Rory McIlroy unveils his Masters Champions Dinner menu

On Wednesday, defending Masters champion Rory McIlroy took the call at Augusta National. No, the 2026 Masters is not starting early. Instead, McIlroy was in Georgia on some important pre-tournament business: unveiling his Masters Champions Dinner menu.

Not only did McIlroy demo the Masters dinner menu to remember, but he also explained his reasons for choosing each dish to reporters. The list of foods that Rory and his Masters champions will enjoy is long and impressive. It even includes a dish inspired by one of the world’s greatest chefs.

Here’s what you need to know.

First, the basics. The Masters Champions Dinner is a long-standing tournament tradition featuring all past Masters champions on the Tuesday night of Masters week.

Although the special event is held in “honor” of the Masters winner from last year, the defending champion is in charge.

That means that this year McIlroy had to choose a menu to be cooked by the famous chefs of Augusta National, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Jack Nicklaus and other green jackets. (You should too pay for dinner.)

Some Masters winners don’t seem to put much effort into work (see: Bubba Watson and Tiger). But some champions take it too seriously. And McIlroy remains firmly in the latter camp.

During his conference call at Augusta, McIlroy admitted that “it would be presumptuous to have a menu in your head before you win a tournament.”

Then again, McIlroy is waiting for a long time to win his first green jacket and enjoy his first Champions Dinner. So he reassured everyone that he didn’t make it up in his head. He focused on choosing menu items that all his fellow Masters winners would enjoy, as well as a “personal touch.”

Here’s a list of the dishes, followed by Rory’s detailed descriptions of each.

Appetizers at McIlroy’s Masters Champions Dinner will include peach and ricotta flatbread, rock shrimp tempura, bacon-wrapped dates and fried elk sliders.

For the first lesson, Rory and friends will eat at a yellowfin tuna carpaccio, while the second course will be a choice between wagyu filet mignon or grilled sea salmon and several side dishes..

Finally, Augusta chefs will be used sticky toffee pudding.

Rock shrimp tempura: “And another fun drink that I think everyone likes is rock shrimp tempura, so it’s kind of a crowd pleaser.”

Local Georgia peach and ricotta bread:“And I want to try to bring in a little bit of, I guess, local ingredients. So I’m making a Georgia peach flatbread and hot honey ricotta. So hopefully that will go well with the drinks.”

Yellowfin tuna carpaccio by Eric Ripert from Le Bernadin: “And then as we go along, the first course, my wife and I, Erica and I, a favorite restaurant, or one of our favorites right now is in New York. It’s called Le Bernardin. Eric Ripert is the chef there, and this is a dish from that restaurant. Yellowfin tuna carpaccio. It’s a really small piece of French baguette with foie top raslight and tuna graslight very thin slices of tuna on top of that.”

“It’s a really simple dish, but every time we go to that restaurant, it’s one thing I have to have. I can change everything my way but that tuna carpaccio is the one that stays. So that’s fun and the club worked with me on it. They went up to the restaurant and worked with the chefs, and they made sure; that they really wanted to have it at night.”

Wagyu filet mignon and sea salmon: “Moving on to the main course, and, you know, I want to – you know, this dinner, obviously it’s an incredible honor to be able to host it, but at the same time, I want everyone to enjoy it. I went with two different options for the main course, wagyu filet mignon for people who want red meat, or seared salmon filet; so it depends on what you want.”

Side dishes: “And then the sides, a lot of different sides. I’ve been a traditional Irish champion. When I was a kid I used to eat champion by the bowlful. So I’m trying to incorporate a little bit of how I grew up there. Some sauteed brussel sprouts. Glazed carrots with brown butter. And try to bring a little bit of that crion flavor from far, far away Vissali. in Augusta, about a two-hour drive, and a golf course member who used to be at that club is a bit taken back by the local ingredients.”

Sticky toffee pudding: “And for dessert, I’m thinking a lot of sticky toffee pudding with vanilla ice cream in a warm toffee sauce.”

McIlroy rounded out his menu with an expensive selection from Augusta National’s famous winery, which Rory described as his “favorite part of the menu.”