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I hope we’re all feeling sufficiently rested from the holidays, because Awards Season is here and it looks like many of the races will be exciting this year. Rose Byrne and Jessie Buckley are splitting Best Actress wins, while Sinners and One Battle After Another are neck-and-neck for all the top categories. It’s fun when there’s a wealth of good movies! Obviously we love to dig into the fashion of award shows, but another feature of these events is getting the spotlight after Sunday’s Critics Choice Awards: the food. Kyle Buchanan, a reporter in attendance, tweeted a snap of what guests were served — a plate of cheese, grapes, bruschetta, and similar light nibbles — and the public response has been divided on whether the offering constituted an adequate meal. As someone who spends a disproportionate amount of time deliberating what food(s) I will be eating while watching award shows, I’m glad the issue of what’s being consumed on the other side of the TV is finally getting the serious attention it deserves.
“Hello from the Critics Choice Awards and our dinner, this snack plate. Follow along for updates…” he [Buchanan] wrote, alongside a photo of a plate filled with foods like bruschetta, grapes, cheeses, and skewers.
Reacting to the food, one person tweeted, “This plate is so sad. It’s not even presented particularly nicely.” Another user quipped, “I didn’t know rabbits were attending.”
“This looks like it was purchased for $14 on a United Airlines flight from Chicago to Houston,” someone wrote, while another person said, “the critics should choose something more substantial for dinner.”
On the flip side, some people thought the plate looked perfectly fine. “This actually looks delish,” one person said on Reddit, while another added, “Honestly? Hell yeah. This is the perfect ‘I’m hungry, but we’re supposed to be paying attention, lemme grab a bite really quick’ plate.”
Interestingly, the discourse comes after Abbott Elementary star Janelle James poked fun at the lack of food served throughout the night during her acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.
“The best thing about being nominated four times is I finally realized they’re never gonna feed us at this thing. It’s gonna be grapes and ice cream every year, but this makes up for it!” she quipped on stage.
Referencing the hilarious speech, one person tweeted in response to the snack plate photo, “Janelle James was not lying in her speech lmao.” Another person joked, “janelle wasn’t lying what in the prison food is this.”
What’s more, this isn’t the first time that the food served at the Critics Choice Awards has caused a stir among guests. In 2024, Oprah Winfrey was memorably left shocked after being served what was described as “pizza in a bag,” with film producer Jen D’Angelo later writing online, “Absolutely revolting 3D printed ass pizza.”
If you know me by now, you know that I’m generally (always) in favor of more food, not less. But I’m biting back personal feelings to confront this empirically and scientifically. My first question: Buchanan refers to the meal as both “dinner” and a “snack plate,” but what terminology was used on the invites? Words matter, and critics of all people should know this! So ahead of time, were guests told that “dinner” or “refreshments” would be provided? If guests were promised dinner, then I’d say hell yes those plates were pathetic and belonged in a corporate afternoon meeting rather than a Hollywood event. But if the show billed the food as snacks or refreshments, then in fairness to the organizers, the plates were as advertised. Of course once the language is settled, things get trickier as we move into the philosophical questions here. I’m thinking about the commenters who noted it was a light meal well-suited for an audience on camera. But is it the show’s responsibility to determine what’s an appropriate repast? Don’t actors and filmmakers have the agency to decide for themselves how much they want to eat?! Are the organizers infantilizing actors by dictating portions to them?? We demand answers!!
“At least they got bruschetta,” said anyone who’s ever been to the Met Gala dinner (IYKYK).
Hello from the Critics Choice Awards and our dinner, this snack plate. Follow along for updates… pic.twitter.com/e5RKwiIdcZ
— Kyle Buchanan (@kylebuchanan) January 4, 2026
So…basically…if I EVA go to one of these shindigs…I need to bring a cornbeef sandwich & a cream soda with me…GOT IT😅
Lol Lala!!! Right? Maybe Napoleon Dynamite was onto something with his pocket full of tots!
During one of Olivia Colman’s speeches or interviews after she won her Oscar, she thanked Melissa McCarthy for keeping her fed throughout the awards season. It seems Melissa brings a basket of sandwiches to awards ceremonies and hands them out to people.
It really DOES look like an airline’s “available for purchase” refrigerated boxed “meal.”
Do people even eat at these events? If I’d be wearing a 10 grand outfit plus jewels, professionally done make up and hair and be surrounded by cameras I’d stick to water.
However these events can be long and it’s probably best that they offer some finger food. The plates pictured here though, look like a toddler’s afternoon snack but bigger. There must be a chef’s version of little bites. Maybe there was an emergency bts and the event planner problem solved with this.
That’s what I was thinking, especially looking at the woman next to Leo who isn’t even wearing a shirt and was probably sucking her stomach in all night long. Lots of celebrities have made comments in the past about how they starved and dehydrated themselves for their awards night looks. Otherwise, the meal doesn’t look to bad to me. It wouldn’t be my first choice but those are foods that most people in general would eat, and that’s something you have to consider when you’re serving that many people.
MTE!! They’re not gonna eat any way. What’s the point of a fancy meal other than optics?
My thought exactly, no-one eats in Hollywood.
Totally. I feel like those grapes are actually a good idea. A little something you can stick in your mouth without messing up your makeup or expensive clothes.
Especially now that everyone’s on some version of Ozempic.
They certainly don’t have issues serving loads of booze, which has caused a lot of problems in the past. I guess the push for more and better food is part of their efforts to prevent such things, these days.
Two thoughts. I suspect given the attendees, organizers see a lot of plates coming back next to untouched and can just imagine the food waste. Second, given the rise in use of weight loss drugs, people are opting to eat less and when they do eat healthier foods in smaller portions. This could be influencing what was served at this event.
Absolutely what I was thinking – you very rarely see anyone eating at an event (drinking, yes, that’s why the Golden Globes are so fun to watch) and that’s even more widespread with glp-1 usage. I think it looks like a fine snack/light meal – I’d eat it. Isn’t it basically “girl dinner” that was big online last year?
This. It looks like it was decided on by a chef on GLP1s, preparing food for a bunch of people on GLP 1s. All the others could go kick rocks, but it probably wasn’t too many in that audience. A lot of those women sadly never touched the bread or cheese, so I hope Janelle got at least one other person’s plate.
That is one sad plate. Did the Fyre Festival planners organize it?
I don’t blame the organisers for providing snack plates. They know that a lot of these celebrities don’t eat and that giving them a full meal will only end up being thrown away.
This! I won’t guess how many people in attendance are on Ozempic or similar drugs, but let’s assume it’s a majority of them. They can’t eat normal portions of food. The event planners knew what they were doing.
Ok, this has nothing directly to do with the food but… until I saw the picture of Leonardo and Benicio next to each other I had no idea how much they looked like they could be brothers.
lol I’ve actually always thought Benicio and Brad Pitt looked a lot alike, but I can definitely see Leo in that equation.
As far as the food, I think it looks delicious and is perfect for this type of event. I’m not about to sport a food baby from consuming a full meal while wearing my expensive designer gown that I’ve been fasting my ass off to look fit & fabulous in (just trying to look at it from the pov of a famous celebrity 😉)
Having spent a lot of my working life in environments where I was reliant on someone else to decide what was suitable/enough to eat I feel their pain. I’m sure there are plenty of people who consume only liquids around awards season but there are regular people in the room too. Given the money that’s spent on these events how hard would it be to have a three option RSVP – regular/light/none?
I never leave the house without a snack, just in case. Old habits die hard.
I think the concept of a snack plate or “light refreshments” is fine. But that plate is just sad.
Idea: 8/10.
Execution: 4/10 at best.
💯 this. It’s the execution that’s laughable.
Most of these people don’t eat so why bother?
I mean, idk at what point most of those photos were taken, but not one of those plates has food that’s been touched. Having snack plates is probably totally fine because I don’t think people really eat at these events, it’s just that those are super sad snacks.
I would’ve been happier with a GoMacro bar. I guess skinny really is back.
I mean I think that it looks great, but that’s my normal civilian standards talking. If I was at that type of event, I’d want the fancy charcuterie board, not something that you can get anywhere. I have heard from personal chefs that a lot of celebs have surprisingly mundane taste in food though.
When I worked in the events industry and would go to a vendor appreciation event put on by a venue or a caterer, nobody ate. (But I did LOL – I’m not passing up free food). Maybe they were tired of putting together an elaborate meal that nobody ate.
That looks like a nicer airline’s snack box for purchase in flight.
My only complaint is that I hate when the only vegan options are fruit and crackers. Serve some G-D protein!! Hummus or grilled tofu or something.
Same! Looks like in this case there is a dollop of hummus on the plate–it’s next to the cheese.
Good catch! Then this would actually be perfect for me if I were dressed too fancy to eat much and wanted a soft champagne buzz. Maybe they meant to invite me?
Savoury crepes would be a nice choice.
There are at least two bottles of Milagro on each table (plus wine I can’t ID). Are they just taking shots with a cheese chaser??
I think it would be great if someone at the table could find out who they were sitting with and basically took orders. Take Melissa McCarthy ‘s idea further and bring box lunches for the table. Put a grandmother in charge and add some sandwiches, chocolate chip cookies and lemon bars!
I worked for a university and had to order up food for various events. If I had served that plate to speakers or invited guests/donors, I would be in a meeting the next day worrying about my job. That is just not the catering you expect at that level of event. No creativity, nothing made to look attractive, just stuff from the grocery store slapped on a plate.
Curious–what do you think about the plastic bottled water? I would have expected at a fancy do to have glass receptacles of some sort–pitchers or bottles–not bottles of Fiji water.
Look, everybody at that event is taking Ozempic, Either that or the organizers got tired of throwing away plates of untouched food.
Can we stop putting forth this idea that people on Ozempic don’t eat at all? All it’s doing is creating more toxicity around it for people that are legit using GLP-1s to lower their BMI for their health. 🙄
The real issue here is the plate has zero protein. (And that also happens to be what people on GLP-1s would need.) Carbs won’t keep anyone full, celeb or not. I don’t get why they dont eat a light meal beforehand. People know the food options are going to be crap, and they have enough money to feed themselves.
There’s more than just actors at these events. Not everyone is starving themselves or focused on how they look. I feel bad for the people who get dragged along as a plus one to these things. Boring, drawn out, and the food looks like you stole it from a kid’s lunchbox.
i would be too nervous to eat much at an event like that so perhaps nibbly bits would be preferable. And for sure I would get a sauce or dressing or gravy on my clothes (sigh). what surprises me is how packed in they are. they don’t look like they can all comfortably pull their chairs in
It looks like the Starbucks protein box. Which is delicious but not intended for dinner.
Not even an elaborate charcuterie board for the table?
This looks like the veggie dinners the airlines used to serve—all that’s missing is the plastic wrapping.
Catered by Delta? 🤨
It’s supposed to be a dinner. You don’t serve light refreshments during the awards if that’s what you’re doing. It’s cheap and bad. All they need to do is stop calling it a dinner. The Oscars used to be a dinner also…