The bach is meant to be a holiday. Somewhere between the third supermarket run and the second night of cooking for eleven people on two elements, that stops being true for whoever ends up doing the food.
Group catering away from home is a solvable problem, but it needs to be solved before you leave, not improvised on arrival.
Understand your actual conditions
Every location has a different set of constraints, and the plan should follow them.
A bach usually has power, a basic kitchen, an unreliable oven and a fridge that is smaller than you think. The nearest supermarket is often thirty minutes away and expensive.
A backcountry hut has none of the above. Everything comes in on your back and everything goes out again.
A boat has limited fridge space, limited water and a galley you cannot cook in while under way.
A campground varies wildly, from full kitchens to a gas burner and a picnic table.
The failure mode is the same in all four: someone plans as though they will be at home, then discovers on arrival that they will not be.
The frozen block trick
For anywhere with power and a freezer, this is the technique that changes the trip.
Cook or buy complete meals, freeze them solid, and pack them at the bottom of the chilly bin. They act as ice for the journey, keeping everything else cold, and then transfer to the bach freezer on arrival. You get free refrigeration on the way there and dinner sorted once you are there.
Buying in complete meals for this works particularly well for large groups, because family trays feeding four to five people scale simply. A group of ten is two trays, a group of twenty is four. Keeping a run of frozen meals nz producers deliver on hand for the trip means nobody spends the first afternoon of their holiday in a small-town supermarket buying ingredients at holiday prices.
Plan by the day, not by the meal
Write out the whole trip: breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks for each day, with the number of people. It takes twenty minutes and it eliminates both the shortfall and the mountain of leftover food nobody wants to drive home.
Then assign the days. In a group of adults, one household per night works well. Everyone cooks once and washes up a few times, and nobody carries the whole trip.
Match the food to the conditions
Bach: one-pot meals, tray bakes, barbecue, and reheated frozen dinners. Nothing that needs four pans or precise timing.
Hut: weight and water are the constraints. Dehydrated meals, couscous, wraps, hard cheese, salami, nuts.
Boat: meals that can be reheated in one pot in a moving galley. Pre-cooked and frozen is far easier than prepping on board.
Camping: anything that works on a single burner or over coals, plus one night where dinner is simply cooked meat and bread.
The details that always catch people out
Snacks are half the food. Groups on holiday graze constantly. Budget for it.
Water. Baches on tank supply run dry, and boats and huts have hard limits. Know your supply before you plan.
Dietary needs. Collect them before departure. Discovering a vegetarian on arrival at a remote bay is a bad time.
The clean-up. Rubbish disposal is often limited or non-existent. Reducing packaging before you leave home is easier than carrying it out.
Nobody wants to cook on the last night. Have something in the freezer for it.
The point of the exercise
The person who plans the food is usually the person who does not get a holiday. Deciding the meals in advance, dividing the cooking properly and bringing a few complete meals along fixes that.
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