Gene Kim
- Mark Zuckerberg once served rival Jack Dorsey a dead goat he had killed himself for dinner.
- That's according to a new interview from Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter.
- The curious, symbolism-laden meal appears to have happened in 2011, when Zuckerberg spent a year only eating the meat of animals he had killed himself.
- Dorsey claims Zuckerberg's goat was served cold, and that he ate salad instead.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey claims that Mark Zuckerberg once served him a dead goat that he had killed himself for dinner.
On Wednesday Rolling Stone published a wide-ranging interview with Dorsey, and it includes a fascinating tidbit about a strange repast in which the Facebook CEO served his rival an animal he slaughtered himself - and how it didn't go down very well.
Asked about his most memorable encounter with Zuckerberg, the 42-year-old Dorsey said: "There was a year when he was only eating what he was killing. He made goat for me for dinner. He killed the goat."
Dorsey elaborated, recounting a dialogue between the two that could easily pass for the script of a Samuel Beckett or Edward Albee drama:
"I go, 'We're eating the goat you killed?'
He said, 'Yeah.'
I said, 'Have you eaten goat before?'
He's like, 'Yeah, I love it.'
I'm like, 'What else are we having?'
'Salad.'
I said, 'Where is the goat?'
'It's in the oven.'
Then we waited for about 30 minutes. He's like, 'I think it's done now.' We go in the dining room. He puts the goat down. It was cold. That was memorable. I don't know if it went back in the oven. I just ate my salad."
The incident appears to have taken place in 2011, when Zuckerberg had set himself the challenge of only eating animals he had killed himself. "I started thinking about this last year when I had a pig roast at my house," he wrote in an email explaining to Fortune at the time. "A bunch of people told me that even though they loved eating pork, they really didn't want to think about the fact that the pig used to be alive. That just seemed irresponsible to me. I don't have an issue with anything people choose to eat, but I do think they should take responsibility and be thankful for what they eat rather than trying to ignore where it came from."
He killed it with a laser gun and then a knife
Dorsey added that he believes Zuckerberg had "knifed" the goat. "He killed it before. I guess he kills it. He kills it with a laser gun and then the knife. Then they send it to the butcher ... A stun gun. They stun it, and then he knifed it. Then they send it to a butcher."
The revelation also offers a rare window into the private and sometimes-unconventional encounters that can occur between powerful and wealthy rivals in Silicon Valley's tech industry. But Dorsey's account also raises further questions: Who ate the other five goats Zuckerberg was rearing? Why was the goat cold even after being cooked in the oven? What was in the salad?
A Facebook spokesperson did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment as to why the goat was served cold.
So, how should you cook goat? "The gist is you want to lean on fresh rosemary, thyme, and lemons as well as the classic sea salt and pepper. Ask your butcher if you have questions," Business Insider's data editor Walt Hickey, a seasoned goat-cooker, advises.
"Oh, and garlic, as if that even needs to be said. The classic Mediterranean profile. But goat's versatile, there's a reason it's one of the most common meat dishes on earth, the flavor lends itself well to cuisines from all corners."
Do you work at Facebook? Do you know how to cook goat? Contact this reporter via Signal or WhatsApp at +1 (650) 636-6268 using a non-work phone, email at rprice@businessinsider.com, Telegram or WeChat at robaeprice, or Twitter DM at @robaeprice. (PR pitches by email only, please.) You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.