Catering a Braai for 20: How Much of Everything You Actually Need
Share
Catering a braai for twenty is mostly an arithmetic problem, and most people get it wrong in the same two places: too much meat, and not enough to eat it off. Here are the numbers caterers actually plan to.
The short answer
For twenty adults at a braai with sides, plan on 7 to 8 kg of raw meat, 20 large plates, 20 side plates, at least 30 drinking glasses and 20 sets of cutlery. If you are buying the tableware rather than hiring it, the core kit comes to about R194 a head.
How much meat for 20 people
The figure South African caterers plan to is 300 to 400 g of raw meat per adult when there are proper sides — pap, salads, rolls, braaibroodjies. Use 350 g as the working number and you land on 7 kg for twenty.
Go up to 500 g a head, and 10 kg, only for a meat-forward braai where the sides are an afterthought. Children eat roughly half an adult portion.
| Style of braai | Per adult | Total for 20 | When to use it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Generous sides, mixed crowd | 300 g | 6 kg | Lots of salads, pap and bread. Family gatherings. |
| Standard braai | 350 g | 7 kg | The default. Two or three sides on the table. |
| Meat-forward | 400–500 g | 8–10 kg | Few sides, big eaters, or a long afternoon of grazing. |
These are planning conventions, not laboratory figures. They are what caterers use to quote a job, and they are deliberately a little generous — running out is worse than a small surplus. Weigh your own crowd against them.
How many plates, glasses and forks
This is where braais actually fall apart. People buy the meat properly and then serve twenty guests off twelve plates.
| Item | How many | Why that number |
|---|---|---|
| Large plate | 20 | One each. An oval 325mm plate holds a steak, a chop and a starch without crowding — a round plate of the same footprint will not. |
| Side plate | 20 | Bread, braaibroodjies, pudding. Also what people put down while they fill a main plate. |
| Tumbler | 30 | Plan 1.5 per person, not 1. Glasses get put down and abandoned over a four-hour afternoon. |
| Cutlery set | 20 | Knife, fork and spoon each. Reusable, so you are not buying them again in November. |
| Condiment bowls | 4 sets | One cluster per end of the table, plus two on the snack table. Sauces, chilli, relish. |
| Jug | 2 | 1.2L each. The inner ice tubes chill without watering the last two glasses down. |
| Serving bowl | 2 | 1.5L each. One salad for six to eight per bowl, so two covers a crowd of twenty. |
What that costs
Buying it outright, not hiring. Every price below is our current shelf price.
| Item | Qty | Each | Line |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oval steak plate, 325mm | 20 | R87.00 | R1,740.00 |
| Side plate, 170mm | 20 | R48.00 | R960.00 |
| Highball tumbler, 400ml | 20 | R37.00 | R740.00 |
| Re-usable cutlery set | 20 | R22.40 | R448.00 |
| Core kit for 20 | R194.40 / head | R3,888.00 |
Add the serving pieces — four condiment sets, two jugs, two serving bowls, two bamboo platters, two tongs and a grip tray — and you are at R5,864, or R293.20 a head, for a kit that does this braai and every one after it.
A small thing worth knowing. Twenty oval steak plates comes to R1,740 — ten rand under our R1,750 free-delivery threshold. Add a single cutlery set and delivery becomes free, which makes the twentieth plate effectively cheaper than the nineteenth.
Why not disposable
For twenty people outdoors, paper plates are a false economy in three specific ways. They blow off a table in any wind. They fold under a steak and a scoop of pap, which is exactly the load a braai puts on them. And you buy them again for the next braai, and the one after that.
The polycarbonate plates here are the same ones Blue Swallow has supplied to South African catering kitchens since 1997 — specified to survive commercial dishwashing several times a day and transport between venues in crates. A braai for twenty is a light afternoon by that standard.
If you want the full material comparison, we set it out in polycarbonate vs melamine vs enamel.
The running order
- Three days out — order the meat. Count your plates and glasses honestly against the numbers above.
- The night before — freeze the jug ice tubes. Make anything that improves overnight.
- Four hours out — salads made, condiment bowls filled and covered, tables out.
- Two hours out — fire lit. Coals want an hour to settle before the first meat goes on.
- One hour out — plates and cutlery stacked at the serving end, not on the eating tables.
- Serving — meat rests on a platter and goes to the table. Do not plate at the grid; it queues people up in the smoke.
Scaling the numbers
| Guests | Meat (350 g/head) | Large plates | Glasses | Core tableware |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 3.5 kg | 10 | 15 | R1,944 |
| 20 | 7 kg | 20 | 30 | R3,888 |
| 30 | 10.5 kg | 30 | 45 | R5,832 |
| 50 | 17.5 kg | 50 | 75 | R9,720 |
Catering regularly, or at these numbers? Talk to us about trade pricing — Camp & Outdoor is the retail side of a caterware manufacturer, so the wholesale route exists.
Common questions
How much meat do I need for a braai for 20 people?
Plan 7 kg of raw meat for twenty adults at a standard braai with sides, based on 350 g per adult. Go to 8–10 kg if there are few sides or the crowd are big eaters, and count children as half an adult portion.
How much meat per person for a braai?
300 to 400 g of raw meat per adult when proper sides are served, and 400 to 500 g for a meat-forward braai with few sides. 350 g is the standard planning figure South African caterers use.
How many plates and glasses do I need for 20 guests?
Twenty large plates and twenty side plates — one each — but around thirty glasses, because people put a glass down and lose it over a long afternoon. Plan 1.5 glasses per person, not one.
What does it cost to kit out a braai for 20?
About R3,888 for the core tableware — 20 oval plates, 20 side plates, 20 tumblers and 20 cutlery sets — which is R194.40 a head. Adding serving bowls, jugs, platters and tongs brings it to R5,864.
Are polycarbonate plates good for a braai?
Yes. Polycarbonate does not chip at the rim, will not blow off a table the way paper does, and does not fold under a steak. It is what commercial catering kitchens use, which is a harder test than a Saturday braai.