These dishes aren’t left or right; they’re wrong.

Cookin’ with Congress started with a discovery at my girlfriend’s grandmother’s house. Sitting in her rocking chair, twirling her feet around at age 90, she suddenly pulled out an old 1989 South Dakota Centennial Cookbook, handed it to me and said, “isn’t this a trip?”

I was in love. Real recipes submitted by real senators, congresspeople, mayors, governors and even the President of the United States.

And they were all horrible.

Inspired by that initial disgust, I started recreating these recipes from politicians: the good, the bad and the ugly. Along the way, I learned a ton about midcentury Jello salads, psychotic presidential eating habits and the critical need for congressional term limits.

Cookin’ with Congress (CwC) has expanded beyond the blog to a wildly fun-to-make series on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube where I not only recreate recipes, but also eat like famous politicians, everyday Americans and much much more.

CwC has been featured on NPR’s Weekend Edition, NBC’s California Live morning show, Courthouse News, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and lots of those Daily Mail type of media outlets who were shocked at the diets of Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

ABOUT BENNETT REA

Bennett Rea is a writer, storyteller and home chef with an enormous political cookbook collection. He has presented at colleges and universities on the complicated nexus of politicians and food, been interviewed on the topic for The Los Angeles Times and Le Figaro and other outlets, and since 2020, has recreated 200+ favorite foods and homespun recipes by politicians. He has written for Food & Wine, Business Insider and Cracked. But mostly, when Bennett was six years old he wanted to be President of the United States and a chef at the same time. So here we are.