Oscar party foods

The Academy Awards, more commonly known as the Oscars, arrive this Sunday. Along with all of the Hollywood celebrities at the many pre- and post-Oscar events you will find a lot of food, much of it catered by celebrity chefs like Wolfgang Puck. The star chef shared what will be on Sunday’s Governors Ball menu this year.

The Governors Ball, which Puck’s catering company has handled with aplomb for years, is no small affair. Chef Puck has 300 chefs and 600 waiters lined up to serve over 1,500 people, including many of the evening’s winners and presenters since the party is held right upstairs from the Academy Awards ceremony. There are some signature items that make the rotation every year, like spicy tuna tartare in sesame-miso cones (they’ll be making 3,500 of those tiny bites).

Other offerings include caviar-topped baked potatoes, chicken pot pies, Puck’s famous pizzas, a massive seafood bar, and plenty of drool-worthy desserts. While most of the nibbles are passed, each table will feature a platter of “cocktail bites” that includes items like aged Gouda, roasted nuts, and crab deviled eggs.

You might think that much of the food would be prepared days in advance, but Puck likes to keep things fresh. “We really buy ingredients and prepare everything at the last moment,” he says, adding that his kitchen receives most of its fresh ingredients on Friday. “Then we start to prep everything. The chicken pot pie, for example, we cook the chicken Saturday morning and then we make the sauce and then we put it together on Sunday morning and then we just have to bake them.”

If you are planning an Oscar party and want to feature food that will be at the Governors’ Ball, the EYB Library has recipes for Wolfgang Puck’s famous California pizza dough and chicken pot pie (pictured above). What will you be eating during the Oscars?