Cindy McCain's "Family Recipes" Stolen from the Food Network

[Ichingcarpenter]

What will they call it? Farfallegate? Rosemary Chicken Dome Scandal? Perhaps something with the ubiquitous Rachael Ray in it.

It seems that Cindy McCain, John McCain's perfect, blonde beer-baroness wife is about to find herself painted as the latest example of plagiarism on the campaign trail.

This past Sunday, Lauren Handel, an eagle-eyed attorney from New York, was searching for a specific recipe from Giada DeLaurentis, a chef on the Food Network. Yet whenever she Googled the different ingredients in the recipe, the oddest thing happened: not only did the Food Network's site come up, as expected, but so did John McCain's campaign site.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-weiner/mccain-family-recipes-lif_b_96666.html

[saltpoint]

1. Yes -- but the "Keating Casserole" is excellent.

[Liberal Veteran]

8. The pineapple upside-down flip-flop cake is to die for.

It tastes like one thing one minute and the exact opposite the next.

[saltpoint]

10. LOL! And you can leave it in the fridge for 100 years.

[Ichingcarpenter]

13. LOL.......Flip-Flop cake

I can see a satirical cook book getting started

[MidwestTransplant]

33. Cindy prefers her Percocet Pancakes

[Ichingcarpenter]

9. "Keating Casserole"..... DUzy......How about?

Half Baked Idea McCain Cake?

[Norrin Radd]

47. Puffed Cheeks Pastry

[cynatnite]

56. That's a winner...

:rofl:

[Lerkfish]

2. I'll give her a pass on this one: who cares? recipes are handed around all the time

better things to worry about.

[crispini]

19. Copyright infringement. ;)

Passing them around is one thing, posting them on your website is something else.

My Mom's Pecan Pie recipe is the one on the Karo bottle; I'd never DREAM of passing it off as "originally" hers. :rofl: But it sure is good! Now, there are half a dozen neat little tricks I have learned making it over the years -- I certainly would feel fine posting it with those adjustments, but I'd certainly give credit to the Karo people! LOL.

[Lerkfish]

29. not saying its okeydokey, just saying it doesn't rise to the level of outrage over

wanting to bomb Iran, at least not to me.

[crispini]

31. Ah no, it's a minor flurry. But fun!

The trivia of the campaign trail, LOL.

[karynnj]

36. Some of us likely have family recipies that once had a source, but it is long since lost

All my siblings and our cousins have my grandmother's cookie recipes. She made about 15 kinds each year - they are all very good and all freeze well - important as she started months in advance! We do call them "grandma's or "great-grandma's" cookies. I don't know if they were 100% true to the original recipe or not. I know that they originally came either from friends of cooking magazines. We all got copies back in the early 1980s - though I remember eating many of them in the 1950s. If I posted any that is all I could say of the source. I assume that my kids will call them family recipes - and they are - having been made now by 4 generations.

I'm just surprised she would take something with a known source and not credit it. If it were found they were identical to recipes in a 1960s cookbook that would be different.

[crispini]

52. Exactly. Cookies, or whatever, that's understandable.

Ahi Tuna with whatever it was --- not so much! LOL!

[karynnj]

55. Definately

Though to be fair there was a 2004 article in the NYT food section on Teresa Heinz Kerry. There were no recipes, but much of the discussion was on things like THK changing the fish she used in her recipe on fish stew. Had there been a recipe I would have believed it. JK apparently is a good cook too - http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/13/dining/13TERE.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=teresa+heinz+kerry+fish+soup&st=nyt&oref=slogin So, it is unfair to think that Cindy McCain isn't a good cook. She may have selected the recipes and whoever put them up ignored that they should list the cookbook or magazine.

Ignoring the attribution problems, isn't Ahi tuna what you would expect at a highly rated restaurant or spa hotel. Now if this were Michelle Obama if Bill Clinton were said to have picked up cooking - wouldn't these be called elitist meals?

[crispini]

57. It would sort of be elitist, to some, I guess.

But you can get seared Ahi Tuna salad at Rockfish for like $12 these days, so a bit more common -- but you're right, it ain't your momma's tuna salad! LOL!

[trueblue2007]

53. McCain's wife STOLE these recipes. Hope Food Network sues her

she copied and pasted and passed them off as HERS.

copright infringement!!!

[slampoet]

30. As someone who now makes part of their living from recipes that are 100+ years old IT DOES MATTER!

My Significant other's family handed down Six generations of recipes on either side of her family.
She has a hard fought tradition of cooking and baking. Some of the political figures her great grandmother cooked for are the same political figures that the OLD Admiral McCain associated with.

If Admiral McCain's wife had stolen one of those recipes back then there would have been one hell of a snubbing..
My sweetie's Great Grandmother would have NEVER spoken to that woman again even if that meant snubbing her for 60 years. She would have never let any part of the McCain family near her house and since Great Grandma also cooked for the local Governor and Mayor, she would have never allowed herself to cook for an official or any dinner to which the wife was invited.


During this time it was considered okay to claim a recipe from your servant as your own. Women of means have done this for centuries. But even back then it was forbidden to take a recipe from a Professional Woman. In taking this from Rachel Ray (as much as it pains me to call Ray a "professional"), Cindy McCain has stolen from a professional and thus is engaging in the same tear down other women behavior that we all hate to see in so many other cases.


Also we should also be pissed if even Rachel Ray represents these as FAMILY RECIPES. These are recipes that are OBVIOUSLY only a decade old at the most.

Thirty years ago where did you buy Ahi Tuna? I don't know where to buy it now and i am in the food field and located 2000 yards from the ocean!! Sure i could look for it and find it but not 30 years ago.

Forty years ago who bought passion fruit? Unless you lived in SF or near some other large Asian neighborhood there was none.

Thirty years ago where did you buy turkey sausage? There was chicken sausage (Andoullie) but there was not much turkey sausage around.


If Rachel Ray (who both of us here hate) wants to turn this into a positive for herself, then she should publicly out Cindy McCain by publicly inviting her to LEARN HOW TO COOK. Since it is obvious that Cindy really doesn't know how to actually cook. If Cindy actually knew how to cook she would own a cook book and would have stolen the recipes from there and not the internet.

On the positive side I am impressed that Cindy McCain knows how to turn on a computer.

[mondo joe]

3. And from Rachel Ray! That's should be a bonus offense.

[Liberal Veteran]

4. Couldn't she have just asked her cooking staff to provide recipes?

[RB TexLa]

12. Or just been honest and say she doesn't cook.

Oh, the American public doesn't want that in a first lady. Good forbid one of them ever have a job while in the White House and support themselves.

In 93, I had hopes that Hillary Clinton would work while first lady, but she had already buckled to Arkansas voters and changed her name so I didn't have that much hope.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

15. Copying and pasting is so much easier.....

[Ilsa]

5. I'm with Lerkfish on this. And who is to say that some variation of

a family recipe wasn't original to her family or that she took a recipe and tweaked it a bit to suit their tastes?

I hope the Democrats can stay above this stuff.

[crispini]

21. Shoo. They're identical. That's copyright infringement.

yes, it's a stupid issue, but the media make hay of this kind of thing all the time. Heh.

[Richard Steele]

23. Yup. That's a clear ripoff- Cindy was too lazy to even reword it. nm

[slampoet]

46. Yep. Lazy is a good word for it.

[Sanity Claws]

25. Why would an Arizona family have a family recipe for Ahi Tuna?

Arizona does not have a lot of fresh seafood regularly available. When a friend from Tucson visited me in Seattle, he always ordered seafood because he couldn't get the seafood in Arizona that we could in Seattle.
The fact that she claims to have a family Ahi Tuna recipe makes all her alleged recipes suspect in my mind.

[crispini]

26. hee hee hee

Excellent point.

[lisa58]

28. maybe they're elitists

[Contrary1]

43. Here's why:

From her bio: "Cindy Hensley McCain has dedicated her life to improving the lives of those less fortunate." That would be about 90% of the world's population.

Yep, let them eat Ahi Tuna.

[Bozita]

6. Given time, I'm sure we'll learn that the Food Channel stole the recipes from Cindy.

Billo, Pigboy, and Hannity will soon straighten this matter out.

[Richard Steele]

7. K&R

[Dr.Phool]

11. I'm waiting to try he strawberry shortcake

With Vicodin sprinkles.

[madaboutharry]

14. What is wrong with these people?

This is so easily exposed.

This is my take:

1. Cindy McCain more than likely can't scramble an egg. If she did cook, there would be real recipes of hers to post on the website.

2. More than likely, a not too experienced person working in the campaign is responsible for this. I would find it astounding if Cindy McCain was in on it. I really would like to know whose idea this was.

3. I am deeply offended by wealthy politicians trying to pass themselves off as "just folks."

[grasswire]

16. but to label it "McCain Family Recipe" is pretty bold

It's copyrighted, after all. If they had copied a poem without attribution and called it "McCain Family Poem", that wouldn't stand.

[mondo joe]

18. What was she supposed to do? Post her Percocet Fizzy Lifting recipe?

;-)

[alfredo]

54. Don't knock it. A dry Chablis goes well with it.

[crispini]

17. Bwahahahahahhahahaha!

:rofl:

[MidwestTransplant]

20. Percocet Pancakes are always a big hit.

[Fox Mulder]

22. Oh no! Now the news media should cover this for the next 456456546 days.

And it wouldn't surprise me if they did.

[Ichingcarpenter]

32. TV news never covers anything bad on John McInsane

Now, if this was a Democratic Candidate's spouse you know they
would cover this every 5 seconds

[Fox Mulder]

37. Good point.

[bullwinkle428]

24. At least she's not making money from them like Jerry Seinfeld's wife...

:hide:

[lisa58]

27. Cindy McCain cooks?

[trotsky]

34. Oh sure, and Donald Trump does his own laundry! n/t

[Ganja Ninja]

35. Do they barbecue puppies on the food network? n/t

[Lone_Star_Dem]

38. It would appear they must.

Who knew? :shrug:

[Vinca]

39. Does she own the Food Network? That would make them family recipes.

:rofl: (Don't forget - they ARE NOT elite.)

[Contrary1]

40. I'm getting an error message on the McSame link at Huffington...

Has it been removed?

[Ichingcarpenter]

45. still there

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-weiner/mccain-family-recipes-lif_b_96666.html

[Contrary1]

48. I'm getting the error message when I click

the "minor changes" link within the article. I can get a cached version, but nothing current.

It's being reported on CNN:

"McCain camp pulls its proposal — for passion fruit mousse

Posted: 08:45 AM ET
(CNN) – For a few hours Tuesday morning, the latest campaign trail drama seemed to center not on policy or politics — but on pasta farfalle.

At least three “McCain Family Recipes” posted on John McCain’s campaign Web site and credited to his wife Cindy – including Ahi Tuna with Napa Cabbage Slaw, Passion Fruit Mousse, and Farfalle Pasta with Turkey Sausage, Peas and Mushrooms — appeared to be direct copies of dishes created by the Food Network. Another seemed to be a slightly altered version of a dish prepared by TV chef Rachael Ray.

The similarity was first noted by a New York attorney and appeared in a report on the Huffington Post Monday night.

The McCain campaign quickly moved to quell the controversy over cabbage slaw. “Apparently a web intern added Rachel Ray to our policy team without her knowing it,” said McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds. “He was swiftly dealt with and the page is down for revision. Our apologies to Food Network …but according to our press assistant the passion fruit mousse is really worth trying.”

Cindy McCain appears to be the only candidate spouse this year to devote a share of the official campaign Web site to recipes; neither Bill Clinton nor Michelle Obama currently have posted their favorite dishes on their spouse’s presidential sites. No word yet on when the Arizona senator's wife might unveil a new plan for the nation's Ahi tuna lovers."

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/

[TommyO]

41. The Farfalle with Turkey Sausage sounds very tasty!

Shame on Cindy for copyright infringement.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

42. Ahi Tuna? Doesn't that have an Elitist ring to it?

:rofl:

[Bozita]

44. just another popular native Arizonian recipe

They catch the tuna from the tuna spawning grounds in the Colorado River.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

49. And you when they catch them, they shout out ahi! instead of yeehaw!

Hence the name ahi tuna.

[Bozita]

50. "Ahi" is Navaho for "tasty McCain family recipe"

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

51. Ooops! Sorry I failed to mention that!

:rofl:

[Raksha]

60. It definitely has an elitist food snob ring to it.

I remember when the Clinton campaign posted one of his mother's favorite recipes back in '92. It was a recipe for tuna salad using canned tuna, with hard-boiled eggs and other extras meant to stretch the tuna. I have lately become disenchanted with the Clintons, but that was a genuine down-home po' folks' recipe--I'll give him that.

[Ichingcarpenter]

58. Screen capture of Cindy's Recipe and Giada's Food Network Recipe

[lala_rawraw]

59. just like her fortune

gotten from daddy's mob friends... what a family, eh?