Anna Wintour biographer reveals $77.33 tomato-free salad and steak lunch Vogue editor used to eat

A biographer has revealed the bizarre tomato-free $77.33 caprese salad and steak that Anna Wintour used to order for lunch, as well as some of the Vogue editor’s other strange eating habits – including her disdain for all vegetables.

Author Amy Odell spoke to more than 250 of Wintour’s friends, acquaintances, and former employees for her brand new book, Anna: The Biography, which dropped on May 3.

Throughout the 430-page biography, Odell revealed many shocking revelations and juicy secrets about the magazine CEO, 72 – who has been branded by some as the Ice Queen. 

But one thing in particular has left the internet stunned – and that is, her lunch order.

A biographer has revealed the bizarre tomato-free $77.33 caprese salad and steak that Anna Wintour used to order for lunch

Author Amy Odell says Wintour's 'go-to lunch' was a steak with a caprese salad from The Palm restaurant - which she insisted on getting with no tomatoes. A version of the lunch is pictured

Author Amy Odell says Wintour’s ‘go-to lunch’ was a steak with a caprese salad from The Palm restaurant – which she insisted on getting with no tomatoes. A version of the lunch is pictured

According to Odell, Wintour’s ‘go-to lunch’ after Condé Nast moved its offices to One World Trade Center in 2014 was a steak, alongside a caprese salad from the restaurant Palm in Tribeca, New York City.

But what makes the order especially strange is that she’d insist on getting no tomatoes in the salad.

A caprese salad is normally made up of just three ingredients - mozzarella cheese, basil, and tomatoes. So if you remove the red fruit, you simply get a plate of sliced cheese with some basil (stock photo)

A caprese salad is normally made up of just three ingredients – mozzarella cheese, basil, and tomatoes. So if you remove the red fruit, you simply get a plate of sliced cheese with some basil (stock photo)

Now, a caprese salad is normally made up of just three ingredients – mozzarella cheese, basil, and tomatoes – and it is usually topped with olive oil.

If you remove the red fruit (tomatoes are technically fruits, not vegetables), you simply get a plate of sliced cheese with some basil. 

Many readers were stunned by the unusual order and took to Twitter to share their thoughts.

‘I literally can’t stop thinking about Anna Wintour’s go to lunch being a $77 caprese salad with no tomatoes and a side of steak,’ wrote one person.

‘Anna Wintour’s go-to lunch includes a caprese salad WITHOUT the tomatoes… No tomatoes? Is it even a caprese salad?’ asked another user.

Someone else said: ‘[That’s] just a fancy way to ask for mozzarella.’

Many readers were stunned by the unusual order and took to Twitter to share their thoughts

Many readers were stunned by the unusual order and took to Twitter to share their thoughts

‘”Hi, I’d like a plate of mozzarella for lunch” an absolute baller move,’ a fourth tweet read.

In the book, Odell said two people confirmed this was what Wintour would order. But she added that she was told this was what she ate years ago, so it's unclear if she still gets it now

In the book, Odell said two people confirmed this was what Wintour would order. But she added that she was told this was what she ate years ago, so it’s unclear if she still gets it now 

In the book, Odell said that two different people confirmed that this was indeed what Wintour would order.

However, she explained that she was told this was what she ate five or six years ago, so it’s unclear if she still gets it now.

According to New York Magazine’s Grub Street, the salad is still on the menu and the total for the lunch comes to just over $77.

‘The lunch would have been picked up typically by the second assistant,’ Odell told the outlet, adding that the meal would arrive on a ceramic plate provided by the Palm, but the assistant would then re-plate it on one of their own dishes.

She would then pack up the plate it came on, and send it back to the restaurant. 

‘You know how in The Devil Wears Prada, we see the assistants throwing the plate in an office sink?’ Odell continued.

‘In more recent years, the plate was packed up and sent back to the Palm, which then cleaned it.’

Miranda Brooks, Wintour’s landscape designer for her house in Mastic, Long Island, confirmed that tomatoes weren’t the only food the mogul disliked, stating that the 72-year-old once told her that she was not a fan of all vegetables.

According to New York Magazine's Grub Street, the salad is still on the menu and the total for the lunch comes to just over $77

According to New York Magazine’s Grub Street, the salad is still on the menu and the total for the lunch comes to just over $77

Odell said the lunch would be picked up by an assistant, who - despite it coming on a ceramic plate from Palm - would re-plate it on one of their own dishes, similar to the scene in The Devil Wears Prada (pictured)

Odell said the lunch would be picked up by an assistant, who – despite it coming on a ceramic plate from Palm – would re-plate it on one of their own dishes, similar to the scene in The Devil Wears Prada (pictured)

However, unlike in the movie (which is rumored to be based on Wintour) they wouldn't throw the plate away (seen). Instead, Wintour's assistant would send it back to the Palm

However, unlike in the movie (which is rumored to be based on Wintour) they wouldn’t throw the plate away (seen). Instead, Wintour’s assistant would send it back to the Palm

Brooks told Odell that after she suggested Wintour plant a vegetable garden on her 42 acres of land, Wintour told her that she ‘doesn’t like vegetables.’ 

Elsewhere in the book, Odell shared many details on the preparations that go into the highly-acclaimed Met Gala – an annual star-studded ball hosted by Wintour which takes place on the first Monday in May at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan.

She claimed that Wintour doesn’t learn Met staff names – but instead, she simply calls them ‘you’ – tries to hide artifacts from the museum that she finds ‘ugly,’ and keeps a list of those who are ‘in’ and ‘out.’ 

Former Met Gala planner Stephanie Winston Wolkoff described Wintour as ‘militant’ during the weeks leading up the gala, while chatting with Odell for the biography.

During the party, Wolkoff explained that Wintour wants Vogue staff to know every single detail about each celebrity’s arrival – including when they’re going to get there (every star has their own prearranged time), what car they’re going to come in, and what they’re wearing. 

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