Giada and José Andrés Get Political While ‘Cooking for Kamala’

Andrew Kirell

Fri, August 30, 2024 at 5:32 PM UTC

8 min read

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More than 60 celebrity chefs, restauranteurs, and food writers held an online fundraiser for Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign on Thursday evening, touting the vice president’s culinary prowess and her food-related policies while cooking up her recipes.

The event, which was organized by California Congressman Eric Swalwell, a personal friend of Harris’s, raised more than $250,000 for the Harris Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee between the campaign and the national and state-level Democratic Party organizations.

“Considering Kamala’s love for cooking, bringing America’s chefs together felt all too natural,” Swalwell told Bon Appétit. “So I approached famous chefs…and they went to work to build an all-star lineup,” which ultimately included industry heavyweights like outspoken Trump critics José Andrés and Marcus Samuelsson, along with less politically minded stars like Giada De Laurentiis. The collective also snagged Joel McHale and Padma Lakshmi as cohosts, with cameos from celebrities including Rosie O’Donnell.

“For the first time ever, too many chefs in the kitchen will actually lead to a good outcome!” the congressman quipped.

Since Harris, an avid home cook, took over the Democratic presidential ticket last month, food has played an outsized role in the campaign. The vice president has repeatedly discussed on the campaign trail her love of cooking and for her childhood memories of watching her mother in the kitchen. Meanwhile, Tim Walz’s award-winning ground turkey and tater tot hotdish recipe gained national attention following his selection as Harris’s veep.

An early campaign video of the duo talking about food went viral thanks to Harris gently ribbing Walz as he joked about his love for “white guy tacos”—ground beef and cheese with minimal seasoning. (The exchange generated a predictably disingenuous conservative media outrage cycle, and McHale joked on the livestream that Walz would join to show viewers how to make “some really bland taco meat.”)

On the policy front, the campaign has touted how Walz signed universal school lunches into law in Minnesota—an accomplishment that Andrés touted on the livestream. And Harris has made central to her platform the elimination of taxes on tips and a promise to curb “price gouging” at the grocery store, a policy that has stirred up a wide-ranging economic debate over “greedflation,” the controversial argument that corporations have excessively raised prices beyond the inflation rate to boost profits further. (“This campaign is about taking action to address the kitchen table concerns of all Americans,” Swalwell told Bon Appétit.)

While many of the chefs and restauranteurs on Thursday evening’s livestream nodded at Harris’s food politics, a running theme of the event (aside from debate over Harris’s claim that “bacon is a spice”) was admiration for the vice president’s skills in the kitchen.

“She’s a terrific cook, she really rocks in the kitchen,” Andrés said. “When you have a leader who knows and understands the power of feeding one another—that’s power, my friend. That’s the power to build longer tables.” (The Spain-born chef famously sparred with Donald Trump in 2015 when he withdrew plans for a restaurant at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC, after the eventual president made disparaging remarks about Mexican immigrants.)

Andrés further recalled how Harris once cooked a paella for him. “I may be the king of paella, but she was in charge,” he marveled. “When it comes to food policy, we got the right candidate.”

Lakshmi fondly recalled Harris telling her about a Moroccan tagine with tabbouleh that she recently cooked. “Yes, she’s a good cook, but she’s going to be an extraordinary president,” the former Top Chef host declared.

James Beard Award–winning chef Meherwan Irani lauded Harris’s knowledge of Indian cooking, fantasizing about what she would bring to the Oval Office as its first South Asian occupant. “I would love the thought of just the smell of cardamom and ginger and a little hint of clove just wafting through the White House,” he said. “If she’s in the White House, let there be samosas and let the chai flow freely.”

“We’re going to have our first real chef in the White House,” said film producer Jamie Patricof. Famed food critic Ruth Reichl agreed: “People who care about food have been waiting our whole lives to have someone who is a cook in the White House.”

Elsewhere in the 135-minute event, chef Suzanne Goin, co-executive producer of the program, led the demonstration for cooking Harris’s roast chicken, which is liberally seasoned under the skin with rosemary, thyme, lemon zest, and “a good amount of garlic,” then stuffed with more herbs, lemons, and six more cloves of garlic (“She is not faint of flavor,” Goin remarked of the vice president). The chef at the popular Los Angeles eatery A.O.C. echoed Harris’s recommendation that the chicken be pat dry and brought to room temperature before cooking to guarantee crispier skin.

Rep. Swalwell appeared alongside chef Susan Feniger, another co-executive producer of the event, from an immaculate stainless-steel-lined industrial kitchen, where the majority of the cooking on the live stream took place. The pair made Harris’s roasted chicken (with a South Asian spin that included pickled tomatoes, chiles, scallions, turmeric, and cumin), Walz’s “white guy tacos” (but with avocado and pickled onions added for flavor), and “Straight From the Coconut Tree” cookies.

Chef Stuart O’Keefe cooked up some fig and bacon goat cheese crisps and kicked off a running debate about whether, as Harris once claimed “bacon is a spice.” Reichl said it “definitely” is, while Lakshmi said she’s “doubtful” about it.

Niki Nakayama and Carol Iida appeared from the back of house at n/naka, voicing support for Harris while prepping dinner service. It was a thrilling albeit brief glimpse inside the organized chaos of a Michelin-starred prep station.

Famed pizzaiolo Chris Bianco beamed in from a fishing trip in Idaho to share his tip for making pizza at home: “Just give it time, don’t rush it,” he said, zeroing in on the benefits of fermenting pizza dough overnight.

Marcus Samuelsson appeared from Miami with friends, including rapper and chef Jarobi White, a founding member of A Tribe Called Quest. “Just by being an immigrant…just listening to Kamala’s stories and her mother’s and her parents’ stories, for me, obviously, it’s personal and it’s very inspirational,” he remarked.

Tom Colicchio, long an outspoken Democrat, showed up from his home kitchen in Brooklyn and busted out his guitar for a shaky rendition of folk traditional “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize”—much to the jokey chagrin of his wife, Lori Silverbush, who winced and giggled while covering her eyes in the background.

“I want to give a shout-out to the second gentleman, soon to be the first gentleman,” he added of Doug Emhoff, Harris’s husband. “He has made one of his platforms to end hunger in this country. We can do that. Chefs really care about this issue,” said Colicchio, who appeared as a guest on Harris’s short-lived 2020 video series, Cooking With Kamala.

Jonathan Waxman entered the chat to offer a get-out-the-vote rallying cry disguised as a cooking tip. “I put chicken in the oven with salt and pepper and blast the hell out of it, pull it out, baste it every 12 seconds, put it back in, pull it out and let it rest for half an hour, cut it up, and let everyone enjoy it,” he explained. “I think that’s kind of the way I think about this election: We have to pull that chicken out of the oven, carve it up, put it on the table, and let’s get out the vote, let’s do what we need to do.”

But the headliner of the evening may have been Giada De Laurentiis. Unlike, say, Andrés or Colicchio, the culinary megastar is not at all known for talking politics. But in a pretaped video package, she recalled the inspiration she felt while watching Harris’s Jan. 2021 swearing-in ceremony with her then-12-year-old daughter before giving a double fist pump to the camera and declaring: “Harris-Walz 2024, let’s go!”

Originally Appeared on Bon Appétit

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Giada and José Andrés Get Political While ‘Cooking for Kamala’

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