After all the Oscars have been handed out and speeches have been made at the 85th annual Academy Awards ceremony, 1,500 guests will head over to the Grand Ballroom on the top level of the Hollywood & Highland Center for the annual Governors Ball. At this soiree, they will sip from 1,500 bottles of Thienot Champagne and dine on a menu—designed by Wolfgang Puck and chef Matt Bencivenga—of 35 dishes, ranging from one-bite hors d’oeuvres to small-plate entrees to dessert, cookies, chocolates and more.
Like years past, Puck’s Governors Ball menu is part innovative cuisine and part comfort food, except for this year there will be a focus on vegetarian and vegan options like the kombu chip and edamame guacamole, caprese cone, Japanese baby peach salad, kale salad and truffle macaroni and cheese. Other signature selections include smoked salmon Oscars, chicken pot pie with shaved black truffles (the one dish everyone comes back for year after year); in addition to steamed red snapper, chestnut tortelini with with white truffles, spicy tuna tartare in a sesame miso cone and many more. Five kilos of American farm-raised caviar are on hand to be incorporated into dishes such as the aforementioned smoked salmon Oscars and in gold-wrapped baked potatoes topped with caviar and creme fraiche.
Desserts by Sherry Yard include made to order chocolate souffle cake with shaved espresso ice, huckleberry macarons, yuzo-lemon bars, blueberry fancier pops and gold-dusted mini chocolate Oscars (5,000 of them).
This year Puck and his team aren’t taking special requests, “I don’t tell anybody what movie they should make, so they don’t tell me what to cook so we have a happy thing going here,” said Puck.
Check out the bites in our exclusive photo gallery:
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