How to organise a barbecue for a school fete (with a little help!)

On Saturday, the Housedad came of age when I was put in charge of organising my sons’ school summer barbecue. 

‘Yeah, sure,’ I said to the head of the PTA when she asked me. ‘Not a problem. Count on me.’

And then she explained the size of the task, and I suddenly wished I’d bitten my complacent tongue off.

There would need to be food for 500-700. There would need to be barbecues sourced and set up for meat eaters and vegetarians. There would need to be a halal option. There would need to serving stations – and servers to serve from those stations. There would need to be a dozen or more salads. There would need to be 200 burgers and 200 sausages – and enough baps and bread to serve them in. There would need to be enough ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard and pickles.

And there would need to be a WOW! Factor – a centrepiece that would attract a crowd and case jaws to drop to the floor.

Thankfully, paper plates, plastic forks, drinks, ice and plastic cups would be taken care of by another parent.

Gulp!

‘Er, I think, actually, I might, er, be a bit busy that, er, day,’ I mumbled.

But sensing my anxiety, the head of the PTA put her hand on my shoulder and said: ‘Oh, don’t worry. You’ll be fine.’

And it was – because other people made it fine.

So a huge thanks to this Housedad’s Little Helpers who, together with the rest of the fair, raised around £2,000 for school funds: Anna, Annie, Gabriella, Lucy, Tania, Stan and Justin. But an extra special Thank You to my foodie dad pal, Simon – whose incredible hog roast made everyone who attended go: ‘WOW!’

If anyone out there is interested in how we did it so you can do it yourself, here’s how we divided up the tasks:

ME:

Before the event:

- order and slice 240 burger baps and 10 ciabatta loaves; buy 6 large bottles of ketchup, 3 large bottles of mayo, 5 bottles of American mustard, 200 cheese slices, 3 large jars pre-sliced gherkin spears; brine (for 5 days) and cook (for 12 hours) 5kg piece of salt beef brisket; make large tub of potato, spring onion and mustard-mayo salad.

On the day:

- set up tables; take delivery of burgers and sausages; pre-cook sausages in school oven; man the barbecue (flipping burgers! A new career at McDonald’s awaits!); clear up at end of event.

STAN: 

Before the event:

- second three barbecues from other parents; buy charcoal.

On the day:

- set up tables; light and keep barbecues constantly stocked up with hot coals; clear up.

TANIA:

Before the event:

- Order 200 burgers and 200 sausages from local butcher, to be delivered on the day.

On the day:

- organise a system for ordering and taking money; serve customers; clear up

ANNA/ANNIE/GABRIELLA/plus various other parents who dipped in and out:

Before the event:

- Make salads

On the day:

- make the tables look presentable and professional; slice baps; serve customers; take money; clear up.

LUCY:

On the day:

- bring vegetarian sausages; cook them on the barbecue; sell them (I think we sold about four in total!); clear up; washing up (the worst of all jobs – and she did it without muttering a single breath of complaint).

JUSTIN:

Before the event:

- source halal meat; make goat curry.

On the day:

- serve the curry

STAR OF THE SHOW SIMON:

Before the event:

- Source rare breed organic suckling pig from specialist farmer; source rolls to go with the hog roast.

On the day:

- Cook the pig for 4 hours in his self-built wood burning oven at bottom of his garden; bring the pig to the fair; carve and serve.

And finally...thanks to my wife, Rebecca, for making these lovely cakes for the Victorian Tea Party, manning the tombola stall whilst at the same time keeping the kids supplied with a constant flow of cash so they didn’t have to pester me every five minutes!