Anna Wintour Banned These 3 Smelly Foods From Met Gala Menus
The annual Met Gala is a glamorous fundraiser for New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art. While the fashion and celebrity guests often steal the spotlight, we here at Mashed are focused on the menu. The food selection is typically (at least in part) determined by Anna Wintour, Vogue editorial director and the Gala's lead chairperson (for instance, Wintour tasked Marcus Samuelsson with the Met Gala's 2021 plant-based menu). This year, her rules may keep three common foods off the table.
In an exclusive 2024 interview with Today, Wintour revealed that she banned chives, onions, and garlic from the Met Gala menu. "Those are three things I'm not particularly fond of, so yes, that's true," she confirmed. Instead of these alliums that are notorious for causing bad breath, guests who attended two years ago received a myriad of dishes that doubled as art. Think spring-inspired recipes like veggie salad with butterfly-shaped croutons, a beef filet crowned with a tortellini rose, and an almond cremeux molded into an apple shape and topped with a walnut "leaf."
Anna Wintour's banned foods likely won't appear on the 2026 Met Gala menu
We can't confirm if the foods Anna Wintour banned from the 2024 Met Gala will carry over into 2026. However, we're willing to bet that if she didn't want garlic at her party two years ago, her sentiments haven't changed. This year's theme is costume art, so the menu will presumably reflect the aesthetic of the evening, but there's no telling exactly how it will play out.
Chives, onions, and garlic aren't the only menu bans that Wintour has reportedly instated. For instance, parsley is forbidden so the herb won't get stuck in guests' teeth. Bruschetta was also nixed from the drawing board, as it may spill onto someone's outfit and ruin their look. So, these items may indeed be missing from the lineup — after all, no one wants garlic breath on their big night (though eating raw apples is one way to get rid of it). But with so many expert chefs at the helm, we can't imagine Gala guests will be lacking in delicious foods to try.