President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden’s restaurant order on a recent date night has sparked intense debate, and not because they ordered an elitist dish made with exotic ingredients.
The president and first lady raised eyebrows when they dined at the city’s famed Red Hen restaurant because they ordered exactly the same main course dishes.
Mr and Mrs Biden chose a chicory salad, grilled bread and butter and two bowls of rigatoni, reported The Washington Post.
And the presidential decision to not have different entrees to share has kicked off a firestorm of culinary reaction.
“Getting the same thing as the person you’re eating dinner with is silly,” Hannah Madden, a 24-year-old Washington resident who does fundraising for a political nonprofit told the newspaper. “The whole point of going out to eat is getting to try as many things as possible.”
And she added: “At first, I thought, it’s funny that everyone is in such a twist about this. And then I realised, ‘Oh wait, I’m in a twist about this.’”
Red Hen chef and owner Michael Friedman admitted he had also enjoyed the discussion of the president’s order.
“It’s such an honour to have a presidential visit, but it’s funny that this is what came out of it,” he told the Post. “It’s a fascinating thread people have chosen to follow, and I’m just really enjoying the banter.”
He says that the rigatoni is the restaurant’s signature dish and that they sell 50 to 70 orders of it a night.
“When I worked the pasta line, I would dream about it. But I’m still passionate about it because of the love it’s gotten from around the world,” he said.
He admitted that he and his wife mainly order different dishes, because of their particular tastes.
“I’m the guy ordering the offal, while she’s getting the salmon. But maybe we’d get the same thing if it’s what we both wanted,” he said.
Christine Gwinn, a 31-year-old lawyer, told the newspaper that she was less strict on the issue and that she and her husband had “soft guidelines” about not ordering the same dish.
“If it’s our first visit to a restaurant, I would want to try more things,” she said. “But for a second or third visit I’m not opposed to it, if there’s something we thought was really delicious and if one of us would be sad that we didn’t have all of it.”
The Post article sparked more than 1,300 comments, with many people saying that the president and first lady were right to order whatever they wanted, regardless of their partner’s choice.
“Eat what you love. If your partner of 30 years happens to share the same tastes, well then you likely picked well in both areas,” wrote one commentator.
“I’d eat that rigatoni all day instead of a well-done steak doused in ketchup,” wrote another in a shot at one-term president Donald Trump.
But another commentator added: “My wife and I always find the 2 most appealing dishes on the menu. She gets one, I the other, and we share.”
