Today, I thought it might be fun to talk about some US presidents and their favorite meals, with Thanksgiving coming up next week, and in honor of the elections. Next week, I’ll talk about some common and then some unusual Thanksgiving traditions for some ideas. But for now, let’s talk about some of our recent presidents and what they liked to eat. And then we’ll mention some from quite long ago, and what they enjoyed.
I find it really fascinating seeing what someone will eat when they have a chef at their disposal, and can eat whatever they want. I think the first ladies would have had a lot to do with planning menus, and even encouraging their husbands to eat healthier things. Some of the things I’ll mention are from when the presidents are just on their own, and they eat whatever they feel like, and then other things would be more what they would eat if there’s a White House dinner, or a small dinner party, or if they’re simply eating with their wives, but it’s still something cooked by the chef.
Let’s start with Donald Trump. He definitely enjoys typical American fast food; hamburgers and fried chicken. He’s apparently a big fan of Diet Coke, and drinks a lot of that. And then he does eat some healthier things sometimes, especially when his wife’s involved, I’m sure.
He often skips breakfast, but when he does eat it, sometimes he enjoys bacon and eggs with hash browns or biscuits. His favorite salad is Cobb salad, which he will have with ranch dressing, and some cheese, egg and bacon on it. That would be boiled eggs and chopped bacon – that kind of thing, which makes it more appetizing. He does love french fries, which goes along with the American fast food that he likes to eat. And he enjoys meatloaf.
Then this one’s surprising. He likes pizza, but he only eats the toppings. He’ll scrape it all off the top, and leave behind the crust. He enjoys taco bowls, and then well-done steak with ketchup. Apparently, the steak must be cooked enough so that it curls up slightly on the plate, and then he’ll add some good ketchup on top.
Then for dessert, he especially loves cherry vanilla ice cream and chocolate cake, don’t we all?
Next, President Joe Biden. President Biden’s must-haves in the kitchen apparently are peanut butter, jelly and ketchup, which he’ll use in various ways, but these have always got to be in stock. For lunch, he’ll often eat soup and a chopped salad with something like grilled chicken on top. Then for dinner he likes angel hair or other thin pasta with a red sauce. He loves to drink orange Gatorade. He enjoys vanilla chocolate chip Häagen-Dazs ice cream. He likes very simple meals, and he likes his kitchen stocked with sliced bread for sandwiches, with cheese or tomato, and a little bit of fruit on the side.
Then there’s President Obama. For breakfast, President Obama enjoys scrambled eggs with some whole wheat toast, and a side of green tea. Very healthy. He enjoys protein bars for snacks. And then for lunch, he has a chicken salad. Dinner will be something like chili con carne with a side of broccoli. The chili was something that he made himself, and he’d always enjoyed. And it was a comfort food for him. He always brewed his own honey ale, and he was also known for having seven almonds for his dessert.
And Jimmy Carter, he was a dairy man – he loved cheese and milk. In fact, he often drank a glass of buttermilk with his dinner. That’s amazing! He loved to add cheese to his breakfast, which was breakfast grits. He loved to try all kinds of cheese. One of his favorite appetizers was a cheese ball or ring with many layers, and then nuts and strawberry preserves on the outside. He loved to have cheese and crackers for a snack.
He was also a peanut farmer. He did love peanuts as a snack, and I’ve read that he liked to eat them deep fried. The Carters loved to enjoy beans and rice and barbecue ribs. He also enjoyed a ham roast with a red-eye gravy, which is the drippings from the ham with coffee added – a very unusual combination. He also enjoyed fried chicken with potato salad, and then peach ice cream.
Then there’s President Ronald Reagan. Reagan enjoyed a very simple breakfast of cereal and toast with orange juice, and of course his favorite snack was jelly beans. He loved them, and had them many times during the day, especially the black licorice flavor. For snacks, he also enjoyed odd things like cantaloupe or sweet melon with the hole from the seeds filled with cottage cheese – very unusual! He would have lunch of some kind of soup, maybe lentil soup with a hunk of bread, and for dinner something like a chicken picatta or fish with some steamed vegetables. And he loved dessert, so he’d finish off dinner with something like a chocolate mousse cake. He also loved grilled hamburgers and mac and cheese. He loved pumpkin, pecan pie, and monkey bread.
Let’s skip back in time to George Washington. One of his favorite things was hoe cakes, which are like pancakes, but made from corn, and they were made in a specific type of pan, which is why they’re called hoe cakes. He loved them at breakfast with butter, honey, and tea. Some other things he really enjoyed are grilled fish with some potatoes – he was a big fan of that. He sometimes even had fish for breakfast. Then trifles, like the English trifle. They were a little bit different to what we know today. Trifles back then wouldn’t have had ladyfinger biscuits in them, but just cake that was layered and soaked. Perhaps everything was made more from scratch – the custard and the jelly, if there was.
He loved meat like lamb and mutton, and they would have been able to have those things fresh more easily than today. There was also cherry pie, pickles, and sweet potatoes.
Then there was Abraham Lincoln, who was actually known to cook himself, or to help his wife to cook. He enjoyed simple food, like corned beef with cabbage, and venison, and apples – he definitely liked an apple pie. And he apparently really liked oysters. He enjoyed gingerbread men cookies, and bacon. The bacon, of course, would have been different back then. The pork would have been cut and rubbed with salt before being cured and smoked. He loved blackberry pie, almond cake, interestingly, and coffee.
Then, just for fun, here are some favorite foods of first ladies. There was Betty Ford who loved waffles. For breakfast she would have waffles with maple syrup, strawberries and orange juice.
Pat Nixon loved meatloaf. Her version was made with ground beef, white bread, and a little marjoram and they used to serve it about once a month in the White House.
Jackie Kennedy’s favorite was poached salmon, French style. One of her favorite presidential menus for dinner parties was poached salmon, then lamb with haricot beans, and then some sort of ice cream dessert.
Mamie Eisenhower was well known for using leftovers from her kitchen. She was very good at putting them together to make a new delicious meal. She said she could squeeze a dollar until the eagles screamed.
Bess Truman was well known for her Ozark pudding, which is like a macaroon inspired pecan pie. She made hers with apples, but you can also use pears. It’s amazing to see these women living in the White House in war times, or in difficult times during the depression, and to see the ways that they saved money.
Eleanor Roosevelt enjoyed scrambled eggs. She was very down to earth, and she would come up with all kinds of meals that were good during the Great Depression. She was from an upper class family, and she couldn’t cook when she entered the White House, so she got the help of some home economists, and planned menus that were cheap and nutritious. Eggs were often used, and things like potatoes. For one meal, she paired deviled eggs with tomato sauce, mashed potatoes, wheat bread, and coffee. This was one of what they called her seven and a half cent menus. Another was spaghetti with boiled carrots. The Roosevelts’ cook served noodles with little scraps of meat, chicken, or veggies, and then added cooked carrots on top. Something as simple as bread and butter was sometimes eaten, and then sweet breads and other organ meats were cooked to save on money. Then they had what we would today probably call a gelatine salad, a molded jelly, made using real gelatine, with things inside – sometimes it would be meat, and sometimes it would be fruits or vegetables. That was an interesting way to stretch them, but also good for health, all that gelatin.
The first ladies of the past often had to economize in ways that the modern ones don’t, but it’s interesting that they ate so much healthier in those days, compared to what the presidents eat today, although I’m sure that when the first ladies get involved, it’s healthier than when it’s them on their own.
Lastly, I want to mention Thomas Jefferson. One of his favorite meals is mac and cheese. He discovered this meal when he was in Europe as a diplomat, and he always enjoyed his mac and cheese. He helped to popularize it in the United States when he returned. He loved his mac and cheese so much that when he was back in the USA, he ordered the ingredients to be delivered all the way from France right to his house – that was at Monticello.
Apparently snacks had to be banned from Congress meetings because Thomas Jefferson always brought mac and cheese, and everyone hated it except him. Also, once at a dinner party, he shocked his guests by taking out a tomato and biting it. They still thought those were poisonous. But Jefferson had been to France and he knew they were safe to eat. Sounds like an amusing fellow!
He also loved ice cream and french fries, and he brought those ideas back to the United States with him, and helped them to become popular.
A couple quick mentions of other presidents’ favorite foods: Theodore Roosevelt’s was steak and gravy. Then Warren Harding’s was chicken pot pie, his comfort food. Calvin Coolidge liked apple pie, John F. Kennedy clam chowder, which is not surprising seeing as he was from New England and Gerald Ford’s favorite was pot roast.
If any of these dishes sound yummy to you, you can google that president’s particular recipe to see how they liked it, and you can add it to your Thanksgiving menu or your Christmas menu for fun. Some of them are quite unusual, and things we don’t really eat these days, and then others are just good versions of what we do eat these days. Let me know if you decide to cook any of them – I’d love to see a photo perhaps. I’m going to try the hoe cakes, and I’m thinking of doing a weekly or monthly president’s dinner, where we choose one of the presidents, and then have a three course meal which is some of their favorite foods while we learn about that particular president. I think that might be fun.
Thanks for listening. See you next time.
