We Are What We Eat: Food and American Identity at the National Archives
Richard Nixon's Resignation Diet Plan
One of the most striking pieces of presidential paraphernalia in "What's Cooking, Uncle Sam?" is a 1974 photograph of the last meal Richard Nixon ate at the White House: the only morsels on his plate are pineapple slices and cottage cheese. (Something, it seems, had gotten the best of his appetite.) Nearby is a "Hail to the Chef" apron worn by Lyndon B. Johnson and a chili recipe that his wife Lady Bird said was "almost as popular as the government pamphlet on the care and feeding of children." The First Family had a culinary influence long before First Lady Michelle Obama's vegetable-garden initiatives, Kamps says. "They can have an effect on foods people might try for the first time or recipes they might adopt."