Michelle Obama & Olive Garden Forge Cartel of Hypocrisy
In her squabble with childhood obesity First Lady Michelle Obama has partnered with the fast food equivalent of the sit down restaurant industry, Darden Restaurants. Darden is the parent company of such culinary counterfeits as Olive Garden, Red Lobster and LongHorn Steakhouse. The crux of their accord centers around a reduction in calories and sodium – 10% over the next five years and 20% within ten.
The meaninglessness of this partnership is many faceted. So much so that it is hard to figure out where to start but let’s begin with the obvious. The agreement between Darden and the First Lady is, in every sense of the word, nonbinding. Should Darden fail to satisfy their end of the bargain there is no penalty. It is simply a pledge. Not to mention that there is a very real possibility that in five years Mrs. Obama will no longer be the First Lady.
For Darden’s part this is likely about surviving the ever slowing economy. In exchange for pledging to reduce calories and sodium they receive a ton of free publicity. There could also be tax incentives for “the pledge” as recent history has proven that companies willing to support the President have been absolved of any tax liability and/or granted waivers from the President’s oppressive health insurance laws. No doubt another win for the Orlando-based dining corporation is that though support for the President has waned greatly since inauguration day, 
many are still faithful to Mrs. Obama.
Heck, I still like Michelle Obama. Although I am starting to realize that her efforts such as the White House organic garden and other partnerships with huge fast food chains are largely politically motivated one cannot argue with the positive things to come from them. More communities are planting gardens and parents are more aware of what they feed their kids. Regardless of the motivation, the outcome is positive.
Presumably Darden is counting on “the pledge” to convince parents that their food is suddenly healthy. While reducing calories is a step in the right direction calories and sodium are the least of the dangers of the Darden menu. The quality of ingredients in use at the typical Darden restaurant is on par with the GMO saturated fare you find at most of the giant fast food chains. It’s just dressed up on a plate instead of crammed into a bag.
Chief among the gastronomic affronts is Darden’s use of farm-raised imported seafood. Both Asian farmed shrimp and Chilean farmed salmon contain lethal amounts of toxins. This is the result of using chemicals to fight infection and illness in farms that contain populations hundreds of times more dense than what is found in nature.
These chemicals are banned from use in the US but are also 
manufactured here therefore the Big Ag companies that make them have a vested interest in the unfettered flood of imported seafood. That is why Big Ag companies like Monsanto have “invested” so heartily into the Obama White House and have been rewarded with cabinet posts for their most influential lobbyists like Michael Taylor (FDA), Regina Benjamin (Surgeon General) and Tom Vilsack (USDA).
The disastrous result this influence has had on our food system has meant ever increasing regulation on domestic, sustainable and organic foods and a dangerous lessening of the regulations over factory-farmed, imported and highly processed foods.
Under President George W. Bush a paltry 2% of imported seafood was inspected, however under President Obama that number has dropped to 1%. Furthermore that scant 1% is checked not by trained inspectors from the USDA or FDA but rather from agents of the Department of Commerce – the same people charged with conducting the US census. This is quite disconcerting considering that Red Lobster is the largest seafood chain in the US and they haven’t used US shrimp since 1971.
It is a little suspicious that the timing of this initiative between the White House and one of the world’s largest restaurant conglomerates occurs just days after lobbyists from the chain restaurant industry (including Darden) petitioned that they be allowed to accept EBT cards (food stamps) for payment on restaurant purchases. Fast food establishments were added to the list of businesses allowed to accept EBT cards right around the time a number of them decided to make token attempts to lighten their menus.
It seems that if the First Lady were genuine in her goal to improve the diet of American children she would first encourage her husband to severe his ties, both financial and political, with Big Ag companies, effectively closing the Monsanto revolving door. Then she should focus her energies on reforming the food stamp system so that EBT cards can only be used to purchase whole foods – no canned foods, bags of chips, bottles of soda, no fast food or frozen dinners – just fresh produce, proteins and dairy.
The dirty secret of the childhood obesity epidemic is that the majority of 
children who fall into this category live in households of the bottom 15% of wage earners. Their parents are either employed on a part-time basis or not at all. As a result they have ample time to cook meals from scratch but instead are loading down the cart with processed, high calorie, ready-to-eat foods.
Another thing that Mrs. Obama needs to do to prove she is earnest about childhood obesity is set a better example. There are literally hundreds of pictures on the Internet of her gorging on junk food like French fries and ice cream. It is starting to detract from her mission.
I don’t fault the First Lady for eating those foods; they are delicious. I certainly don’t begrudge her any weight gain. I, like many Americans have long fought the battle of the bulge. However, if Mrs. Obama continues to package herself the First Lady of Healthy Diets she has to set an example. Her well-documented weight gain from the campaign trail to today is startling and threatens (see for yourself below) to undo the good work she has already done.
The First Lady needs to make a decision, either champion a healthy lifestyle or eat whatever she wants but the hypocrisy has got to stop. America is sick and tired of an administration that repeatedly sets rules that apply to everyone except themselves. That is after all why we fought a Revolution in the 1770’s. For more about the Obama/Olive Garden pact check out this article from AP.
[ad] Empty ad slot (#1)!
BH Chef Sasha’s Tahitian Vanilla Cake
So the Private Chefs of Beverly Hills is blowing up. People are eating it up (pun intended). Gal-pal Sasha Perl-Raver is the leading search item in conjunction with the show and in episode three she unveiled a cake that is all the buzz. Sasha recently published the recipe for her much talked about Tahitian Vanilla Cake.
After having suffered hundreds of hours of boring Food Network Cake Challenges I have finally seen a cake that I would actually like to try. Why does this cake sound better to me than those lame Disney cakes or even the masterpieces churned out by the talented gang at Charmed City Cakes? No F’ing fondant! Sure it makes the cake prettier but fondant is devoid of flavor and has an uncomfortable texture. It’s like eating glue and the last time I checked we are not supposed to eat glue. Anyway, here is Sasha’s recipe for Tahitian Vanilla Cake.
The Corn Ultimatum – A Trilogy
The following is a work of fiction. Though much of the information is documented fact certain elements have been fictionalized.
Des Moines, IW
The year is 2007. Illinois Senator Barrack Obama tells attendees of the Iowa Democratic Primary Debate, “. . . we can also improve the economic engines in a lot of these rural communities, and that is something that I’m absolutely committed to doing as President, but it’s going to require overcoming the excess influence of agribusiness lobbying.”
Campaigning on a platform of change and promising an end to business-as-usual politics Obama says, “I don’t take a dime of their [lobbyist] money, and when I am President, they won’t find a job in my White House.” Based mainly on this promise Obama is elected the 44th President of the United States.
Before taking office, the President was sent a list of 12 highly qualified experts in food safety and/or conscientious farming by environmentalists and sustainable food activists. They called them the Sustainable Dozen.
On December 17, 2008 President-elect Obama named former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack as his nominee as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. As head of the USDA, Vilsak will be making policy that greatly effects the bottom line of Monsanto and other agribusinesses and their lobbyists.
Obama’s other candidates for USDA chief were Representative Collin Peterson (D – Minnesota) a conservative Democrat who has on occasion championed Monsanto and Representative Charlie Stenholm (D – Texas) another conservative Democrat who has, from time-to-time been a proponent of Monsanto.
So why did the President choose Vilsack? Apparently because the other two were not pro-Monsanto enough. While leading the state of Iowa, Vilsack was often ridiculed for betraying voters in favor of Big Ag companies and was even named Governor of the Year by the Biotechnology Industry Organization, a GM seed lobby group. For years Vilsack has traveled in a private jet “on loan” from Monsanto.
Vilsack’s appointment came as a slap in the face to the very people that elected the President. Letters were written, favors cashed in and e-mails did whatever it is e-mails metaphorically do. As a peace offering President Obama created the toothless position of Sustainable Foods Czar and appointed one of the Sustainable Dozen, Kathleen Merrigan to fill it. The appointment means little except a salary and a nifty parking spot. Clearly a waste of a talented and dedicated person.
However, President Obama wasn’t done. He has added more Big Ag goons to the US Government than the past three Presidents combined:
- Islam Siddiqui – vice president of CropLife America a PR firm representing Monsanto, Dow, Syngenta and DuPont. Siddiqui also was a Barrack financial contributor who donated the highest legal amount to the ’09 election.
- Roger Beachy – a scientist who actually helped develop GM corn and recently questioned the safety of organic foods. Beachy was another campaign contributor.
- Dr. Michael Osterholm – vehement defender of food irradiation (the largely untested practice of dosing food with Gamma radiation). His research facilities are financed by CFC Logistics – a maker of food irradiation equipment.
- Dr. Regina Benjamin a “consultant” for Burger King, was paid $10,000 by the fast food giant just prior to being named the nation’s latest Surgeon General.
- And the most agredious appointment – July 7, 2009, Michael Taylor returns to DC as President Obama’s hand-picked “senior adviser” to the FDA.
Taylor, whose position is technically under that of FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret “Peggy” Hamburg, took it upon himself to create a new division of the FDA called the Office of Foods in August of 2009. This new department will employee 350 people, none of whom have any real duties to perform. Humorously, the FDA’s web site has a section entitled Meet Michael R. Taylor which spends an entire page detailing Taylor’s numerous token appointments and meaningless board of trustees seats but only dedicates one half of one sentence to his 30 plus years of service to Monsanto.
So now with a gaggle of Big Ag henchmen as part of his administration the President is set to attack the long list of problems assailing the country. Surely he would address the nation’s dire unemployment numbers or prosecute the Wall Street executives who broke the law and as a result needed the American tax payers to save their industry. At the very least he will attempt to wrangle the growing national debt. No, instead he turns his full attention towards nationalizing the health care system.
The President and First Lady also begin a campaign against childhood obesity. Obesity it would seem has been the primary cause of increasing health care costs. The chief cause of obesity is GM products (food is too liberal a word) and the chemicals derived from them like HFCS.
On that point the First Lady plants an organic garden at the White House that will provide produce for the First Family and their guests to enjoy. A staff is hired to maintain the garden for the Obamas. They also suggest that schools plant similar gardens. After all GM foods are poisonous and drive up health care costs.
Then the First Lady announces her new initiative, Let’s Move. The program’s goal is to, “give parents the support they need, provide healthier food in schools, help our kids to be more physically active, and make healthy, affordable food available in every part of our country.” Mrs. Obama made her plans public on February 9, 2010 in a live broadcast that aired on WhiteHouse.gov.
At the First Lady’s side were Tom Vilsak (Secretary of the USDA and Monsanto lobbyist) and Dr. Regina Benjamin (US Surgeon General and Burger King employee) making the entire program appear little more than window dressing. Also joining Mrs. Obama at the announcement was hypocrisy. After all Vilsack has worked for decades for the company that invented the chemical responsible for the obesity epidemic, HFCS and Benjamin advices a company that puts HFCS into virtually everything it sells.
Just as Monsanto had told President Carter in those smokey backrooms of the 1970’s, if their genetically modified corn turned out to be unhealthy then all is well. It would likely cause a health crisis giving some future President ammunition to pass the long sought after state-run health care system.
The first President Bush left a crack in the door for Monsanto to plant a genetically modified seed of corruption. President Clinton opened the door all the way, Bush Jr. took the door off the hinges and President Obama has unlocked the backdoor and smashed out all of the windows.
There is no savior for our food system. There is no one in Washington DC we can trust. The only thing DC politicians care about is fortifying their own coffers.
If this whole ordeal has shown us anything is that this issue is not about party affiliation. Those who align themselves along party lines are fools. Both Democrats and Republicans have betrayed the American people for the pursuit of the all mighty dollar. From Bush Sr. to Obama all have put more stock into the desires of Monsanto than they do the voter.
Politicians will never change things unless it is profitable for them. The only way we get out of this is by doing it ourselves. Re-elect no one. Impeachment is a tool the founding fathers gave us in case we were betrayed. Let’s use it; after all we’ve been betrayed. Write letters, make phone calls, send e-mails, organize petitions and write “call to arms” blog posts just like this one. Do something to save us from the Monsanto Revolving Door.
Make yourself heard.
Get caught up by reading The Corn Identity and The Corn Supremacy.
7 Questions with Beverly Hills Chef Sasha Perl-Raver
7 Questions is a series of interviews with the culinary movers and shakers you want or ought to know better.
On Friday April 9th Food Network premieres one of it’s most highly anticipated and hyped series in quite some time. Taking a cue from Bravo’s Real House Wives franchise they have developed Private Chefs of Beverly Hills – an inside look at Tinsel Town shindigs from the point of view of the culinary teams that put them together.
At age 16 Sasha Perl-Raver started her own catering business. Since then she has graduated from USC with a minor in cinema, guest starred on the Lifetime drama Strong Medicine, was crowned Miss San Francisco, baked Lindsay Lohan’s 18th birthday cupcakes, been a senior writer for a Hollywood gossip web site and been named “funniest in LA” by a newspaper in New York. Designer Randolph Duke once called Sasha a chubbier Angelina Jolie. A year from now people might be referring to Jolie as an emaciated Sasha Perl-Raver.
Today Sasha combines show business and the culinary arts as a member of the team at Big City Chefs. Big City is a private chef operation that caters to the whims of demanding and eclectic stars. It is also the subject of Food Network’s latest venture into reality programming.
Chef Sasha was nice enough to answer 7 Questions:
1. How old were you when you first started to cook?
Sasha: I took my first foray into cooking when I was 7. I was latchkey kid in Manhattan who took the bus home from school. My bus stop was in front of this amazing pizza parlor and it always smelled insanely good but I only had enough money for the bus, not a snack. So I would go home and make pizza from scratch. I made the dough, the sauce, everything. I got all kinds of Wolfgang Puck! Those early pizzas were usually unbelievably delicious, but one time my dad cracked a tooth on the crust. You live and learn.
2. When did you decide that you could make food your career?
Sasha: I was 16 when I graduated from high school and I didn’t have any marketable skills except my obsession with food. I’d been in charge of Thanksgiving dinner since I was 11, read cookbooks out loud constantly to my parents, fixated on things like how to make roasted garlic flan. A family friend who’d eaten my food for years offered me a job as her personal chef. Word of mouth spread really quickly about this 16 year old wunderkind and soon I had a roster of clients and my obsession became my profession.
3. Which chefs have influenced you the most?
Sasha: Alice Waters is my road dawg! I love her more than words can say and my food philosophy is entirely based on hers. And who doesn’t bow at the feet of Thomas Keller? When I was a kid, I was all about The Frugal Gourmet, Martin Yan and Two Hot Tamales. Nowadays, I would do just about anything to sit down at a table with Rick Bayless, but mainly because I have a big ol’ crush on him.
4. If you hadn’t followed this career path, what other career could you see yourself in?
Sasha: Well, I always really wanted to be a dancer but I fear that will never happen. The truth is my passions have always been food, film and writing and I’ve been lucky enough to work in all those fields whether it’s been cooking for or interviewing celebrities, writing film and food reviews or doing this show. But I still think it would be pretty rad to be a ballerina.
5. What’s the highlight of your career so far?
Sasha: Being on “Private Chefs of Beverly Hills” is pretty major and up at the top but I think it was actually a party I catered a few years ago. With less than 36 hours notice, I catered the US Weekly Young Hot Hollywood Party for 1500 people. I did all the prep alone, had just two line cooks to help me out the night of, slept maybe two hours before the party, there were reporters there from every major entertainment news organization and the whole place was VIP.
About two hours into the party, my boss comes in and kisses me on the face because everyone was so thrilled with the food. I walk out of the kitchen and there’s Jessica Alba eating my tuna tartar and Justin Timberlake stuffing a piece of my cotton candy into his mouth. As my mother would say, I was kvelling.
6. Of all the crazy things you’ve seen at Big City Chefs what’s the craziest?
Sasha: The cast. I kid, I kid!
Every time we do an event, it’s pretty nuts but I have to say, the event Chef Brian Hill and I did, which I believe is in the first episode, was completely insane.
We had to go “Glamping,” which is glamorous camping, and cook a gourmet meal for these millionaires. First of all, I hate camping! My parents are major hippies and took me camping all the time when I was a kid. Don’t get me wrong, I love nature. I just don’t like cooking, sleeping and showering in nature. I haven’t gone camping in years but, there we were, at this beautiful camp site, just off a lake, so picturesque, but all we had was a spigot and a fire pit. No fire, no burners, no oven, no warm water, no prep area; just logs and really high expectations. It was madness.
7. What’s next for Chef Sasha?
Sasha: For about a year and a half I’ve been working on my first book, Hungry for Love. It’s a foodoir (part memoir, part food book), and my agent is sending it out to publishers on Wednesday so I’ve got my fingers majorly crossed for that. Big money, no whammies! And, of course I’m very excited for Private Chefs of Beverly Hills to premiere on April 9th. I’ve dreamed of being on Food Network for as long as I’ve known about it and now I can say that Paula Deen, Tyler Florence and I are one big happy family.
Private Chefs of Beverly Hills airs Fridays at 10p/9c on the Food Network.
Can’t get enough Sasha? At the beginning of season two, Sasha was nice enough to give me an inside look at the Private Chefs of Beverly Hills. Check it out HERE.
Check out Chef Sasha on Fox News’ Strategy Room where she discusses the show, Jamie Oliver, diets and Michelle Obama.
View my complete catalog of interviews and bios for the Private Chefs of Beverly Hills by clinking HERE.
