The health secretary is now entering the culinary world<\/p>\n
The man whose \u201cbest-known culinary accomplishment is maintaining \u2018a freezer full\u2019 of roadkill\u201d wants to teach you to cook, said Emily Heil in The Washington Post. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently debuted The Real Food Show, a government-funded YouTube series intended to help Americans \u201cmake healthful meals at home on a modest budget.\u201d In the first episode, Kennedy and celebrity chef Andrew Gruel whip up crispy salmon cakes with a white bean, apple, and arugula salad. I followed the recipe and the dish was \u201cquite good.\u201d But actual cooking is not the main focus of the show. Kennedy and Gruel spend far more time ranting about the evils of seed oils and the Biden administration\u2019s \u201cwar\u201d on saturated fats than providing \u201cmeaningful culinary instruction.\u201d Under Kennedy\u2019s \u201cgrim glare,\u201d making a meal becomes \u201can exercise in airing grievances against the government and a food system hell-bent on keeping people addicted to processed foods.\u201d When he finally samples the finished meal, all he can muster is a muttered \u201camazing,\u201d a politician\u2019s thumbs-up, and a \u201cpained grimace.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kennedy\u2019s fish cakes are supposed to be budget-friendly, said River Page in The Free Press, but it\u2019s clear he has no idea \u201cwhat it is like to go grocery shopping as a broke person.\u201d I spent nearly $100 buying the ingredients for four servings\u2014including such luxuries as avocado mayo and nutritional yeast\u2014that RFK Jr. claimed would cost a mere $20. This show is less concerned with delivering affordable meals than advancing conservative ideology, said Ashlie D. Stevens in Salon. Underpinning everything is the idea that \u201cif Americans can be taught to eat correctly, perhaps they will require less care\u201d\u2014freeing the government to cut the safety net. Republicans already did that last year, slashing projected federal spending on Medicaid over the next decade by nearly $1 trillion and food benefits by $187 billion. Of all the terrible things Kennedy is doing, hosting this show is \u201cprobably the least offensive,\u201d said Arwa Mahdawi in The Guardian. But shouldn\u2019t he be busy tackling the nation\u2019s more pressing health problems, like the more than 22,000 cases of explosive diarrhea caused by the parasite cyclospora? RFK Jr. is supposed to be heading the response to that lettuce-linked outbreak. Or perhaps he could focus on the raging measles crisis\u2014 this is the worst year for the disease in the U.S. since 1991\u2014which he has fueled as the country\u2019s top anti-vaxxer. But that would mean doing the hard work of being a government official. He\u2019d rather just \u201cplay one on TV.\u201d<\/p>\n
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