Meal planning for a multigenerational family holiday

Booking one big house for three generations is the trip of the year — until the first dinner, when a toddler, a teenager and a grandparent all want something different at the same table. Plan the food around the ages, not against them, and everyone eats well without anyone living in the kitchen.

Plan the meals first, then count the heads at each one

The whole group is rarely at every meal: grandparents skip the late nights, teens skip breakfast, little ones eat early. Decide the menu for the week first, then work out who is actually at each meal — that, not the total booking size, is what you shop and cook for.

Portioning across ages

A group of ten is never ten equal appetites. Count in adult-equivalents so the quantities land right:

• •A toddler or young child eats roughly half an adult portion; a baby, next to nothing off the main menu.
• •Hungry teenagers can out-eat the adults — don’t under-cater the 15-year-olds.
• •Older grandparents often prefer smaller, lighter plates, especially in the evening.
• •Add up the adult-equivalents rather than heads, and your pots and shopping list stop being wildly over or under.

Meals that flex for every age and diet

The trick is one dish everyone assembles their own way, so you cook once and nobody is a special case:

• •Build-your-own nights: tacos, burgers, pasta with two sauces, a big salad-and-grains bar, jacket potatoes with toppings.
• •A mild base plus optional heat and spice on the side — kids and cautious grandparents keep it plain, everyone else livens it up.
• •A roast or a big traybake: naturally soft, easy to chew, and it scales to a crowd in the oven.
• •Keep a few no-cook staples (yoghurt, fruit, bread, cheese) on hand for the toddler who won’t touch tonight’s dinner and the grandparent who wants a light supper.

Allergies and softer needs, without cooking three dinners

Gather everyone’s allergies, dislikes and any softer-textured needs up front — before you shop, not at the stove. Choose dishes where the allergen or the hard-to-chew part is added at the end, so one pot feeds the whole table with a couple of tweaks instead of separate meals.

Share the cooking so it isn’t always Mum and Grandma

On a family holiday the cooking quietly lands on the same one or two people every night. Put a rota up: pair a teen with an adult, let the grandparents take the one lunch they love to make, and give whoever cooks a night off the washing-up. Holidays are for everyone, kitchen included.

One shop, one fair split

Do a big arrival shop for the planned dinners and staples, then top up fresh things locally. Agree early how the food bill is shared — usually per household rather than per head, since a family of four with two small children doesn’t eat like four adults. Settling that on day one saves an awkward conversation at the end.