The Spirit Cooking meme originated from the 2016 WikiLeaks release of emails belonging to John Podesta, which included an invitation to a 'Spirit Cooking dinner' by performance artist Marina Abramović. While Abramović's work is an avant-garde form of performance art involving symbolic ingredients, the internet quickly transformed the term into a centerpiece for grand conspiracy theories involving global elites. Today, the meme is used to satirize high-society gatherings, mock the perceived eccentricity of the ruling class, or as a shorthand for deep-web rabbit holes and mysterious underground rituals.