The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 4 plus 3 plus 4 plus 4 plus 5 plus 3 letter word BITE THE HAND THAT FEEDS ONE
I've seen this crossword clue in The Times
B
I
T
E
T
H
E
H
A
N
D
T
H
A
T
F
E
E
D
S
O
N
E
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Make a meal of ingratitude" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case make a meal of ingratitude = bite the hand that feeds one.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.