We’ve been duped by the Food Network! Lynn Sweet’s blogging that the veggies used on the Iron Chef America White House Special were not from the White House Kitchen garden, they were ‘stunt double vegetables!' But considering the show was taped at the White House a week before the cook off between the super chefs, the White House vegetables didn’t stand a chance of remaining fresh. Sweet says, “Except for the honey, no food on the show came from the White House. The East Wing told me the vegetables picked at the White House garden that day in October were donated to a local food kitchen, so nothing went to waste.”
Here's more from Politics Daily:
The White House segment was taped in late October. The cook-off actually took place the following week, in what Iron Chef calls its "Kitchen Stadium" in New York City.
So clearly the stuff that was picked that October day at the White House never had a chance of making it on the show because the produce would not be fresh. The use of the "stunt vegetables" was revealed in a November New York Times Marian Burros article and in Obamafoodorama.com, Eddie Gehman Kohan's web site-of-record on anything having to do with food and food policy coming out of the Obama White House. But no one knew until the show if the "stunt double" vegetables would be disclosed.
Viewers were not explicitly told that the vegetables in "Kitchen Stadium" were not the ones they had seen the chefs harvest. Various participants in the show misled viewers with references to "using radishes from the White House garden" and other similar mentions. Except for the honey, no food on the show came from the White House.
Mrs. Obama's East Wing told me the vegetables picked at the White House garden that day in October were donated to a local food kitchen, so nothing went to waste. The week between the harvest the cook-off was due to "scheduling/technical" reasons.
