when you want, where you want.
Chef Moosah Reaume Handles Room Service for the Met Gala
Illustration: Margalit Cutler
Met Gala Monday is the biggest day of the year at the Carlyle, where dozens of celebrities descend pre- and post-glam — with their entourages and litany of dietary restrictions in tow. In charge of feeding them all this year was the hotel’s executive chef, Moosah Reaume. Before arriving at the Carlyle last August, Chef Reaume spent the better part of his decadeslong career cooking for lush hotels and their many VIPs. Nothing, though, could have prepared him for the 1,200 covers he and his team fed on Monday. “This is the biggest day of the year,” he says. “Christmas and New Year’s Eve are busy, but the Met Gala is something else.” Tasked with managing both in-room dining and the night’s many private events, Reaume spent the previous weekend obsessively tasting hors d’oeuvre and occasionally sneaking out for walks in Central Park before finally ending his Met Gala at 2 a.m. with Bugles and caviar.
Thursday, May 1
I wake up quite early and head to the gym, then come straight back and make breakfast. I usually have seven eggs. It might sound kind of crazy, but it’s mostly egg whites — five whites and two whole eggs; I get mine from Sweet Farm. I hit them with a little Maldon salt and have a cold brew on the side to get the day’s buzz going. I’ve been drinking cold brew for a good ten years, ever since I learned to enjoy coffee with high acidity and lots of caffeine and infused with lots of different flavors. I think it’s fantastic.
Breakfast is a mix of hotel guests and outside diners. IRD — in-room dining — handles mostly in-house guests. But at Dowling’s, our restaurant, we get a lot of Upper East Side locals who come in for avocado toast or smoked-salmon plates.
I don’t really do a big lunch. I try to avoid anything heavy or meaty during the day, but I snack on some Kunik cheese, a soft cow’s-milk cheese that’s really creamy in the middle. It’s one of the cheeses we serve on our cheese plate, and I’m always picking on a piece or two. While I’m hanging out at the garde-manger station, I try our smoked salmon; it’s a big hit for us.
I have an early dinner around 5. It’s a little window of time for me to be real with myself and sit down for a proper meal. I have a half–roasted chicken with sweet potatoes and coconut yogurt. The sweet potatoes are roasted with chermoula, a mix of fresh spices and herbs that gives the dish a real zing. Then I make sure the team is ready for dinner service, trying to keep the momentum up.
After it’s all over, to unwind — and this might sound kind of crazy — I’ll sit on my patio and chill for a bit, just listening to the noise of the city. There’s something calming about it. I take a quick shower and hit the sack.
Friday, May 2
One of my sous-chefs makes this power energizer bowl: three types of grains, all gluten free, with coconut milk that’s been steeped in Earl Grey tea and elderflower. It has goji berries, cacao nibs, and coconut bits. It’s super-refreshing. It fills me up and helps me push hard through breakfast and lunch. I feel vibrant from all the antioxidants. I have my cold brew too.
After breakfast, I start thinking about the hors d’oeuvre we’re making for the Met Gala after-parties and events. Some of the things we’re working on are vegan-based and very gluten free. So I’m tasting and tweaking, working with the cooks who’ll be producing those items. I conceptualized the hors d’oeuvre way in advance, but we finalized plating this week. One I’m especially excited about is a one-bite crudités. We usually do a big crudités spread at Bemelmans Bar, and one client asked, “Can you replicate that in a bite?” She wanted it to be fully vegan. So we took a puff pastry, filled it with great market vegetables, made microcuts, and topped it with coconut tzatziki. Another favorite: crispy sushi rice with beet tartare — marinated beets with fresh ginger, white soy, and a little lemongrass. You fry the sushi rice, top it with the tartare, then finish with an avocado crème fraîche. It surprises people, and it’s just really good.
We rally the chefs for a quick weekly meeting and go over the prep list. We’re getting a lot of preorders, so we have to make sure we’re sourcing the right ingredients ahead of time. With so many people coming through the hotel, it’s hard to get deliveries through. You have to be masterful.
If time doesn’t get away from me, I try to eat dinner around 6. I have shrimp cocktail and a piece of steak — something light and straightforward. If I have anything too heavy, it’ll drain me throughout the evening.
I taste quite a bit during the night’s service. I make sure my sous-chefs open their shifts, and I follow behind to do a full line check; it’s a daily thing. The rule of thumb is find five things that are wrong. That way, we can correct them.
Saturday, May 3
Gala prep really kicks into gear today. I try to get a really great workout in before deliveries start coming in. One of my cooks, Carlos, makes an incredible French-style omelet. I go straight to him. He says, “Chef, you ready?” And I’m like, “I’m ready.” It’s wonderful. It’s delicious. It’s silky smooth and very technical. When you have someone who makes an omelet like that, you fall in love. I finish it with a little garlic chile crisp over the top.
My executive sous arrives within an hour, and we start double-checking our orders. As I’m finishing breakfast, we talk for a good 30 minutes about the day ahead, throwing quick ideas around. We discuss Thanksgiving and the upcoming seasons, just trying to stay ahead.
We immediately shift into planning production for the Met Gala: who’s on what team, where they’ll be throughout the day. That all flows straight into lunch. I run to the cold station and grab a shot of ginger. We do these ginger presses every day, and they’re really delicious. Then I’ll have a quick protein shake, just a traditional one: vanilla whey powder, usually with some yogurt, maybe some berries.
At some point, I let the team know I’m going for a quick walk. I take off my chef whites and take a short stroll through Central Park, maybe 20 or 30 minutes. You don’t ever want to forget it’s there. It’s like living in Florida and never going to the beach.
After the walk, I get ready for café service. By then, it’s probably 4:30. I try to grab the last bit of rice from the poke bowl we’re testing for the gala and make another one for myself. We have kimchee that’ll probably never be on the menu; it’s a chef’s-special thing. I mix that with wakame salad, edamame beans, lots of avocado, and tuna. I finish it with a black-truffle-and-soy dressing. It’s quite lovely.
Sometimes I sneak into Café Carlyle to catch a glimpse of the spectacle. It’s kind of fun. I like seeing Isaac Mizrahi. He’s a hoot.
Sunday, May 4
Sunday morning is the calm before the storm. I go on a long bike ride to clear my mind. I press hard for a good hour and a half. It’s pretty intense. I come home, shower, and try to eat something heavier in fat to get the day going: avocado toast with housemade smoked salmon. We get this beautiful sourdough bread from Eli’s, and I load up a slice with poached eggs.
Once I’m in, we jump straight into more prep: what team is doing which party or function, how we’re handling all the preorders coming through for in-room dining. Those orders start coming in four or five days out, and we get a lot of last-minute ones, too, but for the most part, we’ve been able to prepare everything ahead of time — no rush, no chaos. It’s only the second year the Carlyle has hosted, and this year we had triple the volume.
Brunch service is full tilt. I’m hoping it’ll be slow, but it’s not. Locals are in, enjoying themselves, and hotel guests are coming through too. It’s busy. We scatter the seating among all the celebrities. Regulars have their favorite tables, so we just make it work. I have banana yogurt with a little honey, kept ice-cold — just something to keep me moving.
Before dinner service, I go for something a little heavier: a filet mignon with a Caesar salad on the side. I add more avocado, more white anchovies — they have that acidity and balance everything. It reminds me of being a kid; my stepfather introduced me to A1 sauce. I started researching how to re-create it and eventually thought, Let me play around with white anchovies. They sort of mimic the flavor, the umami, the brininess, and sharpness — when you eat it all together, it tastes like a steak sauce in the best way.
Monday, May 5
I try to sleep in, but my brain is spinning. I wake up around seven, hit the gym, and come back home. My goal is to be on for the later shift — not the morning push — so I’m texting my a.m. sous-chef, getting a read on things. I don’t roll into work until around noon. When I get in, the first thing I do is grab a cold brew.
I haven’t eaten anything yet — I never do on days like this. There’s so much I’ll be tasting throughout the day, and I don’t want to crash. I keep it simple: egg whites, a shot of ginger, maybe some berries. I drizzle the egg whites with a salsa roja we make for our migas — it’s guajillo-based — and finish with some extra Maldon salt. Nothing too boring.
I meet with the team. We’ve got 200 orders on the board. It’s go time. I put my best chef, Ikuma, on the pass; he’s organizing with IRD. The other sous-chefs are managing platter dispatch — every order is timed. Everything has to be choreographed. I don’t jump in; I walk the line, demo a few dishes again, and check that everything looks perfect. Then I duck into the office to start planning for the evening. It’s nonstop. The level of execution is incredible. It’s a lot of last-minute decisions, doing everything I can to make sure the t’s are crossed, the i’s are dotted. It’s nerve-racking. I step away occasionally, take a breath, and come back with fresh eyes — check every plate as we build it. At one point, I go upstairs into the lobby, just to peek at the buzz. I try not to get starstruck, but honestly, I don’t even have time.
By late afternoon, I still haven’t had a real meal. I’m just tasting what’s coming out — platters for the rooms. A few bites of poke bowl, some margherita pizza on our housemade sourdough with creamy buffalo mozzarella. I make sure the steaks go out properly and that the mushroom Bolognese, our vegan version of the real thing, has the right consistency. That’s my dinner.
We hit a quick pause around five o’clock, then ramp right back up for dinner service. Dowling’s is closed, Café Carlyle is closed, Bemelmans is closed — it’s all hands on IRD and the banquet. We’re plating for in-room guests, prepping buyout parties, and feeding the staff, too. I taste a little of the team buffet, roasted chicken with truffle jus, and slow-cooked salmon with a black-bean vinaigrette. My team sees some celebrities, and they come back with names, but I miss them all. I don’t eat much dessert, but I try the Key-lime tart. That’s always a favorite.
When it’s finally over, sometime after 2 a.m., we bring the whole team downstairs: IRD, banquets — everyone. I give a toast, we pass around Champagne, and then I go smash-crazy on caviar and potato chips. It’s Plantin Kaviari — the prestige gold stuff we bring in from France — served with our homemade chips. And when I’m feeling wild, Bugles. I love the salt.
I bike home in the rain through the paparazzi. Everyone’s still cheering outside, and I can’t see a thing.
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