EXCLUSIVE
New US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr has recruited Australian television chef and conspiracy theorist Pete Evans to help address the serious youth obesity epidemic in the United States.
The divisive duo, who united their anti-vaccine views during the global pandemic, have teamed up to launch a new cooking guide aimed at improving children’s unhealthy eating habits.
The cookbook written by Evans, Healthy Food for Healthy Kids, boasts that it will include 120 ‘paleo and keto foods your child will love’ when it is published by Kennedy’s advocacy group, Children’s Health Defense, on January 28.
The release will mark the “cancelled” TV star’s first return to food writing since his former publisher, Pan MacMillan, canceled Evan’s book deal after he posted a cartoon depicting a neo-Nazi symbol on social media.
It also comes after his latest similarly themed cookbook aimed at children, Bubba Yum Yum: The Paleo Way, was met with widespread controversy and its release date was delayed, amid claims it promoted a restrictive diet. and potentially fatal.
Evans credited his close friend RFK Jr for personally arranging the deal after announcing the upcoming launch to his 41,000 followers on the Telegraph messaging app.
“So please and thank you, Robert Kennedy Jr. organized this for me, with his Children’s Health Defense team,” the 51-year-old said. “Stay tuned for more.”
Since joining Donald Trump’s campaign in August, Kennedy has become one of the president-elect’s strongest (and most trusted) advisors, even sharing McDonald’s with Trump, his eldest son Don Jr, and Elon Musk.
Scandal-plagued celebrity chef Pete Evans and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have forged a firm friendship since bonding over their extreme anti-vaccine views during the pandemic.
Evans this week credited Kennedy with personally landing him a publishing deal for his latest cookbook aimed at children’s unhealthy eating habits.
Kennedy, who has vowed to reform America’s healthcare organizations if the Senate confirms his nomination as Trump’s health secretary, was also seen alongside Republican leader and podcaster Joe Rogan.
Evans declined to discuss details of the post when contacted by Daily Mail Australia on Tuesday.
The former Channel Seven star has generated constant controversy – and unwanted headlines – since he was fired from his $800,000-a-year job hosting the network’s hit reality cooking show, My Kitchen Rules, in May 2020.
By this point, Evans had already begun to align himself with Kennedy, having shared a selfie of them together online while praising the “important work” being carried out by the outspoken anti-vaxxer and his Children’s Health Defense.
But now free from the contractual constraints of conventional television networks, he began making increasingly controversial posts about vaccines and the coronavirus epidemic.
In July 2020, he sparked outrage when he falsely claimed that Covid-19 was a “damn hoax” and that the pandemic “doesn’t compare to what’s happening in the world on a large scale.”
After publishing a dozen of his cookbooks, Pan Macmillan ended his relationship with Evans that November after he posted the offensive cartoon, along with a caption reading “an oldie but a Goldie”, to his more than 1.5 million of followers on social networks.
The image showed a caterpillar wearing a Make America Great Again hat, talking to a black butterfly with the “Black Sun” symbol on its wing.
Evans was once one of Australia’s most bankable stars, raking in $800,000 a year fronting the hit reality show My Kitchen Rules on Channel Seven alongside co-host Manu Feildel.
Since being sacked by Seven, Evans has become increasingly open about his political views.
The symbol, also known as the sonnenrad, has been appropriated by neo-Nazis and adorned the Christchurch bomber’s manifesto at the time of his evil killing spree in 2019.
“Pan Macmillan does not support Pete Evans’ recent publications,” the editor said at the time.
‘Those opinions are not our opinions as a company nor the opinions of our staff.
“If any retailers would like to return the Pete Evans book please contact Pan Macmillan.”
Big W, Coles, Dymocks, Kmart and Booktopia were among the retailers that declared they would not sell their products after publication.
Evans initially indicated that he was aware of the symbol’s presence in the cartoon when someone pointed it out on social media and responded, “I was hoping someone would see that.”
Evans got a kick from his editor after posting this cartoon on social media.
However, he later added that “one image can represent so many things to so many people” and that it did not aligning himself with white supremacy or Nazism before finally apologizing to people who had “misinterpreted” the cartoon.
“My sincerest apologies to anyone who misinterpreted a previous post of a caterpillar and butterfly chatting over a drink and perceived it to be promoting hate,” he said. “I hope to study every symbol that has ever existed and research them thoroughly before publishing them.”
The controversy cost him dearly, and Channel Ten fired him over a scandal just as he was due to begin filming on the network’s survival reality show, I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!
The following month, the social media giant permanently removed Evans’ Facebook page, which had amassed more than a million followers, after finding that he had repeatedly violated the site’s misinformation policies with his controversial posts.
“We removed Pete Evans’ account for repeatedly sharing disproven claims about the coronavirus or vaccines,” Facebook said in a statement at the time.
Evans and his wife, Nicola, now live a mostly solitary life near Byron Bay.
The company deleted its Instagram account the following February for the same reason, although it has since quietly returned to the image-sharing platform.
Since being largely “cancelled”, Evans and his model wife, Nicola, live a largely solitary life on their farm outside Byron Bay.
Kennedys Children Health Defense, which describes itself as a “children’s health protection and advocacy group,” has previously been criticized for spreading misinformation about vaccination during the global coronavirus pandemic.
The group’s influence has stagnated since Kennedy formally resigned as president and head of the litigation council last April after announcing his tilt toward the U.S. presidency.
After withdrawing from the race in August, Kennedy has become one of Trump’s staunchest supporters, urging his followers to vote for the millionaire businessman with the slogan ‘Make America Healthy Again.’
Evans’ upcoming comeback marks the former TV star’s return to food writing
Last week, Trump nominated Kennedy as his health secretary, charged with overseeing the country’s health agencies and their multibillion-dollar budgets, despite concerns about his strong anti-vaccine stance and promise to eliminate fluoride from drinking water.
Kennedy has said he believes autism is linked to vaccines and that fluoride causes arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer and IQ loss, despite scientific research suggesting otherwise.
His cousin, the outgoing US ambassador to Australia, Caroline Kennedy, has been among those warning the US Senate not to confirm his nomination.
“I think Kennedy’s views on vaccines are dangerous and I don’t think most Americans share them,” he said in a speech at the National Press Club in Canberra on Monday.
‘You know, I grew up with him. So, I’ve known all this for a long time and others are just learning about it.’
Donald Trump nominated Kennedy as his health secretary despite concerns about his anti-vaccine stance and promised to eliminate fluoride from drinking water.
US Ambassador Caroline Kennedy has denounced her cousin’s views as “dangerous”
He said the rest of his family was united in support of the US public health sector, while Kennedy was an outlier in the political dynasty.
‘My uncle Teddy (Kennedy) spent 50 years fighting for affordable healthcare in the Senate and it’s something our entire family is so proud of, President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act and built on the work he my uncle had done for many years,’ he said.
‘I would say that our family is united in terms of our support for the public health sector and infrastructure, and has the greatest admiration for the medical profession in our country.
“Bobby Kennedy has a different opinion.”