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Rep. Steve Scalise and Roommates Pitch Cooking Show on Twitter

Louisiana Republican will lose his sous chef come January

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., speaks during the press conference following the House Republican Conference meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)
House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., speaks during the press conference following the House Republican Conference meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

A set of four Republican roommates channeled Julia Child over the weekend with a butter-slathered cooking video.

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana shares a house in Washington with lawmaking colleagues Kevin Brady, Erik Paulsen and John Shimkus. Together they cooked up a cajun feast of blackened redfish, jambalaya and gumbo, with mashed sweet potato casserole on the side.

Scalise is a leader both in the caucus and at the stove, it seems. He showed off the redfish and his seasoning of choice (from celebrity chef Paul Prudhomme) while directing the others.

“Just watch,” he tells Paulsen, calling him his “sous chef.”

Brady mocks Scalise’s cooking-show demeanor with fake snoring noises as the Louisianan explains how the seasoning protects the fish.

Navigating roommates and sharing a kitchen is a big part of life for many young professionals in D.C., but lawmakers also bunk together to save money and have some fun. The video captures the dysfunction of group-house living, including the admissions that there aren’t batteries in the kitchen smoke detector and that the butter in the fridge expired back in 2012.

“Representatives. Roommates. Redfish,” Scalise tweeted along with the video.

The feast may have been inspired by Scalise’s meetings last week with representatives from Louisiana’s restaurant industry. Restaurants employ more than 200,000 people in the state, he tweeted.

The four lawmakers live together, work together and all play on the Republican team for the Congressional Baseball Game.

Scalise will be looking for a new sous chef and roommate starting in January. Paulsen fell to Democratic-Farmer-Labor candidate Dean Phillips in the November midterms, which means he’ll be leaving Congress at the end of the year.

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