Somebody in the family ends up arranging this, usually the person already doing everything else, and usually with no warning and no idea where to start. This page is what we would tell you on the phone if you rang and asked. It is what goes on the table, how much of it a room actually eats, who normally pays, and how far ahead any of it has to be decided. There is nothing to buy on this page. If you get to the end and want a number, the totals are published on our repass page and you can read them without speaking to anybody.
Seven things, in the order you would build the line. Every one of them is doing a job, and the reason is next to it, because a list without reasons is no use when you are deciding what to cut.
Curry goat, jerk chicken and oxtail is the combination families here ask for most. Two meats is enough for a room under about fifty. Three once you are past that.
Not everybody eats everything. Somebody does not take goat, somebody is off pepper, and older guests often want the plainest thing on the table. Three meats means nobody stands at the buffet with an empty plate deciding whether to say something.
One portion a guest, and it is the one thing on the list that is never optional.
Half of what a Jamaican plate is doing is carrying gravy, and rice and peas is what carries it. A repass table with plain white rice on it reads as a corner cut, fairly or not.
Steamed cabbage is the usual answer. Callaloo if the family asks for it.
It breaks up a table of meat and starch, it is the thing people go back for a second spoon of, and it is the cheapest way to make the line look generous.
Festival, fried plantain, or both if the count is over about seventy five.
It is what people eat while they are standing and talking, before they sit down with a plate, and a table without it empties strangely.
Hard dough bread, sliced, in a basket at the end of the line.
It costs almost nothing and it is what the last of the gravy goes onto. It is also the thing older guests reach for first. We do not sell it, so this one is worth picking up yourself on the way.
Water and juice, in quantity. Somebody in the family will usually bring sorrel or ginger beer.
A hall is warm, the day is long, and people who are not eating are still drinking. Count on more than you think, and count on it running out before the food does.
Leave it off by default and put it on only if somebody asks for it.
A good part of the church community here does not eat pork, and the buffet line is the wrong place for anybody to find out whether a caterer thought about that. It is easier to add a tray than to explain one.
| Guests | Protein | Side portions |
|---|---|---|
| 30 guestscooked for 33 | 17 lb | 66 |
| 50 guestscooked for 55 | 28 lb | 110 |
| 75 guestscooked for 82.5 | 42 lb | 165 |
| 100 guestscooked for 110 | 55 lb | 220 |
| 150 guestscooked for 165 | 83 lb | 330 |
Half a pound of meat and two side portions a guest, then ten percent on top, which is the part that is specific to a repass. Those pounds are across all the meats together, not each. Round up rather than down, always.
It is the meal after the funeral service, when everybody comes back from the church or the cemetery and sits down together. Repass is what most families here say and write. Repast is what turns up in print and in the funeral home's paperwork. They are the same meal and nobody is saying it wrong. It is not a formal dinner and it is not meant to be. People come in, they eat, they stay far longer than anybody planned, and the food is mostly there so that nobody has to leave straight away.
Most often the family, and most often several people in the family splitting it rather than one person carrying it. Churches sometimes cover it or provide the hall for nothing, and some burial societies and church auxiliaries have a fund for exactly this, so it is worth one phone call to the church office before you assume it is all on you. If more than one person is paying, get the quote in writing and forward the same piece of paper to everybody, rather than repeating a figure down the phone four times. It stops the conversation about money from becoming a second thing to manage.
Fewer than were at the service, and this catches nearly everybody out. The room afterwards is usually about seventy to eighty percent of the room at the church, because people go straight home from the cemetery, and there is no way to know in advance which seventy percent it will be. Give the caterer your best guess at the number rather than trying to be exact about it. Being twenty out in either direction is normal, and it is why food is ordered for the count plus ten percent instead of the count.
A church fellowship hall, most of the time, and it is usually the cheapest way to do the whole day. Halls around here run about $100 to $300, where a restaurant will hold you to a minimum in the hundreds or thousands before a single plate is served. Funeral homes often have a reception room too, which saves everybody a second drive. Halls in Queens almost always allow outside catering, and several of them have no kitchen at all, so they expect you to bring somebody. Ask the hall two things when you book it: what time you can get in to set up, and whether there are tables you can use for the food.
Funerals here are usually held three to seven days after the death, so nobody arranging one gets a week to think about the meal. Work backwards from the service, not forwards from today. The food has to be standing and hot before people arrive back, which means it is delivered while everybody is still at the church. Two days is enough notice for a kitchen that is already cooking in the morning. A caterer who needs five to seven days is not really available for this job, and it is worth asking that question first, before menus.
If the family keeps Nine Night, that is its own gathering on its own night, usually before the burial, and it is not the same meal as the repass. It runs late, it is louder, and the food is different: soup, fried fish, rice and peas, dumplings, something to eat standing up at midnight. Plan the two separately. Families sometimes try to make one order cover both and end up with a repass menu at eleven at night, which suits nobody.
Plates, cups, forks and napkins, which nobody remembers because they are not food. Serving spoons, which halls rarely have. A table for the buffet to stand on, which is worth confirming rather than assuming. Somebody to set the line out, so that it is not opened out of boxes in front of guests. Foil pans for the food that is left over, because there is always food left over and somebody will want to send it home with people. And a bin bag or two, for the same reason.
Two or three meats, rice and peas, one vegetable and something fried. In a Jamaican or Caribbean family that is usually curry goat, jerk chicken and oxtail, with steamed cabbage, festival and fried plantain, plus hard dough bread on the table and cold drinks. Pork is normally left off unless the family asks for it, because a good part of the church community does not eat it.
Usually the family, and usually several people splitting it rather than one person carrying it alone. Some churches cover it or give the hall for free, and some burial societies and church auxiliaries have a fund for it, so ask the church office before assuming. If more than one person is paying, get one written quote and forward that, rather than repeating a number down the phone.
Usually two to four hours, and it runs longer than anybody plans. People arrive together straight from the cemetery, eat within the first hour, and then stay. Book the hall for longer than you think you need and ask what time you have to be out, because that is the deadline that actually matters, not the start time.
No. A wake is before the burial and is about sitting with the family, and in Jamaican families it can run for several nights. The repass is after the funeral service, on the same day, and it is a meal. They are separate gatherings with separate food, and they are usually arranged separately.
Roughly seventy to eighty percent of the number at the service. A lot of people go straight home from the cemetery and there is no way to know which ones in advance. Take the church count, take about three quarters of it, and order for that number plus ten percent.
Yes, and plenty of families do, especially for a smaller count. The thing to think about is not the food, it is the room: whether there is somewhere for a buffet line to stand that is not the kitchen, and whether people can get to it without walking through the whole house. Over about forty guests a hall is usually easier and often not much dearer once you have counted what a house full of people costs you afterwards.
No. It is a custom, not an obligation, and no one is judging a family that does not hold one. If the reason for skipping it is money, it is worth asking the church first, because halls and funds exist for this and are not always offered unless somebody asks.
We cook repasses out of a kitchen on Sutphin Boulevard, a mile from three of the funeral homes families here use, and what it costs at fifty, seventy five, one hundred and one hundred and fifty guests is written down and broken out line by line. You can read all of it without speaking to anybody, and you are welcome to use it to check somebody else's quote.
Two days is enough notice, whatever the headcount. We deliver across southeast Queens to church halls, funeral home rooms and houses, and the rest of the board is priced at catering prices.
