How Many Pizzas Do You Need To Order For 20 People?

With all the details that need your attention when planning a gathering, the choice of cuisine can be taken off your shoulders quickly by deciding to order America's fourth most favored food option — pizza. It's an easy way to provide guests with a crowd-pleaser and suits almost any occasion. But before you start to concern yourself with the other significant elements of your event, you need to figure out how much pizza to order.

If you are inviting 20 people over for a get-together, the simple answer is you should have eight pies delivered to be on the safe side. You want enough food so that everyone has their fill, but you also don't want to be eating leftover pizza for the next few days. 

A simple way to calculate this is to take 3 (the average amount of slices someone will eat in one sitting) and multiply that by how many people are attending, and then divide that number by 8, which is the standard number of slices in a pie. In the case of 20 people, that's 20 x 3 = 60, then 60/8, which is 7.5. No one's ordering or making half a pie, and you're bound to have some guests with larger appetites than others, so eight pies should be safe here. If you're eating a square-cut Chicago tavern-style pizza, you can use the same result, but you'll obviously have more pieces to work with. 

If holding a children's birthday party, you wouldn't want to get the same amount of pizza that you would for a Super Bowl event. Two children will eat the same number of slices that one adult will as a rule of thumb, so if 20 children are the guests you are serving, you could probably get away with only purchasing four pizzas. It's also important to consider what time of day your event is taking place. Are guests going to be expecting an evening meal or just a snack to nibble on in the afternoon? Determining this will help you adjust your calculations, so you order an appropriate quantity to put a smile on everyone's face.

Though it makes for a good average, basing your calculations on a medium-sized pie may not be the most economical strategy when ordering a lot of pizza. Three medium pizzas are roughly the same area of pie as two larges, and you generally pay less for the same amount of food this way. This gives you a little extra dough to spend on some sides and alternatives — which you should be offering at the party.

You want to serve optimal slices to your meat-loving visitors and vegetarians alike, but occasionally, you will run into an elusive creature that doesn't like pizza of any kind. These rarities should be able to eat something as well. Depending on the event you are having, you might already be planning on serving additional food like cake at a birthday party or loading up on a mountain of chicken wings for a Super Bowl celebration. With pizza, there are plenty of choices for side dishes, and they don't need to be anything fancy. A simple Caesar salad or some cheesy garlic bread will go a long way toward making everyone happy, and if you offer something more substantial, you could probably get away with purchasing less pizza.

Pairing drinks that work well with pizza is something else to consider. Soda and wine are common options, with wine being a particularly excellent choice if you know which kind to match with your Italian cuisine. However, if you really want to level up your event, you could surprise people in attendance with Anthony Bourdain's favorite Italian cocktail. The salty toppings and generous amount of cheese on the pie will balance out the bitterness of the drink, and your guests will appreciate the beverage variation from a typical pizza party.