New Year, New Golden Globes. The 77th annual awards ceremony is set for Sunday, January 5th at the Beverly Hilton, in Beverly Hills, California. As another year rolls around for the historic awards show, the location may be the same but other things are being done a bit differently this year. On Thursday, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced that the Golden Globes will serve its’ A-list celebrity guest list a 100% plant-based meal before the show starts.
This move, is a part of the groups sustainability efforts. Now at first glance, this may seem like a minor change, but to the Beverly Hilton Hotel, this was a disaster of catastrophic events. The first menu, which included fish, was previewed and agreed upon in December. HFPA President Lorenzo Soria confirmed that initially, there was push back about changing the menu for one of the biggest awards of the year, just weeks before the show.
“People were basically saying it’s too late, we’re ready with all the orders, the holidays and all that,” he said. “But after we began discussions, meeting for one or two days, (the hotel) accepted the change completely. They started to experiment with how to do plant-based meals that was not just their symbolic steps, but also something that guests will enjoy.”
Mathew Morgan, the executive chef for the Beverly Hilton, was able to make the menu change easier than expected, as the first course was already vegan, and the main course was a vegan alternate, in which they enhanced the dish to add some “pop and color to the plate.” However Morgan did agree that the change of plans caught him by surprise at first, but he was able to see the positive impact the change would have. The HFPA made it clear that they would like the initiative to raise environmental awareness about food consumption and waste.
“If there’s a way we can, not change the world, but save the planet, maybe we can get the Golden Globes to send a signal and draw attention to the issue about climate change,” HFPA president Lorenzo Soria said. “The food we eat, the way we grow the food we eat, the way we dispose of the food is one of the large contributors to the climate crisis.”
This would make the Golden Globes, also known as “the party of the year,” the first major award show to go ALL vegan. The new menu includes, a chilled golden beet soup as an appetizer, king oyster mushrooms scallops and wild mushroom risotto, along with roasted baby purple and green Brussels sprouts and carrots.
HFPA also partnered with Icelandic Glacial, a naturally alkaline and sustainably-sourced natural spring water. The water will be served in glass bottles to eliminate plastic waste in the ballroom and red carpet, which is reused at other events throughout the year.”
I hope you left room for dessert, Morgan’s vegan alternative “is a take on an opera cake.” Wondering how good all of this vegan food could be? After a recent taste-testing, Soria called the food “excellent.”
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