Throughout the episode, both Gruel and Kennedy employ dog whistles of varying overtness: Gruel assures viewers that he’ll be using “a couple chef tricks, but nothing overly intellectual” (none of that namby-pamby liberal glasses-polishing here) to pack in flavor, while Kennedy knocked old nutritional guidelines, claiming that “the government had been lying to us and telling us that protein caused heart attacks. There was no science that supported that.” Source, please?
The siren song of MAHA’s love affair with protein-maxxing is also well represented in this first episode, with noted animal-lover Kennedy grimly intoning, “one of the things we found when we started looking at the real science was that when you don’t eat protein, you eat something else, and it was ultra-processed foods.”
As for Gruel, he doesn’t seem too worried about viewers cooking well. “Now don’t worry if you overcook this,” he says of his dish. He also focuses on the cost of ingredients without noting the tradeoffs that might come with choices that will lower the grocery bill, such as nutritional differences between a fish fillet and canned fish, or the difference between different types of eggs. He recommends using panko as a binder in the cakes, assuring the audience that it’s “really just a lightened breadcrumb.” Is it any wonder that multiple commenters on the video suggested using pork rinds, which are high in fat and sodium and not a good source of vitamins, in the place of panko?
The Department of Health and Human Services had not responded to Vanity Fair’s request for comment at publication time, and has not shared plans for the frequency of new episodes.
Gruel, throughout the episode, stands alongside recovering addict Kennedy and claims to be addicted to many things: Seafood (positive), salad dressing (negative), condiments (negative), and seed oils (negative). Another stab at humor falls similarly awkwardly: Gruel mentions involving his four children in food prep, claiming that if they help cook the food, they’re more likely to eat it, common enough advice in parenting articles about picky eating, but then adds, “we’ve got restaurants and labor cost is high, so I keep having more kids so we have free labor.”
Kennedy, who positioned his food pyramid overhaul as finding top nutritionists and then “lock[ing] them into a room for 11 months,” replied: “Good plan.” And, hey, the pronatalism comes free of charge.
Another upside from Gruel: “I’ve also learned in California, kids can’t sue you, so that’s helpful.”
Lifestyle guru, indeed. Whatever Kennedy’s future as a celebrity chef holds, he’ll be able to choke it down, he assured USA Today, saying, “I will literally eat anything because I don’t have a gag reflex.”
Bon appetit, America.
