From a recent Associated Press report:

The country’s top chefs, several of whom traveled to Washington for Obama’s inauguration this week, hope that Obama’s flair for good food will encourage people to expand their horizons when it comes to what they eat…


These chefs tout locally grown, environmentally friendly and - most importantly - nutritious food…

Dan Barber, chef at New York’s popular Blue Hill restaurant and a frequent critic of the country’s food policy, says a few small gestures from the president and first lady Michelle Obama could accomplish what many of the chefs have been working toward for years.

…Barber said good food needs more publicity, and he hopes Obama and his wife will advertise what they are eating and what they are feeding their children, 10-year-old Malia and 7-year-old Sasha…

Wait: so maybe MSNBC, when it “reported” a few weeks ago what Malia and Sasha were being fed for lunch at their new school, was actually just… advocating, in a way, for healthier U.S. food policy?

Back to the AP report:

[Rick] Bayless, the Chicago chef, says the Obamas could make a world of difference if they just publish what they are eating every day.


“Everyone’s going to want to be like the Obamas,” he said.

Setting aside the assumptions being made here that “what they are eating every day” is always a role-model worthy menu: President (then, President-elect) Obama did pen that “Open Letter to My Daughters” for Parade magazine. Maybe he would be game for “publish[ing] what they are eating every day.” (An “Obama Family Food Diary” in Everyday With Rachel Ray?)

Liz Cox Barrett is a writer at CJR.