Kamala Harris suspended her 2020 presidential campaign on Tuesday, presumably after someone finally told her that cooking was not part of the president’s job description.
Harris often got flak for coming off as unnatural or cringey, but perhaps her most cringey moments were always the ones manufactured in the kitchen. Campaign aides never missed an opportunity to capture Harris interacting with food. It’s unclear whether this is because she is actually is a good cook, or because consuming food was the most relatable trait Harris shared with other humans.
A little bit of good-humored Mindy Kaling can usually fix anything, but not in Harris’ case. A week before she announced the end of her 2020 campaign, the Harris campaign dropped a video of Kaling and Harris cooking Indian food together in Kaling’s home.
In the video, which showcases some of the senator’s most cringey fake laughs, Harris, who is half-Indian, admits that she has never made masala dosa, the Indian dish Kaling has invited her over to cook.
Who else keeps their spices in Taster’s Choice jars? ⁰⁰Turns out @MindyKaling and I have more in common than we initially thought.
WATCH: https://t.co/hqqL2oYb3d pic.twitter.com/9dgQUjKeZF
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) November 26, 2019
Ahead of Thanksgiving, her press secretaries hammed up the tweets about their boss’s holiday meal plans.
When you’re trying to explain how to brine a turkey to @CapehartJ but you’ve got to do a live tv hit with @TheRevAl. pic.twitter.com/Qkjq2otsEH
— Kate Waters (@KMB_Waters) November 24, 2019
Here’s the senator shopping for seasoned salt at Whole Foods, so relatable!
I was diligently trying to capture the hunt for seasoning salt when @douglasemhoff checked me for being extra. pic.twitter.com/0s7jxaHgXZ
— Kate Waters (@KMB_Waters) November 26, 2019
.@KamalaHarris snuck away in Des Moines for a little last minute grocery shop before Turkey Day. pic.twitter.com/Bl3XnS21WD
— Kate Waters (@KMB_Waters) November 26, 2019
Double points for showing off the collard greens she brought back from a recent trip to South Carolina.
While prepping a Thanksgiving meal in Des Moines, @KamalaHarris was excited about her South Carolina Collard Greens.
I noted they’re from another early state.@MiryamLipper was quick to point out why they aren’t locally sourced from Iowa.#IACaucus pic.twitter.com/dB7gIYil80
— Clay Masters (@Clay_Masters) November 27, 2019
But it didn’t just start with Thanksgiving. Harris’ staff has been touting their “foodie” boss since the beginning. She loves french fries–just like us!
Yesterday she showed me photos of fries she made at home in duck fat. The woman is not messing around about her favorite food. pic.twitter.com/fFoRGjhgGl
— Lily Adams (@adamslily) June 19, 2019
Except not just McDonald’s french fries. Harris cooks her own in duck fat, like a normal person.
https://twitter.com/f1shiftctr/status/1141516400479150081
Other cooking sessions with Harris include baking monster cookies with a high schooler in Iowa (in which she impresses the local with a one-handed egg crack), and making bacon-fried apples with Deidre DeJear, the chair of her Iowa campaign.
Watching her internal conflict over recommending eating raw cookie dough but then immediately revoking her recommendation on second thought is actually quite entertaining.
In July, when MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” wanted to do a candidate check up segment with Harris, it seems like roasting a chicken was her press guru’s first choice, helping make “foodie” Kamala’s debut.
When I have some time off the campaign trail, I love to be in the kitchen whipping up something new for my family. See what @douglasemhoff and I were cooking the other day. pic.twitter.com/rmjRRPkYBX
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) July 22, 2019
The great irony is that only now that Harris is done campaigning will she actually have time to pursue her great love of chef-ing it up in the kitchen.
