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The most expensive foods we saw in the Oscars’ back kitchen, from black truffles and caviar to wagyu beef and ahi tuna

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  • Wolfgang Puck leads the culinary team at the Oscars’ Governors Ball, serving nearly 2,000 guests.
  • The menu features luxury dishes like wagyu beef sliders and truffle pot pie.
  • Puck’s team completes about 30,000 small plates in a few hours. We take you behind the scenes.

Wolfgang Puck has been feeding Hollywood after the Oscars for more than 30 years — and the scale of the operation is staggering.

As the lead chef behind the Academy Awards’ Governors Ball, Puck oversees the massive post-ceremony dinner that serves nearly 2,000 actors, filmmakers, and industry insiders just minutes after the final statuette is handed out.

Behind the scenes, his team of chefs work for days transforming the ballroom kitchen into a high-volume operation capable of turning out tens of thousands of dishes in a matter of hours.

The menu blends luxury ingredients with crowd-pleasing comfort food. Guests can graze on dishes like wagyu beef sliders, sushi, and other high-end bites — alongside one of the event’s most famous staples, Puck’s truffle chicken pot pie.

We went behind the scenes with Puck and his culinary team as they prepared for the Governors Ball, where hundreds of staff members work together to plate roughly 30,000 dishes for Hollywood’s biggest stars.

See behind the scenes of the 98th Oscars Governors Ball in the video below, and keep reading to learn about some of the most expensive dishes on the menu.

The smoked salmon lavosh, topped with caviar and shaped like an Oscar, has been on the menu for decades. The team went through $24,000 of the fish eggs.

Eric Klein, the vice president of culinary at Wolfgang Puck Catering, told Business Insider that this black Kaluga caviar costs $50 per ounce. They go through nearly 30 pounds of the fish eggs. 

Michael Buckner/Penske Media via Getty Images

180 pounds of wagyu beef are flown in from Miyazaki, Japan. Chefs cut it into small slices, sear it at the last minute, and serve it with a little ponzu, fresh scallions, and fresh grated wasabi.


A giant slab of Miyazaki wagyu beef

Chef Eric Klein said this wagyu is like snowflakes because it melts in the mouth. 

Business Insider

The truffle chicken pot pie is a Hollywood favorite. Puck says they’ve been on the menu for about 25 years. “This is one of our most important dishes, one of the dishes everybody asks for.”


Stock being added to a giant vat of vegetables for chicken pot pie at Governors Ball.

Puck said if he ever dared to get rid of the chicken pot pie, there would be “no more Hollywood after.” 

Business Insider

Chefs fill 1,200 ramekins with the pot pie base and then top each with black truffle shavings and a circle of puff pastry before hitting the oven.


Someone shaving truffle on top of shicken pot pie.

The puff pastry lid seals in the heat so they don’t get cold, Puck said. 

Business Insider

One chef said this bowl contained about $4,000 worth of black truffles, which are used in the chicken pot pies and the smoked salmon lavosh.


A bowl of truffles worth thousands of dollars.

Chefs were doing bumps of this black Kaluga caviar in celebration after the ball was over. 

Business Insider

Wolfgang Catering also flies in 100 pounds of ahi tuna from Hawaii.


Someone slicing ahi tuna flown in from Hawaii for Governors Ball.

The chef who butchered it, Hiroyuki Fujino, also came in from Hawaii. 

Business Insider

These American wagyu New York strip steaks cost $55 a pound at retail.


Steaks on a grill.

Snake River Farms in Idaho provided the strip steaks and the beef for the housemade pastrami. 

Business Insider

Everything’s made from scratch, including the buns for the wagyu sliders.


burgerbuns oscars

Every bun weighs in at 35 grams and then chefs roll them into perfect balls. 

Pablo Lagodantas

Puck’s team pours dark chocolate into molds to make 3,500 mini Oscar statues. Every guest gets one, whether they won or lost in the competition for the real ones.


chocolate statue oscar

Each statue is sprayed in 24k liquid gold. 

Conner Blake

Once “best director” is announced, it’s a mad rush in the kitchen for chefs to plate and add garnishes to every one of the 30,000 small plates.


Spicy Tuna Tartare in a Sesame Miso Cone. Master chef Wolfgang Puck creates the dishes that will be served at the Governors Ball, the post-telecast celebration following the 78th Academy Awards® on Sunday, March 5, 2006.

This is the spicy tuna in a sesame miso cone. 

Ted Soqui/Corbis via Getty Images

Leftover food is packed and sent to a downtown mission, Puck said. The mission then distributes it to people who need meals.


wolfgang puck oscars

Wolfgang Puck stands in front of a press showcase of the Oscar dishes. 

Frederic J. BROWN / AFP




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Leon Black wins delay in 8-hour deposition over his Jeffrey Epstein ties for victim lawsuit

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As part of a sprawling lawsuit against Bank of America, lawyers for Jeffrey Epstein’s victims will be able to depose one of the most important figures in the sex-trafficker’s financial life: Leon Black.

But Black can delay his lawsuit for 10 days, a judge ruled Wednesday.

It wasn’t publicly known that Black — the billionaire former CEO of Apollo Global Management — would be forced to sit for a deposition until US District Judge Jed Rakoff scheduled the hearing earlier Wednesday to determine whether he could delay it.

Michael Carlinsky, an attorney at the law firm Quinn Emmanuel representing Black, told the judge that the deposition should be delayed because there’s a chance the lawsuit will soon be settled, making it unnecessary.

“My understanding is the parties are very close to resolving this dispute,” Carlinsky told Rakoff.

Representatives for Bank of America and attorneys representing Epstein victims had no immediate comment on a possible settlement. A representative for Black, who has denied knowledge of Epstein’s sex trafficking operation, also declined to address settlement talks.

Black transferred Epstein over $150 million between 2012 and 2017, which he has said were payments for financial services that included tax and estate-planning advice.

The proposed class-action lawsuit brought by Epstein victims alleges the Black’s funds were used to facilitate Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation. Bank of America, which housed Black’s financial entities, should have more closely scrutinized the accounts and transactions related to Epstein, the lawsuit says.

Similar lawsuits brought against JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank have settled, obtaining hundreds of millions of dollars for Epstein’s victims.

In January, Rakoff dismissed a portion of the lawsuit against Bank of America and entirely tossed a parallel lawsuit filed against BNY, also known as Bank of New York Mellon Corp.

In Wednesday’s hearing, Rakoff set some parameters for Black’s deposition. He said it could take up to 8 hours, with 5 hours for victims’ lawyers and 3 for Bank of America lawyers.

The deposition, originally scheduled for March 16, will instead begin on March 26, Rakoff ruled.

As a condition of the ruling, Carlinsky said he wouldn’t ask for any additional delays on Black’s behalf.

Black has also been asked to appear for a May 13 deposition before the House Oversight Committee, which is investigating Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence after a jury found she trafficked girls to Epstein for sex. Epstein died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges against him.

“Mr. Black paid Epstein for tax and estate planning work and he had no awareness of Epstein’s criminal activity,” Whit Clay, a spokesperson for Black, told Business Insider. “He looks forward to answering the committee’s questions, providing additional clarity and furthering their work.”

On Wednesday, the House Oversight Committee deposed Richard Kahn, Epstein’s longtime personal accountant and a co-executor of his estate, which was valued at $630 million at the time of his death.

Kahn said Epstein had five clients who paid him for financial services, which included Black, House Oversight Committee Chair Rep. James Comer told journalists during a break. Epstein’s other clients included former L Brands CEO Les Wexner, former Microsoft executive Steven Sinofsky, “the Rothschilds,” and billionaire hedge fund manager Glenn Dubin, Comer said.




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NBCUniversal is suing Group Black, alleging breach of contract and seeking nearly $36 million

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Comcast’s NBCUniversal has sued Group Black, a firm created to direct ad dollars to Black-owned and Black-led media, alleging it owes the media giant $35.8 million in unpaid invoices and guaranteed payments.

The suit, filed February 11 in New York Supreme Court, stems from a partnership that gave Group Black exclusive rights to sell ads in Black-led shows on NBCU’s streamer, Peacock, with Group Black and NBCU sharing the revenue.

“We dispute the claims made by NBCUniversal and intend to respond through the appropriate legal process,” Group Black said in a statement. “Group Black remains focused on its mission and serving its partners.”

NBCU has said that more than 30 brands signed on to the partnership in its first year, which began in September 2023. Group Black had predicted that NBCU would be its largest source of revenue in 2024, according to a board document dated November of that year, which was submitted in a separate court case.

NBCU’s lawsuit alleged that Group Black failed to fulfill the terms of the contract in the months after it began in September 2023, despite selling more than $30 million worth of advertising.

The suit alleged that in 2024, Group Black agreed ​​to shift its revenue share to zero to pay down the shortfall. NBCU says in the lawsuit that it repeatedly demanded payment, and that Group Black cofounder Bonin Bough had acknowledged the company’s liability multiple times, emailing at one point that he took it “very seriously.”

The partnership ended in September 2025.

Group Black has faced internal and market challenges

Group Black was launched in 2021 after the George Floyd protests that led to a national reckoning and prompted big advertisers like Coca-Cola and Walmart to increase their spending on Black-owned media. In the years that followed, the company faced a mix of internal struggles, executive departures, and broader market challenges. It pivoted last summer to focus on a wider audience with the launch of a new venture, Portrait Media Group.

Group Black has faced other legal action alleging nonpayment. Two companies owned by Essence Ventures, part of a venture led by a second Group Black cofounder, Richelieu Dennis, sued Group Black in 2024, alleging it owed them about $20 million. Group Black said in a court filing that Essence loaned it money but otherwise denied the allegations in the suit. The suit is ongoing.

In another case, Audiomob, an ad agency that provided mobile app advertising inventory for Group Black to sell to its clients, demanded about $181,000 from Group Black for invoices it alleged the company had failed to pay. The suit was terminated in August after Audiomob sought dismissal, saying Group Black had made a “partial payment” of the money owed, per court filings.




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Shopify experienced instability for hours on one of the busiest shopping days of the year. Last year, it handled $11.5 billion between Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

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It was a tough day for one of the nation’s largest transaction platforms to experience instability.

Shopify suffered an outage on Cyber Monday, freezing some merchants out of their accounts and point-of-sale systems during one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

The financial impact is still unclear. A spokesperson directed Business Insider to the company’s status page.

Many small business owners posted on social media to tell shoppers that their shipping labels could not be generated and that they may experience issues during checkout.

Outage tracker Downdetector showed a spike of roughly 4,000 problem reports at 11 a.m. ET, with thousands more pouring in around 1:15 p.m. ET.

The Canadian e-commerce transaction giant said early afternoon on its status page that some sellers were “experiencing issues” with Shopify admin, Point of Sales, Mobile, and Shopify Support.

By mid-afternoon, Shopify reported that services were recovering after engineers fixed an issue with the company’s login authentication flow, though pockets of disruption remained.

“We are seeing signs of recovery for admin and POS login issues now,” Shopify said in a 2:31 p.m. ET update, adding that teams were still monitoring the situation.

By 3:38 p.m. ET, Shopify said in its most recent status update that its Help Center is still “experiencing longer than normal wait times.”

As of 9 p.m. ET, Point of Sale, API & Mobile, and Support are still considered to have “degraded performance.”

Shopify powers more than 10% of US e-commerce sales. The company’s President, Harley Finkelstein, said in a press release on Saturday that the platform processed $6.2 billion in gross merchandise volume on Black Friday, up 25% year over year, led by cosmetics, activewear, fitness, and nutrition.

Shopify’s stock closed 5.8% down on Monday.




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Median household wealth for Black Americans is projected to hit $0 by 2053. My estate plan is designed to protect me from that.

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  • I’m working hard to build wealth, and I want to make sure it lasts forever.
  • My estate plan is designed to maintain my assets and ensure I don’t leave any surprise debt behind.
  • This article is part of “My Financial Life,” a series helping people live and spend better.

Estate planning is a fancy way of saying you’re planning for the future — a time when you’ll be unable to manage your health and wealth.

Many people focus on financial planning, but not as many think about the broader picture. However, the process doesn’t need to be complicated — it’s a matter of creating legal documents appointing people to speak and act for you.

I’m an estate-planning attorney, and I’ve seen how important this process is and where some people’s plans fall short.

I want to continue helping others after I’m physically unable to do so. A 2017 study by the Institute for Policy Studies looking at long-term projections for the racial wealth gap found that median Black household wealth could reach zero by 2053. That means my long-term goals need to factor into my estate plan to secure generational wealth.

I want to thrive today and help my future beneficiaries avoid conflicts, excessive taxes, financial burdens, and disputes that could cost time and money.

My financial plan and my estate are intertwined

I considered several questions about my estate when deciding on my financial goals:

  1. When I reflect on the wealth I have — and the wealth I’m building — what do I want done with it when I die?
  2. Who is or will be capable of managing my assets?
  3. What will happen to my digital legacy — my online accounts, digital files, pictures, and investments?
  4. What tax consequences will my choices have now and in the future?
  5. How will I keep my estate plan and financial plan updated as my life changes?

My estate plan consists of a financial power of attorney, an advance directive, a guardian nomination, a will, and a trust. As an estate-planning attorney, I frequently encounter families who created a trust but didn’t understand how it works and don’t have a plan for its upkeep.

My estate plan is designed to support all the assets I leave behind and ensure the financial moves I’m making now stay on track. For example, if I buy a house, I have to make sure there’s a plan so my trust (and the trustees I leave in charge) can continue paying for the house. I’m accounting for a mortgage, maintenance and remodeling costs, and property taxes. In one case I saw property taxes go from $3,000 to $11,000 a year following a property transfer.

I want to minimize the debt my trust will have to pay off

If your estate plan is set up correctly, some debts cannot be collected after death. I’ve chosen to save, invest, and pay down debts to minimize the bills my estate and trust would be responsible for. Considering my estate plan early in life will help me figure out which debts I should pay off first.

When it comes to my plans, the most important part is educating the people around me about my moves and my wishes. It’s easy for your plan to fail when the people you leave in charge don’t know what to do or how to do it. Having financial conversations and being transparent is the best way to ensure my financial and estate plans remain on track.

My goal is to create a comprehensive financial road map that will address my current needs and future aspirations. I’ve thought about my financial stability at every stage of life. I’ve found it helps to think about your long-term goals and values first. Then you can ask yourself the big questions — the who, what, why, and how — and get the ball rolling.

 


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Russia’s latest naval mission is a flex to cover for its embarrassing losses in the Black Sea, US official says

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Russia sending warships to Cuba next week is an attempt to show its navy is still a global power after losses in the Black Sea, an unnamed US official told reporters, according to the Associated Press.

On Thursday, Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Russia was deploying four warships to Cuba, including a nuclear-powered submarine, with the vessels expected to be in Havana between June 12 and 17.

“Russia has sailed the Black Sea since 1783 but is now forced to constrain its fleet to port,” UK Defence Minister Grant Shapps wrote. “And even there Putin’s ships are sinking!”

This week, it was reported that Ukraine was using its exploding naval drones to go after smaller Russian vessels after Moscow pulled back its larger warships to reduce their vulnerability to attacks.

Not everyone agreed on Russia’s motive.

The visit of the ships, none of which will carry nuclear missiles, does not represent a threat to the region, the Cuban statement read, but was instead part of the historically cordial relations between the two countries.

But according to the US official, the deployment is an effort by Russia’s navy to flex its muscles on the world stage, after suffering losses in the Black Sea.

“This is about Russia showing that it’s still capable of some level of global power projection,” they said, per Reuters.

Russia’s navy has suffered a series of embarrassing setbacks in the Black Sea, where Ukraine claims to have destroyed a third of its fleet.

Ukraine has used drones, missiles, and other weaponry to take out many Russian warships, and has forced its fleet to seek safer ports further away from Crimea.

In March, the UK’s defense ministry declared Russia’s Black Sea Fleet “functionally inactive” after Ukraine claimed to have struck another two of its vessels.

Russia also shuffled its naval leadership earlier this year.

According to the unnamed US official, while the US expects “heightened” Russian naval and air activity this summer, and more going forward, deployments like those to Cuba incur costs for the Russian navy, which is “struggling to maintain readiness and conduct deployments with an aged fleet.”

In a military assessment on Thursday, the Washington DC-based think tank the Institute for the Study of War said it was likely part of an effort to bring back memories of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and dissuade the US from offering further support to Ukraine.

The deployment also comes after Putin threatened to send long-range weapons to “regions around the world” that want to strike Western targets.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its goal was to keep a Russian naval presence in operationally important areas of the “far ocean zone,” RBC-Russia reported.


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