Fashion’s biggest night is nearly here. Tonight, a long list of stars will climb the steps and pose on the red carpet outside New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art — but what happens once everyone disappears inside is still largely kept under wraps.
One thing that isn’t a secret: guests sit down to an elaborate dinner. The exact menu for this year hasn’t been revealed yet.
Still, chefs who’ve worked the event in past years have shared snippets about what it takes to feed that room, including the months of planning that go into each plate.
And there are a few items that are widely understood to be non-starters at the gala dinner.
The Met has leaned into high-profile culinary talent in recent years. Vogue reported that last year’s lineup included Kwame Onwuachi, whose dishes featured papaya piri-piri salad, Creole roasted chicken and BBQ collard greens.
Celebrity chef involvement at the gala ramped up in 2021, and it’s become part of the event’s modern-day appeal.
In 2022, Top Chef winner Melissa King was among the chefs behind the scenes, and she spoke to The Cut afterwards about how the menu comes together.
She explained that Anna Wintour has a hands-on role throughout the process.
‘involved every step of the way’
King described a planning schedule filled with approvals, tastings, and constant refinement.
“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.”
She also noted that the celebrity chefs collaborate closely with an experienced catering operation — but even with all that expertise in the kitchen, there are certain foods that reportedly won’t be served.
It turns out the gala isn’t just curated through invitations and seating charts. Wintour is also said to have a firm list of foods she doesn’t want anywhere near the dining room.
While most people never see what’s served inside, former employees have previously offered glimpses of what makes the cut — and what doesn’t.
One long-running rumor has been that garlic, onion and parsley are off the menu. Wintour later confirmed the story herself.
“Those are three things I’m not particularly fond of,” Wintour told Today last year. “And so yes, that’s true.”
Given the close quarters and constant cameras, it’s not hard to see why pungent ingredients — or herbs that can get stuck in teeth — might be considered risky for an event built on photo moments.
A fourth item is also frequently mentioned, though it hasn’t been confirmed by Wintour. In 2016, a Vogue employee told the New York Post that bruschetta was also said to be banned.
The reasoning, reportedly, is practical: anything that can spill or stain is a threat to expensive, intricate outfits.
As wild as the red-carpet fashion can get, attendees aren’t simply told to wear whatever they like. There’s a formal dress code, and guests are expected to interpret it through the lens of the night’s theme.
The event also functions as the splashy opening for the Costume Institute’s spring exhibition, so the theme and suggested dress approach tend to connect back to that show.
This year’s theme is:
‘Costume Art’
The exhibition concept pairs paintings and sculpture with historical and contemporary clothing, focusing on how fashion and art speak to each other.
It looks to deal with:
‘the centrality of the dressed body in the museum’s vast collection’
The dress code is even broader, summarised as:
Fashion is Art.
British Vogue described the guidance as something that pushes attendees to treat the body like a creative surface.
‘encourages attendees to consider the many ways that designers use the body as their blank canvas’.
Other recent themes and dress codes have included:
Theme: Superfine: Tailoring Black Style
Dress code: Tailored for You
Theme: Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion
Dress code: The Garden of Time
Theme: Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty
Dress code: In honor of Karl