{"id":934003,"date":"2026-09-14T06:15:48","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T11:15:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/14\/the-secretary-of-health-and-human-services-launched-a-new-cooking-show-on-youtube-this-week-we-consider-kennedys-latest-act-as-lifestyle-influencer\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T06:15:48","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T11:15:48","slug":"the-secretary-of-health-and-human-services-launched-a-new-cooking-show-on-youtube-this-week-we-consider-kennedys-latest-act-as-lifestyle-influencer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/14\/the-secretary-of-health-and-human-services-launched-a-new-cooking-show-on-youtube-this-week-we-consider-kennedys-latest-act-as-lifestyle-influencer\/","title":{"rendered":"The secretary of health and human services launched a new cooking show on YouTube this week. We consider Kennedy\u2019s latest act as lifestyle influencer."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Our scene unfolds in a kitchen worthy of a Nancy Meyers movie: Monochrome dishes stacked neatly in open shelving, tasteful beige-y tile backsplash with a hint of opalescence, stark white range hood with decorative tone-on-tone molding\u2026so many lemons<\/em>. Who needs that many lemons within arm\u2019s reach at a given moment?<\/p>\n

Both Meghan Markle<\/a> and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.<\/a>, newly minted YouTube cooking show host, apparently.<\/p>\n

Yes, Kennedy, MAHA maestro and secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services under Donald Trump, has taken his culinary talents to the streaming space, releasing the first episode of The Real Food Show<\/em><\/a> on Thursday. Andrew Gruel, a chef and member of the Huntington Beach City Council in California, guested on the first episode, where the duo made salmon cakes and arugula salad, a meal that they claimed would cost under $5 a portion for a family of four, and which Kennedy declared \u201camazing\u201d after taking a single bite on camera.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m traveling across America connecting with renowned chefs to show families how to cook delicious, nutritious meals with real ingredients at all affordable prices,\u201d Kennedy says at the beginning of the video, which clocks in at just under 20 minutes. \u201cAmerica, it\u2019s time to eat real food.\u201d<\/p>\n

From here, Kennedy takes more than just visual cues from the Duchess of Sussex\u2019s Netflix series, With Love, Meghan<\/em><\/a>:<\/em> Both feature our celebrity host and a friend chatting while cooking together, while promoting their personal agendas. For Meghan, her message is one of normalcy: She\u2019s just a mom, a gal with gal pals and a busy life, albeit one that comes with a noble title, and moms gotta eat. (They must also play mah-jongg<\/a>, natch.) Kennedy, on the other hand, is donning a tasteful neutral apron (manly khaki, don\u2019t get it wrong) to get the word out about his upside-down food-pyramid overhaul and to prove that men can get into the kitchen and eat a protein that isn\u2019t red meat without being a sissy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a lot of seafood in this country, and we\u2019re used to eating meat, and think of that as our protein,\u201d he said in the video. \u201cToday we have the lowest level of cattle herds in history, in at least 100 years. The cost of meat has gone up, we\u2019re doing everything that we can in the administration to bring that down and increase the size of the herd. But until that happens, this is a fantastic option.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview with USA Today<\/em><\/a> promoting the project, Kennedy claimed that home cooking is a \u201csacred ritual that has been abandoned,\u201d despite data showing<\/a> that more than half of American men and three-quarters of women regularly cook at home. He said in the same interview that his own culinary specialties include steak, burgers, fish, and omelets, the last of which he credited Gruel with teaching him to cook.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Throughout the episode, both Gruel and Kennedy employ dog whistles of varying overtness: Gruel assures viewers that he\u2019ll be using \u201ca couple chef tricks, but nothing overly intellectual\u201d (none of that namby-pamby liberal glasses-polishing here) to pack in flavor, while Kennedy knocked old nutritional guidelines, claiming that \u201cthe government had been lying to us and telling us that protein caused heart attacks. There was no science that supported that.\u201d Source, please?<\/p>\n

The siren song of MAHA\u2019s love affair with protein-maxxing<\/a> is also well-represented in this first episode, with noted animal-lover<\/a> Kennedy grimly intoning, \u201cone of the things we found when we started looking at the real science was that when you don\u2019t eat protein, you eat something else<\/a>, and it was ultra-processed foods.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for Gruel, he doesn\u2019t seem too worried about viewers cooking well.<\/em> \u201cNow don\u2019t worry if you overcook this,\u201d he says of his dish. He also focuses on the cost of ingredients without noting the trade-offs 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\u2019s \u201creally just a lightened breadcrumb.\u201d 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<\/a>, in the place of panko?<\/p>\n

The Department of Health and Human Services had not responded to Vanity Fair<\/em>\u2019s request for comment at publication time, and has not shared plans for the frequency of new episodes.<\/p>\n

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\u2019re more likely to eat it, common enough advice in parenting articles about picky eating, but then adds, \u201cwe\u2019ve got restaurants and labor cost is high, so I keep having more kids so we have free labor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kennedy, who positioned his food-pyramid overhaul as finding top nutritionists and then \u201clock[ing] them into a room for 11 months,\u201d replied: \u201cGood plan.\u201d And, hey, the pronatalism<\/a> comes free of charge.<\/p>\n

Another upside from Gruel: \u201cI\u2019ve also learned in California, kids can\u2019t sue you, so that\u2019s helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lifestyle guru, indeed. Whatever Kennedy\u2019s future as a celebrity chef holds, he\u2019ll be able to choke it down, he assured USA Today<\/em>, saying, \u201cI will literally eat anything because I don\u2019t have a gag reflex.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bon app\u00e9tit, America.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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