Feeding 16 people is not cooking; it’s catering, and the menus that survive contact with a group weekend are never the clever ones. The average activity group across Butlers in the Buff’s 100,000+ bookings is 16 people, range 10 to 24 – so here are the menus we watch succeed at exactly that scale, weekend after weekend.
Friday night: the one-pot landing
People arrive in waves from 4pm to 9pm, so Friday’s menu must not care when you eat it. Two vast pots – a proper chilli and a veggie tagine – plus rice, flatbreads and a table of toppings. It feeds the 5pm arrivals and the 9.40pm stragglers identically, and it costs buttons.
Saturday: one showpiece, everything else easy
Breakfast is a rolling bacon-and-pastries buffet, lunch is a ploughman’s spread that takes ten minutes to lay out, and then Saturday night gets the budget and the theatre. Three routes that work at 16: the fakeaway feast (build-your-own tacos or a curry bank of three); the big roast done in relay with two people per course; or the sharing-board supper – charcuterie, baked camemberts, roasted trays down the middle of the longest table in the house. Long tables make food louder; use them.
Or bring the kitchen help in
The fastest-growing food idea isn’t a dish, it’s a host: cocktail classes with a visiting mixologist went from zero before 2021 to roughly 120 a year in Butlers in the Buff’s records, and private chefs doing one big Saturday dinner follow the same logic. At around £40 per person (illustrative) it lands inside the £250–£450 per person GoHen says a typical weekend costs – and it hands the organiser a night off.
Sunday: the clear-out brunch
Everything left in the fridge becomes shakshuka, hash browns and a toast mountain. Sunday’s menu is a fridge audit with ambition, and it should be.
This is the inspiration half; quantities, allergy sheets, oven schedules and shopping lists live in our group house meals and catering guide. And if the weekend is a hen do, our hen party houses all have kitchens built for exactly this.
My honest tip: assign each meal one owner, not a rota of helpers. Sixteen people sharing every meal means nobody owns any of them – and the group stands in the kitchen at 8pm, hungry, being democratic.
Frequently Asked Questions
A private chef for a group holiday dinner typically costs £45–£85 per head for a two or three course meal, including ingredients, cooking, serving, and clean-up. For a group of 16 that's around £720–£1,360 for the evening — split between the group it's comparable to or cheaper than a good restaurant.
The easiest approach is a combination: hire a private chef for Saturday night dinner (the main event), and use a supermarket delivery for everything else. Order a full shop from Ocado or Waitrose to arrive Friday afternoon, and you barely need to think about food until Saturday evening.
Collect all dietary requirements at least two weeks before the trip using a shared document or group message. Record vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut, and shellfish restrictions. Pass the full list to your private chef (if using one) a week before the trip.
For a self-catered group weekend, budget £20–£30 per person. For a combination approach with one private chef dinner, budget £60–£90 per person. Fully catered weekends with a private chef for all main meals typically cost £80–£130 per person depending on group size.
Yes — all major supermarkets (Tesco, Ocado, Waitrose, Sainsbury's) deliver to holiday properties across the UK. Enter the property postcode when ordering and book a Friday afternoon delivery slot. Always notify the property owner and confirm someone will be there to receive it.
