I ended up running our monthly "free community meal" this last weekend.
Because a lot of our volunteers are college students, I knew our numbers
were going to be light. I'm going to tell my story, but if you have your
own stories in large scale/hotel-pan cooking, by all means chime on in.
(If the food is cheap, so much the better. I'm always on the lookout for
ideas.)

I wanted something that would go together with minimum people in the
kitchen. The food bank selection didn't change my mind, so I went with my
fallback meal:

Chili Mac for 140 (With Seconds, Thirds, and Leftovers)

If you are one of those incredibly pure cooks who never opens a can of
anything, avert your eyes. I've done it with the dry beans (in fact I did
it in January) but Cash and Carry made me a respectable deal on the cases,
and I was glad to not have to make the extra trip in to cook the beans before
showtime. I had already been to the food bank, to Costco, to Cash and
Carry, and the Grocery Outlet (YAY HARRIS RANCH BEEF FOR CHEAP), with
trips to unload inbetween. (Then I went to Whole Foods for a chair
massage to ease my aching back.)

I had three people helping me in the kitchen (and one came in to make
salad dressing). They also cut up the day-old bread for garlic bread
while the chili was simmering. ROCK STARS.

The rest of the crew made 120 sack lunches and opened up 85 cans of
peaches (from the food bank) to serve out in paper bowls. (That was
dessert.)

I'm glad this made a pile (IIRC it was seven hotel pans of "with meat" and
one "without meat") because we had a huge rush. We served at least 140
and probably closer to 150 people; our hall capacity is 120, but some
came in later without tickets (we try to not turn them away), and some
took their dinner out. We definitely ran out of the 165-pack of Chinet
I had purchased at Costco (we serve on real plates when we have enough
volunteers to run the dishwasher, but this was not one of those months).
We had one person show up very, very late (after we had taken all the
tables down) and sent him away with plenty. My friend Scott, who did the
door, and I split the last of it. It was pretty tasty.

The guests were very, very happy with this meal and I was delighted there
was enough left for my dinner.

Le Menu:

Chili Mac
Garlic Bread
Salad with vineagrette
Canned peach halves (well drained)
Coffee, milk, water

16 lb macaroni
15 lb ground beef it would have been better with 20
1 10 lb bag white onions chopped/sliced roughly
5 #10 cans kidney beans drained and rinsed
5 #10 cans pinto beans drained and rinsed
2 #10 cans tomato puree
27 cans (28 oz) whole or diced tomatoes (if whole, you will need to break
them up) (if you have #10 cans instead I'd say 5 or 6)
1 industrial jar taco seasoning with a supplement of the chili powder in
the cabinet
salt, sufficient (for boiling macaroni)
Olive oil for noodles/onions
Minced garlic (about half of the large jar I got at costco for garlic
bread)
15 lb shredded cheese (cheddar or cheddar-jack - we used two 10# bags
cheddar and some mozz from the FB)
3 #10 cans corn niblets drained

N.b. for vegetarian version include some "extra" beans: garbanzo, black.
About 4 standard 11 oz cans should be good with the mix.


I got in 90 minutes before the first volunteers were in because I wanted
to start the water for pasta. It takes a long time to heat up, even on
our industrial stove.

By the time the first volunteers got in, I had the first pan boiling and
was busy cutting up tomatoes to start pots of the beans-and-tomatoes so
they could get acquainted while we got the rest of it organized. (I
learned this trick from Cook's Illustrated, in their Pasta Fazool recipe.
I've done pasta fazool for 140, as well, when our ceiling collapsed and we
had to serve out on the patio. We added sausage to most of it.)

So here was my Action Plan:

Start water for macaroni with salt and olive oil
Put tomatoes, beans, garlic, most of seasoning in pots and simmer on low.
Stir occasionally to keep from sticking on bottom. (n.b. start with
tomatoes, add beans)
Prepare hotel pans by spreading layer of olive oil in bottom
Boil noodles till advanced al dente, drain, and hold in hotel pans (thank
God a strong young man had arrived by this time)
Chop the onions while this happens
Wilt onions by themselves (vegi) or with hamburger. Use remaining spice
powder in this to get a little "toasted" action going
Brown all other hamburger
Dump onions or onions-and-meat into appropriate bean-and-tomato pots
Let them simmer, stirring often
Taste, correct seasoning

While it was simmering, I had the kitchen crew assemble the garlic bread
bundles.

Then, assembly:
Layer of mac (pan should be no more than 1/3 full)
Cover with a layer of corn
Cover with handsful of cheese
Ladle chili in and mix it all up
Correct ratios until it looks right. Chili and mac should be well
integrated
Top with remaining cheese and hold in oven.

-- Charlotte
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