‘It was NOT Fyre Festival cuisine’: Met Gala chef DEFENDS food served at $35K-a-head bash and says ‘it tasted plenty good’ after Keke Palmer slammed woeful salad online
- Marcus Samuelsson the Michilen-starred chef responsible for curating the all-vegan menu at this year’s Met Gala defended the food there
- It had drawn mockery after actress Keke Palmer shared a photo of a sad, wilted looking salad served at the $30,000-per-person event
- Samuelsson said food was a matter of taste and that it tasted good
The Met Gala chef responsible for curating the plant-based menu at the glitzy $35,000-a-head event defended the underwhelming looking food served, saying, ‘it tasted plenty good.’
The cuisine served on Monday night at the annual elite fashion event that draws A-listers from across the globe to New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art had been widely mocked after actress Keke Palmer shared a photo of a sad, wilted salad on her Instagram story with the caption: ‘This why they don’t show y’all the food, I’m just playinnnn.’
The food drew comparison to the meals served at another, in that case infamous luxury event, with one fan tweeting at Palmer, ‘They feeding y’all like it’s Fyre Festival.’
The food served at this year’s Met Gala was widely mocked after actress Keke Palmer shared a photo of a sad looking salad served the to her 10.5million Instagram followers
The food drew comparison to that served at another, infamous luxury event
Marcus Samuelsson, the head chef behind the Red Rooster in Harlem, helped select the 10 top New York chefs who created the all-vegan menu at this year’s Met Gala.
He confirmed to TMZ that the photo shared by Palmer to her 10.5million Instagram followers was one of the meals served at the elite event.
It was a plate of barley and roasted mushrooms, with zucchini slices and a tomato corn salad, and Samuelsson told the outlet that, ‘food, likely anything, it a matter of taste, and it tasted plenty good.’
Keke’s picture appeared to show the remains of the meal made by Aquavit chef Emma Bengtsson and Junghyun Park, who runs ATOBOY NYC.
Marcus Samuelsson, the chef responsible for curating the event’s menu, confirmed Palmer’s photo was of a meal served there, and defended the food, saying ‘it tasted plenty good’
The meal in question was assembled by Aqauvit chef Emma Bengtsson (pictured) and Junghyun Park, who runs ATOBOY NYC.
‘I couldn’t have been more proud of the #MetGalaChefs who created a delicious and memorable meal for all the guests,’ he wrote on Instagram.
On social media, the Michelin star chef thanked the culinary artists he recruited for the collaboration, which included Fariyal Abdullahi, Nasim Alikhani, Emma Bengtsson, Lazarus Lynch, Junghyun Park, Erik Ramirez, Thomas Raquel, Sophia Roe, Simone Tong, and Fabian von Hauske.
Before that, the gala guests enjoyed a fresh salad, and dessert was an apple mousse and apple confit with a calvados glaze, served in the shape of an apple.
Canapes at the event included collard greens hot chowder served on coconut buttermilk cornbread, black rice porcini arancini with pumpkin Calabrian chili sauce, as well as watermelon tart with smoked yuzu soy on a panipuri cracker.
The dinner was served on hand-painted plates from Tory Burch’s Oiseau collection, and guests’ names written on autumnal leaves rather than traditional paper place settings in one of the gala’s many moves to be more sustainable.
The Gala had returned this year after being cancelled in 2020 amid the pandemic.
This year it was pushed to September from its traditional slot on the first Sunday in May.
Despite the criticism, Samuelsson thanked the ten chefs he had assembled for the event