Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the anti-vaccine activist and Health Secretary, launched a new online cooking show last week called The Real Food Show. Kennedy insists that Americans can eat nutritious food for cheap, promising to feed people for under $5 per person. But the Washington Post ran the numbers, and the meal he cooks during episode one costs about $18 per person for a family of four. Kennedy’s first episode features chef Andrew Gruel, who makes salmon cakes with egg, panko breadcrumbs, dijon mustard, chopped red onion, fresh chives, nutritional yeast, and avocado oil mayo. They also make an arugula salad with mustard, lemon, cider vinegar, apple, and white beans. The Washington Post added up all the ingredients with the cheapest options available from their nearest chain grocery store, excluding pantry staples like cooking oil, salt, and pepper. But the total was well above the promised $5 per person.
Part of the problem is that people can’t buy a slice of onion. The show features an on-screen receipt that displays the cost for the amount of each ingredient that’s used in this recipe, which is incredibly deceptive. For example, you can’t buy $0.21 worth of olive oil, but that’s one of the itemized ingredients on the list. You also can’t buy $0.08 of an onion.
