Bennet Rea declared at six years old that when he grew up he wanted to be both the President of the United States and a chef. His social media account, Cookin’ with Congress, is “about as close as my skills will get me,” he told “The Argus” via email.
Cookin’ with Congress is a series on social media apps Instagram, TikTok and YouTube where Rea recreates the recipes of presidents—though now the series has expanded to include the first ladies, other notable historical figures and everyday people. The videos either feature one specific recipe or Rea will cook each meal that the person would have on a typical day.
Rea said he first began creating his Cookin’ with Congress videos after his wife’s grandmother gave him a South Dakota Centennial cookbook from 1989. He explained that all of the most “heinous” and “strange” recipes in the cookbook were from presidents. He latched onto the idea of recreating the recipes of presidents in the Centennial cookbooks and started posting the videos. Eventually, after gaining a modest following, Cookin’ with Congress went viral.
Most of the recipes that Rea makes for his series come from cookbooks where politicians or their spouses would submit recipes for clubs or fundraisers. On the Cookin’ with Congress website he has categories of recipes for any of his fans who might dare to attempt a presidential recipe. The categories include: “delicious recipes,” “disgusting recipes” and of course “gelatin creatures,” a category specifically for Rea’s fascination with recreating the gelatin recipes of the 1950s and 1960s. “You’d also be surprised how often gelatin gets mixed with vegetables and mayonnaise,” he said.
One of the most alarming recipes includes a gelatin “salad” called a “Silhouette Salad.” The recipe on the Cookin’ with Congress website noted that this recipe was in a Congressional Cookbook from the 1960s and attributed to Senator Len Jordan, who directed people to combine a packet of gelatin, can of cream of mushroom soup, canned turkey, green peppers and some other vegetables to be placed in a Jello mold and chilled. Richard Nixon’s entry wasn’t a Watergate Salad, but rather a modest lunch of cottage cheese with ketchup and a piece of banana bread.
Rea said Cookin’ with Congress allows him to explore his “nerdy fascination with presidents and educate people while still having fun.” The recipes he collected date back to George Washington—or, rather, Martha Washington, whose Yorkshire pie and herbed oatmeal pudding he recreated.
“I started the project because it made me laugh,” Rea said, “but it grew into something more.” Rea was pleased that many fans of Cookin with Congress find it to be a “gentle landing spot online” given the fast-paced and “manipulative social media.” He said he was proud that people find Cookin’ with Congress to be a “comforting” side of social media, even when the recipes are “disgusting,” he said. “And if, along the way, people learn that one of our presidents [William Howard Taft] liked eating possums, it’s a win all around.”
