Eater examines US President Donald Trump’s preference for steak that is well-done and accompanied by ketchup – in particular what this says about his personality.
People of any breeding or refinement refuse to have ketchup in the house, and know instinctively that well-done steak is a mark of a (Anglophone) peasant – many professional chefs will refuse to prepare it. However, this writer goes to great lengths to avoid being judgmental, even allowing that some individuals’ sense of taste might be so abnormal that dry and overcooked meat genuinely seems better.
Her conclusion is that Trump’s gauche dining habits reveal deep-rooted distrust, fear and all-round benightedness. The ketchup indicates a person ‘who is always going to fix his problems by making them worse’. This is echoed over at Esquire, which investigates Trump’s use of scotch tape to hold his neckties together and finds that he ‘elects to correct one sin by performing another’.
There is an argument that, to Trump’s fans, the tastelessness (like his Louis XIV boudoir and bim-femmes) is the point – an insult to the class identities and social markers they resent and despise.
This is an English-speaking thing. In France, every leftist and aristocrat and Marine Le Pen voter eats their viande de cheval rare, and dresses with the same effortless elegance. In Hong Kong, cutting-edge gastronomes use Coca-Cola as a marinade for chicken and it is acceptable to clip your fingernails whether on a bus or in the back of a chauffeur-driven Mercedes.
On weightier matters, the Plus ca Change Award of the Week goes to Formosa Calling: An Eyewitness Account of the February 28th, 1947 Incident by Allan Shackleton….
The article describes the superiority of less well-done steak as “a simple matter of science”. Given Trump’s known antipathy to science (i.e. facts he cannot control), this makes his culinary choice unsurprising.
“People of any breeding or refinement refuse to have ketchup in the house”
Thank you for this example of your middle-class approach to breeding and refinement.
Oh you’re banging on about ketchup again. That makes 50 times you have done it.
I guess Cheez Whizz is next. Then dogs. Then feral children.
You used to sound like a young Fogey and that was interesting. Sounding like an old Fogey isn’t.
And pretending that Trump isn’t a hyper Tory deep down but some kind of ruffian.
Plllleeeease!
@Ook – it seems you are unable to understand satire. Perhaps this website is not for you. (Sorry George, you’re just too obvious).
The Queen, who not generally described as” an Anglophone peasant”, insists on her meat being well done.
@stephen
The lass is a German: anything could happen. Also she married Phil the Greek so her tastes are definitely questionable.
@Eek.
Aaakh! It seems you are unable to understand sarcasm. Perhaps this comments section is not for you.
@Stephen: isn’t everything in British cuisine ‘well done’, including baked beans, toast, pudding and all vegetables ?
Ketchup doesn’t go with well done Baked Alaska, either.
It is interesting to see that Bow Tie doesn’t believe in keeping a low profile, and was photographed having dinner at the Hong Kong Golf Club after he was released on bail yesterday.
I don’t understand how he can appeal his conviction. It seems to me that having your friends write letters requesting leniency on your behalf for the judge to consider when he/she is determining your punishment is a an admission of guilt…
A poor man
The answer is quite simply that Sir Bowtie is arrogant, elitist, sheltered from reality and either does not understand or simply does not care about the implications of his actions.
I would like to know how he can be given bail. If not for a former senior bureaurat…..Plus how can he manage to afford very expensive albeit very good legal representation, when he has been on a “mere” civil servant’s salary? The more I observe the less I have any respect.
oldgit: why not ? ketchup contains more sugar, per ounce, than Baked Alaska (ice-cream). You know what is really vile ? Putting vinegar on perfectly good fries.
Why is Bowtie still getting police protection? Surely he forfeited that as a convicted criminal. Great that the police can afford nine officers to protect him, yet none are available to deal with burglaries in my village.
Joe Blow,
You are right, putting vinegar on perfectly good fries is vile. However malt vinegar is great with chips!
Joe Blow,
One never puts vinegar on “fries” for the very simple reason that no-one in their right mind eats them. Frankly, it would be a waste of good vinegar.
One puts vinegar on chips (yes chips, not crisps), and bloody nice they taste as a consequence.
Lonesome George is crap again today, l see.