Inside this year's lavish Met Gala menu including 5 banned foods
The Met Gala 2026 saw hundreds of A-list celebrities, including sports superstar Naomi Osaka, actors Rami Malek and Olivia Wilde, and musicians Beyoncé and Sabrina Carpenter, descending on the New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art.
And while many are fascinated by the outfits, others are probably more interested in hearing what Olivier Cheng Catering crafted and created for some of the most famous faces in the world to eat.
The titular business, considered one of the most respected premium caterers in New York, has been serving up good grub at the Met Gala for the best part of a decade.
Previous menus have featured lean proteins like salmon, alongside chilled soups, and indulgent steaks.
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The 2026 outing featured a three-course menu based on the Costume Art theme, with the dessert directly paying homage to three of the archival items.
According to American Vogue, Cheng’s dishes were rich with seasonal springtime ingredients, such as tomatoes and asparagus, and were designed as three separate ‘chapters’.
“The three chapters really are taking you on this culinary journey that reflects the spirit of the exhibition,” the culinary master explained to the publication.
The first course, described as ‘The Garden’, featured creamy burrata with a green tomato salad with elderflower, pine, and gooseberries.
“The idea is this garden celebrates growth, seasonality, freshness,” Cheng claimed, adding that a garden that is ‘shaped, rather than tamed’.
Following the appetiser was a moreish rack of lamb with morel panna cotta.
Morels, a type of edible springtime mushroom, were also recently served to King Charles and Queen Camilla during their White House state dinner.
A rich Parmesan gnocchi, asparagus, carrots, spring peas, and mint also joined the plate.
Finally, the meal concluded with a trio of desserts, which Cheng noted were inspired by actual items which will be on display as part of the Costume Art exhibition at The Met from 10 May 2026 to 10 January 2027.
A raspberry-infusion chocolate with a red velvet cake and a raspberry chocolate crémeux was inspired by a 2001 Alexander McQueen dress.
The second, a strawberry pavlova and a passionfruit curd with burgundy amaranth microgreens, was a sweet interpretation of a bleeding coat from Robert Wun’s sping 2023 collection.
And the last, a white chocolate mocha with a cocoa cake and dark chocolate ganache was designed to represent a Christian Dior 2024 bar suit.
Previously, Top Chef winner Melissa King revealed how much planning goes into creating the Met Gala menu, telling The Cut in 2022 that Met Gala chair Anna Wintour is ‘involved every step of the way’.
“There were certainly a lot of emails,” she said. “There’s a pass-off of the menu and several tastings, as well as quick checks about what’s working and what’s not, then we tweak it from there. It took a few months, and that’s just me speaking on my one dish.”
Former Vogue editor Wintour, 76, has also confirmed that there are a handful of ingredients that are banned from being served to Met Gala guests.
These are garlic, onion and parsley, seemingly because they can cause odour and can easily get trapped in guest’s teeth.
“Those are three things I’m not particularly fond of,” the fashion mogul previously told Today. “And so yes, that’s true.”
Another ‘banned’ item, which a Vogue employee revealed in 2016 to the New York Post, was bruschetta
The typical Italian snack can be extremely messy - and honestly, who wants to be walking around one of the biggest events in the world wearing food on their frock?
Ella Scott