This question is almost impossible to answer in a forum like this because we don't know who the audience is nor various specifics about how your event will unfold.
I've been helping out cooking at a buddy's regular football tailgate for many, many years and here are a few observations.
People will gravitate to the "fancier" dishes. We do BBQ baby back ribs a few times a year and we always run out of the ribs, even if we bring 25-30 racks. However, we cook on site, so the attendees who are hungry before the ribs are ready will seek something else.
Typically, many will gravitate to whatever is available *RIGHT NOW* or really soon. I often do carne asada tacos for this reason early in the tailgate since I can cook up a plate of meat, warm up some tortillas and they are ready to go.
Same with grilled fish. When the fish is done and on the table, people will dive in.
Burgers are cooked to order although I have a good idea when it is worth throwing a couple extra on as more people arrive or how much time there is before the game.
Hot dogs are the least popular, but in some instances they are preferred. A lot of small kids tend to gravitate to hot dogs because they are simple and easy to handle. Also, there are always a few people who 15 minutes before kickoff want something to grab-and-go as they walk to the stadium. Hot dogs are perfect for those people.
Once the ribs are done, I can basically shut down the burger/hot dog grill for a while.
Depending on the time of the kickoff, some days everyone shows up during a short window. On other days with a different kickoff time, people drift in and out. For sure, we know there will be a good demand for food 30-60 minutes before kickoff.
Same thing with halftime (this is a college tailgate), so we know that some of our gang will wend their way about to the tailgate at the end of the second quarter. The grill always has some stuff ready to go when those people start trickling in, knowing they have a short window to eat before going back into the stadium.
We know nothing about the timing of your event but those are all factors that greatly define how one might go about making the food available and what to expect in terms of consumption patterns.
As far as I can tell, teenage boys are the least picky/least patient of our tailgate diners. They almost always lean to what is available *RIGHT NOW*. If all you have is overcooked hot dogs, they will usually say that's fine. You can offer to cook up a fresh one, but they will almost always say, "No, this is fine."
At our larger tailgates, we often have 3-4 people grilling. Two of our grills are pretty small tabletop things, but the ribs are done on one of those grills that is towed behind a pickup truck.
You will need to think very carefully about the type of your event, how many people will be helping you, the timing issues (particularly when you think the various dishes will be ready). There is no way you can cook everything for 100 people yourself so you will need to communicate/understand what other people are doing and how they are progressing with their various projects.
Another point: our tailgate is a voluntary potluck. People who want bring whatever dishes they want, we don't have "slots" for people to fill nor do we require anyone to bring anything. We don't charge, these are friends or at least acquaintances. I've invited my own friends and pals on occasion, and when they ask if they need to bring anything, I say no but tell them what I'm bringing and that alcohol is always welcome.
We don't charge for our particular tailgate, so if we run out of burgers, spicy Italian sausages, or carne asada tacos, we don't really need to be apologetic about it. (We never run out of booze or ice.)
If you are charging for your event (e.g, it is a fund raiser), you will need to reframe your thoughts. Again, we know nothing about the various conditions concerning what you are doing.
I have another example of how the event parameters affect decision making.
A nearby town has an annual benefit chili cookoff with various booths being run by charity organizations. The event has an official start time and often the lines of people (paying customers) are quite long.
Each attendee purchases a "tasting kit" which includes some food tickets and a paper cup for the chili. At the booth, you are supposed to give a ticket and your cup which they fill with chili.
If there are 40-60 people in line, this can be a slow process and often there is *ONE* person pouring out tastes of chile in each booth.
What really should happen is 10-15 minutes before start time, the booth volunteers should ladle out 40-50 portions and when the event starts, people just trade their clean, empty cup for one already filled with chile.
Unfortunately, the event operators are too dimwitted to instruct booth operators to do so. That means you might wait 30-45 minutes for your first cup of chile if you pick a really popular booth.
In many booths, they have plenty of volunteers, most of whom are standing around chatting, not doing anything when clearly a 2-3 people could be ladling chile while a couple take tickets and hand over filled cups. Often, there is a second window that isn't even being used.
As an attendee, how would you feel if you shelled out fifteen bucks to get 4-5 small tastes of chile over 2-2.5 hours?
Now if this particular event didn't have a specific start time, then people would wander to the booths that started serving chile before the others and maybe fewer people would be right there at the 12pm or 1pm start time.
This is how an event organizer's shortsightedness makes the overall experience very mediocre.
Having longtime experience helping host a football tailgate, these are glaring decision making errors. Slight tweaks can make all the difference in the world, but careful analysis of the entire situation is critical in assessing what needs to happen to ensure a higher level of success.
You will need to make these decisions with your fellow hosts.
not an easy task, I agree with the other comments, who are you cooking for matters?
Option 1 - cut it down to 2 items and have 100 of each item ready to cook and make as you need keeping ahead of the pace, you can freeze whatever doesn't get cooked
Option 2 - make all 4 items , go heavy on burgers and dogs 75 each , less on chicken and ribs figuring some people will not eat some of the choices. Good Luck
5 Comments
I've been helping out cooking at a buddy's regular football tailgate for many, many years and here are a few observations.
People will gravitate to the "fancier" dishes. We do BBQ baby back ribs a few times a year and we always run out of the ribs, even if we bring 25-30 racks. However, we cook on site, so the attendees who are hungry before the ribs are ready will seek something else.
Typically, many will gravitate to whatever is available *RIGHT NOW* or really soon. I often do carne asada tacos for this reason early in the tailgate since I can cook up a plate of meat, warm up some tortillas and they are ready to go.
Same with grilled fish. When the fish is done and on the table, people will dive in.
Burgers are cooked to order although I have a good idea when it is worth throwing a couple extra on as more people arrive or how much time there is before the game.
Hot dogs are the least popular, but in some instances they are preferred. A lot of small kids tend to gravitate to hot dogs because they are simple and easy to handle. Also, there are always a few people who 15 minutes before kickoff want something to grab-and-go as they walk to the stadium. Hot dogs are perfect for those people.
Once the ribs are done, I can basically shut down the burger/hot dog grill for a while.
Depending on the time of the kickoff, some days everyone shows up during a short window. On other days with a different kickoff time, people drift in and out. For sure, we know there will be a good demand for food 30-60 minutes before kickoff.
Same thing with halftime (this is a college tailgate), so we know that some of our gang will wend their way about to the tailgate at the end of the second quarter. The grill always has some stuff ready to go when those people start trickling in, knowing they have a short window to eat before going back into the stadium.
We know nothing about the timing of your event but those are all factors that greatly define how one might go about making the food available and what to expect in terms of consumption patterns.
As far as I can tell, teenage boys are the least picky/least patient of our tailgate diners. They almost always lean to what is available *RIGHT NOW*. If all you have is overcooked hot dogs, they will usually say that's fine. You can offer to cook up a fresh one, but they will almost always say, "No, this is fine."
At our larger tailgates, we often have 3-4 people grilling. Two of our grills are pretty small tabletop things, but the ribs are done on one of those grills that is towed behind a pickup truck.
You will need to think very carefully about the type of your event, how many people will be helping you, the timing issues (particularly when you think the various dishes will be ready). There is no way you can cook everything for 100 people yourself so you will need to communicate/understand what other people are doing and how they are progressing with their various projects.
Another point: our tailgate is a voluntary potluck. People who want bring whatever dishes they want, we don't have "slots" for people to fill nor do we require anyone to bring anything. We don't charge, these are friends or at least acquaintances. I've invited my own friends and pals on occasion, and when they ask if they need to bring anything, I say no but tell them what I'm bringing and that alcohol is always welcome.
We don't charge for our particular tailgate, so if we run out of burgers, spicy Italian sausages, or carne asada tacos, we don't really need to be apologetic about it. (We never run out of booze or ice.)
If you are charging for your event (e.g, it is a fund raiser), you will need to reframe your thoughts. Again, we know nothing about the various conditions concerning what you are doing.
Anyhow, good luck.
A nearby town has an annual benefit chili cookoff with various booths being run by charity organizations. The event has an official start time and often the lines of people (paying customers) are quite long.
Each attendee purchases a "tasting kit" which includes some food tickets and a paper cup for the chili. At the booth, you are supposed to give a ticket and your cup which they fill with chili.
If there are 40-60 people in line, this can be a slow process and often there is *ONE* person pouring out tastes of chile in each booth.
What really should happen is 10-15 minutes before start time, the booth volunteers should ladle out 40-50 portions and when the event starts, people just trade their clean, empty cup for one already filled with chile.
Unfortunately, the event operators are too dimwitted to instruct booth operators to do so. That means you might wait 30-45 minutes for your first cup of chile if you pick a really popular booth.
In many booths, they have plenty of volunteers, most of whom are standing around chatting, not doing anything when clearly a 2-3 people could be ladling chile while a couple take tickets and hand over filled cups. Often, there is a second window that isn't even being used.
As an attendee, how would you feel if you shelled out fifteen bucks to get 4-5 small tastes of chile over 2-2.5 hours?
Now if this particular event didn't have a specific start time, then people would wander to the booths that started serving chile before the others and maybe fewer people would be right there at the 12pm or 1pm start time.
This is how an event organizer's shortsightedness makes the overall experience very mediocre.
Having longtime experience helping host a football tailgate, these are glaring decision making errors. Slight tweaks can make all the difference in the world, but careful analysis of the entire situation is critical in assessing what needs to happen to ensure a higher level of success.
You will need to make these decisions with your fellow hosts.
Option 1 - cut it down to 2 items and have 100 of each item ready to cook and make as you need keeping ahead of the pace, you can freeze whatever doesn't get cooked
Option 2 - make all 4 items , go heavy on burgers and dogs 75 each , less on chicken and ribs figuring some people will not eat some of the choices. Good Luck