New Delhi: The Met Gala 2023 took place on May 1 with many Indian celebs attending, including Alia Bhatt and Priyanka Chopra, socialites Natasha Poonawalla, and entrepreneur Isha Ambani. This year's theme paid tribute to the late designer Karl Lagerfeld. Following the red carpet and a visit to the Karl Lagerfeld exhibition, the glamorous guests dined on a menu inspired by the late designer.
According to a report by Vogue, Karl Lagerfeld loved throwing dinner parties. "He’d take me to chaotically planned, totally glamorous dinners at his house, and those incredible nights often ended with dancing", Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of Vogue and global editorial director of Condé Nast recently told the New York Times.
So, while choosing a culinary concept for the 2023 Met Gala, the Vogue special events department and caterer Olivier Cheng took their cues from one of Lagerfeld’s most famous soirées: the wedding reception he hosted for Paloma Picasso.
Just like that September evening, the tables at Met Gala were also adorned with French linen napkins, varnished hand-painted candelabras, and bouquets of pink blooms including Red Command and Coral Charm peonies.
"The hope is that it will feel very much like a dinner at his home", said Eaddy Kiernan, a contributing editor at Vogue who was closely involved in planning the annual event.
The Vogue report also mentioned that for dinner, the guests were served chilled spring pea soup with baby vegetables, lemon crème fraîche, and truffle snow, followed by Ōra King salmon with vegetable nage, asparagus, pickled strawberries, and radish, all on vintage china. As for drinks, there was plenty of wine and Diet Coke, which was a favourite of Lagerfeld's, who often was said to drink up to 10 per day.
Also, at the end of the night, waiters served various petit fours as actors, artists, singers, and politicians departed the gala for the various after-parties of the night.
Netizens reacted to the menu and it seemed that they were not at all pleased with it. One of them said, "sweet raptor jesus, this is the menu for MetGala tonight. celebrities are starving themselves to death and paying out the nose for the privilege. What is this crime against food???" She further went on to say, "I live in a part of the country where I add a whole stick of butter per 5 lbs. of potatoes! Plus milk and salt! Pecan pie has straight corn syrup (karo) in it! I use two kinds of sugar AND marshmallows for making sweet potatoes. viva velveeta cheese!"
Another one said, "The food on the menu at the Met Gala all sounds disgusting?"
A third user said, "This menu…I would’ve went straight to a pasta restaurant then back to the after party", while a fourth comment read, "I just read the menu for the Met Gala and I just want to say, rich people have awful taste buds."