In honor of Presidents’ Day today, we would like to suggest a possible dinner menu for tonight (we tested this one at a fun dinner with friends this past Friday evening). But because a good feast is also an intellectual feast, we invite you to test your knowledge of American Presidents’ dietary preferences. Answer key included at the end of the post.
Arugula Salad
- Which president got in trouble on the campaign trail for complaining about the price of arugula?
Macaroni and Cheese
2. Which president first tried macaroni and cheese in Europe and was so excited that he brought the dish back to America with him and regularly served it to his guests while in office?
Broccoli
3. Which president hated broccoli so much that he banned it from Air Force One – prompting a broccoli growers’ association to send the White House ten tons of broccoli in protest? “I do not like broccoli,” the president said. “And I haven’t liked it since I was a kid and my mother made me eat it. And I’m President of the United States and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli.”
Peas
4. Which early president’s favorite vegetable was peas?
4b) Bonus: Which president was reported to have had his dish of peas poisoned in an assassination attempt that he survived when a suspicious teenage girl decided to first feed some of the peas to the chickens as a test? (Note: The story is probably apocryphal. There really was an assassination plot, but it probably didn’t involve poisoned peas. Nevertheless, it makes a good presidential culinary story).
Hot Dogs
5. Which president served the king of England the first hot dog he had ever tasted? “According to one story, the queen supposedly asked [the president] how one ate a hotdog. ‘Very simple. Push it into your mouth and keep pushing it until it is all gone,’ he is said to have told her. She elected to use a knife and fork instead of taking this folksy advice.” – Smithsonian magazine
Peanuts
6. Which president owned a peanut farm?
Pretzels
7. Which president made national news for a pretzel-eating mishap when he choked on a pretzel, lost consciousness, and injured his head and face in the resulting fall?
Cherry Pie
8. Which president is alleged to have done something with a cherry tree that he never actually did?
8b) Bonus: Which president died in office shortly after eating a bowl of cherries with milk?
Ice Cream
9. Which president wrote down the first recipe for ice cream in America?
9b) Bonus: Which president was given a recipe for oyster ice cream (made with frozen oysters) by a family friend – but was not sure what to think of it? (“Of the value of its precepts on paper I cannot undertake to judge: when reduced to practice on the table, the question will be less beyond my pretentions,” he wrote in reply).
9c) Bonus: Who is the only president who worked in an ice cream shop in his youth – and then hated ice cream for the rest of his life? “I may have lost my taste for ice cream after one too many free scoops,” he said.
Answer key:
- Barack Obama; 2) Thomas Jefferson; 3) George H. W. Bush; 4) Thomas Jefferson; 4b) George Washington; 5) Franklin D. Roosevelt; 6) Jimmy Carter; 7) George W. Bush; 8) George Washington; 8b) Zachary Taylor; 9) Thomas Jefferson; 9b) James Madison; 9c) Barack Obama