What's the secret behind mass producing food? I've seen caterers, in small groups, make huge amounts of food in a relatively short amount of time. What's the secret (if there is one)?

Not sure there is a secret.

Pre-preparation is a huge part of it. I worked in college foodservice for 5 years and we fed several hundred people a day. You do as much as possible (chopping, assembling, whatever) ahead of time and then you can feed an army.

Yeah, it the lots of people involved in getting everything ready. I was watching WGN-Chicago Noon News today and they had a professional chef on that cooked 2 complete dinners in about 2 minutes.

Everything was cut and read to go, so all he did was talk and cook. Quite amazing but it did miss the preperation part.

I worked in a restaurant as a kid, and they had 4 people who came in at 7am and would cut everything up to have it ready to go for the chefs that arrived at 3 pm.

I've had restaurants and catered for years! PREP WORK! Hours of prep and some things can be made ahead. It's a heluva lot of work; you kick into high gear and you don't stop!