After actress Keke Palmer shared photos of the food served at the Met Gala, which had social media users comparing it to "prison" or the train wreck that was the Fyre Festival, the Met Gala chef curator has defended the quality of the meal.
Palmer posted the photo with the caption: "This is why they don't show y'all the food. I'm just playing."
Marcus Samuelsson, the chef who handpicked the team of chefs who created the Met Gala menu, told TMZ that Palmer's picture is only one part of the gala's meal.
Advert
Tickets for the fabulous event cost between £30,000 and £50,000, making the lacklustre dish feel like a slap in the face.
Samuelsson explained that what Palmer was eating was barley, roasted mushrooms, tomato salad, and corn and courgette slices. He said that while it may not have looked like much, it definitely tasted good.
He also told TMZ that the three course meal, of which Palmer only shared one dish, received extremely positive feedback from the guests.
The menu was a sustainable, plant-based menu, created by the team of chefs and Samuelsson in collaboration with Bon Appetit, and it included a Niçoise-inspired salad, gimbap, coconut custard with tahini-lime Streusel and roasted strawberry jam, Awaze jar noodles, coconut and berry pavlova, and naz khatoon.
Ahead of the event, Samuelsson said: “After a difficult two years for the restaurant industry, this will showcase the work and tell the stories of a dynamic group of chefs while presenting an exciting menu of delicious, plant-based dishes,”
“The gala offers an incomparable opportunity for emerging talent to elevate their careers and share their perspectives and craft.”
Advert
Despite Samuelsson's defense of the food, people were less than impressed, with one person writing on Twitter: "This was clearly a 'eat before you get there' type of thing'."
Another said, "They're feeding you like it's Fyre Festival."
In regards to the backlash, a representative for Vogue told Page Six: "We are so thrilled and grateful to have worked with Marcus Samuelsson on the menu for this year’s Met Gala.”
"The plant-based menu featured recipes from 10 emerging New York-based chefs to celebrate the return of the city’s restaurant industry, which was devastated by the pandemic," they added.
Featured Image Credit: Keke Palmer/InstagramTopics: Food and Drink, Celebrity