Microwaved fish and ham mousse: Bennett Rea of ‘Cookin’ with Congress’ dishes on lawmaker meals

Fast-forward four years, and Rea is still cooking. His TikTok channel, active since last year, has garnered almost 60,000 followers and more than a million likes, as Rea has tested out dozens of political recipes. 

His show gained new popularity over the summer — including some TV appearances — as he set out to follow the daily diets of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. (“The 7-Day Trump Diet,” reads one playlist on his channel.)

Political branding often plays a role in the recipes that lawmakers offer up. “They put out something nice and basic,” Rea explained, like “meat and potatoes for a candidate that’s trying to appeal to middle class or rural voters.” But while the dishes he cooks may often have a political bent, Rea says the recipes also provide a window into the lives of people who run the country — a striking and sometimes tasty display of food’s cultural staying power.

Everyone has to eat, after all — even politicians. But just as with their policies, their recipes might sometimes leave the voting public to gawk or sneer.

In Rea’s view, the most interesting recipes are those that provide an unvarnished look into lawmakers’ true personalities. He pointed to former Pennsylvania Senator and presidential candidate Rick Santorum, who he noted apparently has a taste for “highfalutin” dishes like whole poached salmon. 

It’s a meal that’s somewhat incongruous with blue-collar Keystone State stereotypes — or with Santorum’s red-meat politics, for that matter. “It was this strange clash of who he was in his campaign, his brand, and who he actually was,” Rea said.

On a macro scale, the history of congressional recipes is a peek into a diversifying country and a governing body that looks more like America, Rea said.

“The food got better as Congress diversified,” he observed. “It wasn’t just recipes from Jell-O cookbooks. They started to get more interesting over the years. There were spices besides just black pepper.”

On his TikTok page, Rea has gotten in front of the camera to craft some of these dishes. In June, he made another Grassley recipe: the Iowa senator’s “super fish,” which features microwaved fish filets mixed with canned mushroom and celery soup. A cream-cheese cheese ball it was not.

A month before that, he whipped up Leader McConnell’s rendition of Hoppin’ John, a traditional Southern dish consisting of black-eyed peas, rice and bacon. But the Kentucky senator, he noted with dismay, calls only for salt, forgoing spices and garlic.

“It’s one of those foods where the flavor is just warmth,” Rea says in his post.

In choosing dishes to showcase on his page, Rea explained that his mantra is “follow the fun.” 

Occasionally, though, he dials in on figures who are front and center in the news.

“I think it’s an interesting window into how they are presenting themselves, and maybe who they really are,” Rea said. He pointed to some of his most popular videos, in which he eats like Biden, Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris for a day. “We are really interested in their lives — and for whatever reason, we also really care about what they’re eating.”

When it comes to cooking and taste-testing lawmaker dishes, Rea tries to stay unbiased, leaving the editorializing to his taste buds. He aims to let his audience decide whether there’s a political message in his content.

“As with all art, it’s out of your hands once you make it,” he said. “Some people have been like, ‘my God, this is a brilliant, incisive takedown on Congress.’ ‘This is highlighting why we need term limits.’ I love all those interpretations.”

Still, it would be silly to suggest that his content is completely apolitical, Rea acknowledged. “There’s a reason I chose politicians and not, I don’t know, celebrities or something like that.”

“Politicians are people who hold a lot of power in our world,” he continued. “They have a lot of decision-making power in their hands that impact people on a daily basis — and they also like Jell-O. I let that dichotomy speak for itself.”

Besides, Rea said, food is a good vehicle for getting people engaged with politicians who may otherwise seem inaccessible. No one can opt out of eating, and everyone has opinions about food, whether it’s a disagreement over whether Fig Newtons are cookies or whether snow peas belong in carbonara.

Like the old meat-and-potatoes, food can also be a powerful political tool. “You go back in history, and there are definitely examples of food faux pas which caused people to lose votes,” Rea said. “There are definitely great examples of food being used to win people over. It’s part of this greater branding and messaging.”

In recent years, some studies on food and politics have given weight to that idea. A 2020 report by Jessica Myrick, a Penn State professor of media studies, found that former President Trump’s love of fast food had a noticeable effect on public willingness to hit the drive-thru. Consumption of media about the former president’s diet, Myrick noted, more accurately predicted whether a person would seek out fast food than demographic factors like education level, race, age, gender or income.

On a personal level, Rea said whipping up the best and worst of congressional cuisine has made him a better cook. He joked: “I’m very good at molding Jell-O.”

Running “Cookin’ with Congress” has exposed him to communities interested in old recipes and political satire, as well as the nexus between the two.

“The fact that there’s an overlap, and there are people who are having fun with both — I just never imagined that there would be millions of people watching me eat,” Rea said. “It’s really heartwarming and exciting.”

As for the best congressional dish he’s made, that distinction goes to late Texas Representative Kika de la Garza’s recipe for “coffee gelatin.”The dessert, made from Jell-O and espresso, is served with rum-infused whipped cream.

“It’s like this deconstructed tiramisu,” Rea said. “It’s delicious.” A crustless coconut pie from former President Barack Obama got an honorable mention.

The worst of the worst? In Rea’s opinion, that would be former President Richard Nixon’s beloved “ham mousse,” consisting of ground ham, tomato juice and whipped cream congealed into a Jell-O mold. 

The 37th president allegedly ate this meal regularly before he was elected to (and later resigned from) the Oval Office. “It’s shiny, beige and slimy,” Rea said. “It’s very Nixon-like.”

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