In the wake of a photo of the food that was served at the “Brunchella” event leading up to Kanye West’s Sunday Service concert at Bethany Church in Baton Rouge, La., on Friday going viral, the catering company who was hired for the meal has shared its side of the story.
Attention surrounding the event began to grow after one attendee posted a photo on Facebook of what she said was the $55 plate of food she was served. The shot showed a plate with two pancakes, two pieces of bacon and one sausage patty on it and immediately started to garner comparisons to the infamous cheese sandwich photo from 2017’s Fyre Festival.
“This is the wonderful & COLD brunch BUFFET we are being served by Boil & Roux BR. & the server looked at me crazy when I asked for another pancake,” the attendee, Kimberly Kitchen, captioned the picture.
Looks like Ye’s #Brunchella turned out to be BrunchFromHella smh. They need to be ashamed. Those pale sausage patties and stiff pancakes looked like they went straight from the freezer to the microwave. Then there was the fake “VIP area”. Make it right Ye. WWJD? #YeezyFyreFest pic.twitter.com/57FkEzu4nN
— That's So Dara (@dmwlkns) November 3, 2019In response to the photo going viral, the catering company who worked the event, Lauryn’s Fine Catering, tells TIME that it recognizes that “neither Kanye West nor Bethany Church were directly involved with the organizing of ‘Brunchella,'” which was an optional prelude to the free Sunday Service concert. The company also shared a statement explaining the issues that it claims led to the food debacle.
“We were contacted only 28 hours prior to the event, after the $55 price had been set by the organizers, not Lauryn’s Fine Catering,” the company wrote on Facebook. “We agreed to assist the local organizers with providing a breakfast buffet for over 2,000 guests. While we typically do not fulfill large, full-service orders with less than a month’s notice, we chose to assist the organizers whom we believed to be affiliated with Kanye’s team at an incredibly reduced rate. Our company additionally provided staffing, tables, and linens at little or no cost.”
Lauryn’s Fine Catering went on to apologize to any guests whose experience at the event was negatively impacted by the food.
“We regret that our food ordered by the organizers, was not what the guests had envisioned, and did not remain hot at all times, as the warming dishes were susceptible to the 35 degree weather, and our goal was to serve the more than 2,000 VIP guests as quickly as possible,” the company wrote. “It has been our primary focus for the past twenty years to provide top notch service to our guests. It is our hope that the multiple compliments we received from event guests outweigh the negative experiences received from circumstances outside of our control. As with every event, we will use this experience as an opportunity to grow, and we hope to strengthen our credibility and service for years to come.”
In a statement sent to TIME, a spokesman for Bethany Church affirmed that the church was not only in no way involved in the organization of either “Brunchella” or the Sunday Service concert, but that it received no financial gain.
“As the venue location, and nothing else, Bethany Church simply allowed an event promoter to utilize the open field in front of the church crosses,” the spokesman said. “All artist logistics, including ticket sales and relevant financial agreements, were handled by the event promoter Affiliate Nation; the church has nothing to do with any of those operations and did not receive any amount of compensation, directly or indirectly, from sales related to the event. In no fashion was any part of this event a fundraiser for the church.”
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