Big changes are coming to the 2020 Golden Globes! With days to go before the annual ceremony on Sunday, January 5, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced that for the first time ever, the three-course menu at Sunday’s event will be entirely plant-based.
The HFPA confirmed the last-minute menu change on Thursday, January 2, and sees it as a way 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 in a statement to the Associated Press. “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 change means that the Chilean sea bass that was on the menu up until about two weeks ago has been replaced with a more environmentally friendly main course consisting of king oyster mushrooms. The dish will be cooked and presented to call scallops to mind, though there won’t actually be any fish on the plate. Instead, the mushrooms will be served with wild-mushroom risotto, roasted baby purple and green Brussels sprouts, globe carrots and pea tendrils, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“We had the menu with fish. Then we got together with the HFPA and they wanted to make this change to send a good message,” Beverly Hilton executive chef Matthew Morgan told the publication. “It’s definitely the first Golden Globes that has gone vegan.”
The appetizer course is slated to be a chilled golden beet soup, while guests will dine on what Morgan has dubbed “a take on an opera cake” for dessert.
Morgan, who typically spends months planning his Golden Globes menu, received a phone call from the HFPA just a few days before Christmas with news of the plant-based switch. Though admirable, the sudden change of course has presented some challenges for the skilled chef, such as preparing flavorful risotto without using Parmesan cheese.
However, Soria tasted the cheese-less entrée at a last-minute tasting on Monday, December 30, and deemed the final product “delicious.”
“He’s Italian,” Morgan quipped. “So he was a little bit skeptical that we could pull it off.”
The 77th Golden Globe Awards air live on NBC Sunday, January 5, at 8 p.m. ET.
