Celebrity chef Andrew Gruel joins ‘Varney & Co.’ to discuss the impact the 2024 election winner can have on the U.S.’s restaurant industry.
Donald Trump’s McDonald’s shift has been criticized by many, but one celebrity chef is praising the former president for spotlighting the “hardest” and “often forgotten” position in the food industry: the fry cook.
“Nobody thinks about the fry cook. They think about the front of the house. They think about the bartender. They think about the chef. The hardest position is the fry cook. You go home smelling like a french fry. My kids absolutely, absolutely love that piece of it. And it’s a hard job,” Andrew Gruel argued during an appearance on “Varney & Co.”
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Republican presidential nominee former U.S. President Donald Trump works behind the counter making french fries during a visit to McDonald’s restaurant on October 20, 2024, in Feasterville-Trevose, Pennsylvania. Celebrity chef Andrew Gruel commented (Fox News / Fox News)
In addition to spotlighting the backbone of the fast food industry, Gruel said that Trump’s fry cook photo op was “amazing” for his campaign.
“I think that overall, this was good. I think we’re getting pedantic when we start saying, was this stage, was this not staged? Of course it was staged. It was funny. He was humble. There was humility. Laughs. I thought it was an amazing campaign stop,” he said Thursday.
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FOX Business’ Stuart Varney doubled down on Gruel’s assertion, declaring Trump’s McDonald’s stop as a “political success.”
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On Wednesday during a campaign stop in Zebulon, Georgia, Trump blamed the rising cost of food on high energy prices, arguing that the Biden administration has “screwed up” American energy.
“I get more complaints about groceries, everything from hot dogs to bacon and eggs and everything… They [Democrats] screwed up our energy. We had energy that was at record lows. It was abundant. The oil companies were making money. We’re going to drill, baby, drill, and that’s going to bring everything down. We are going to bring energy down by 50%, within 12 months from January 20. That is going to bring everything else down,” Trump said earlier this week.
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Along with many other restaurateurs, Gruel has thought long and hard about which candidate would be best for the industry, pointing out that many of his peers have raised concerns over the cost of goods going “through the roof” under the Biden-Harris administration.
Feasterville-Trevose, PA., October 20: Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump hands out food while standing at a drive-thru window during a campaign stop at a McDonald’s in Feasterville-Trevose, PA on Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images / Getty Images)
“[Under the Trump administration, the] cost of goods was way down. Sales were way up. You know, there were great real estate opportunities under the Trump administration. Under the Biden-Harris administration, cost of goods went through the roof. They told us that inflation was transitory, so we were slow to increase our prices. By the time we did increase our prices, they had gone up so much again that we couldn’t even keep up with the need to increase the prices. So margins were just eaten up. Restaurants have been closing left and right,” he said.
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“If I’m comparing the two, I think people are looking for a Trump administration when it comes to the restaurant industry.”
