus your ambition on preparing fewer items.

7. Not thinking about cleaning

Big holiday parties can feel like marathons for the person who carries them out. “You’ve been cooking all day, so it’s best to give yourself a little break,” Riedel says. “One of the things we looked at last year with my family was their use Aluminum cans. “They make some cute things,” he says, which come in a variety of colors and patterns, so you don’t need to sacrifice the aesthetics of your celebration. Not only does it significantly reduce clean-up time, it can make your life easier during prep and is convenient for bagging leftovers.