The catering company behind the brunch served at a recent Kanye West Sunday Service event has issued a statement after the underwhelming meal went viral online, drawing comparisons to Fyre Festival.
Lauryn’s Fine Catering, which handled the ‘Brunchella’ event in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, told TMZ that it “acknowledges it did not provide adequate food for ONE attendee and a social media post went viral”.
“Kanye West and the Sunday Service collective should be disassociated with such claims surrounding the food at the event,” the company said.
An attendee’s photo of her brunch meal – a Styrofoam plate of pancakes, bacon, sausage and grits that was reportedly priced at $55 a plate – went viral last week.
https://www.facebook.com/kimberly.s.kinchen/posts/10220060812088276
Online commenters compared the meal to the limp cheese sandwich served at the 2017 Fyre Festival.
Kanye West’s $55 Brunchella meal is making the Fyre Fest sandwich look good pic.twitter.com/PccGMXrA02
— ilana kaplan (@lanikaps) November 2, 2019
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As the Washington Post reports, the attendee whose Facebook photo went viral later made a follow-up post saying the blame should go not to West, but to the “promoters/event organizers who failed to do their part in ensuring that the experience matched what they promoted”.
“Kanye delivered on his end of the deal. He put on an amazing praise & worship experience; one of the best gospel performances I have ever been to!” she wrote. “LEAVE YE ALONE.”
I TALKED TO “KANYE WEST” LAST NIGHTSo for starters I will say I didn’t think my post would go viral. It went from me…
Posted by Kimberly Kinchen on Sunday, November 3, 2019
An event coordinator for West has also echoed the catering company’s claims that the bad brunch was an isolated incident. “It’s like one person who had a bad meal at Applebee’s leaving a negative review,” coordinator Jason Brown said. “It wasn’t like you had a thousand people complaining.”
According to the Washington Post, other attendees at the Baton Rouge event reported they were served food that was “standard breakfast fare” or “lukewarm or cold, but still good”.
Quick run through the Brunch tent. Looks like the standard breakfast fare for the #Brunchella portion of the night. pic.twitter.com/Rkoq69JLFX
— Orlando Flores Jr. (@OrlandoFloresJr) November 1, 2019
Food being served at Kanye West concert in Baton Rouge. Everything is lukewarm or cold, but still good. #YeezyFyreFest has seemingly been avoided. pic.twitter.com/yrwBK08JXb
— That's Controversial (@muchcontroversy) November 1, 2019
The food firestorm comes weeks after West released his latest album, ‘Jesus Is King’, following several delays. The record arrived with an IMAX film of the same name. The rapper has since promoted the gospel album with an ‘Airpool Karaoke’ session with James Corden and a live performance of ‘Closed On Sunday’ on Jimmy Kimmel Live!.