RFK Jr helps scandal-plagued TV chef who posted Nazi symbol on social media publish children’s cookbook

Pete Evans falsely labeled the COVID-19 pandemic a hoax in 2020

Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s Children’s Health Defense organization is publishing a book written by Pete Evans, a conspiracy theorist who once posted a Nazi symbol on his social media.

Evans, 51, announced to his Telegram followers that Kennedy, Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, helped secure the book deal. Evans’s Healthy Food for Healthy Kids will feature over 100 recipes and will be published in late January, The Daily Mail reports.

“So please and thankful that Robert Kennedy Jr set this up for me, with his Children’s Health Defense team,” Evans said in a statement. “Stay tuned for more.”

Kennedy chairs Children’s Health Defense, an organization that has advocated against vaccinations and spread the baseless claim that vaccines cause autism. Kennedy has been on leave as chairman since April 2023, when he launched his presidential campaign.

Meanwhile, Evans was a judge on the hit Australian cooking show My Kitchen Rules between 2010 and 2020. He has also written several books related to nutrition and cooking.

Pete Evans pictured at an anti-vaccine rally in Sydney, Australia in 2021. Evans has secured a book deal with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s organization, Children’s Health Defense (Getty Images)

Four years ago, Evans posted an image with the “black sun” Nazi symbol on his social media, leading Woolworths, Kmart and Target to pull his cooking books off the shelves, the BBC reports.

Brenton Tarrant wore a black sun on his chest when he killed 51 people and injured dozens after opening fire in two Christchurch, New Zealand mosques in 2019.

Evans later offered his “sincere apologies” to those criticizing the post.

"I look forward to studying all of the symbols that have ever existed and research them thoroughly before posting,” Evans wrote on social media in 2020. “Hopefully this symbol [heart emoji] resonates deeply into the hearts of ALL! [heart emoji]."

Evans also peddled baseless claims about COVID-19 on his Facebook page with 1.5 million followers, calling the virus a “hoax.” As a result, Meta permanently removed his page in December 2020.

Kennedy has also spread baseless conspiracy theories about COVID-19. Spreading this misinformation resulted in Meta deactivating his Instagram account in 2021.

In his book, The Real Anthony Fauci, Kennedy falsely claimed that Anthony Fauci colluded with Microsoft founder Bill Gates to exaggerate the extent of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Then, at a rally against COVID-19 mandates in January 2022, Kennedy compared US vaccine policies to the actions of an authoritarian state, suggesting that Anne Frank was in a better situation while hiding from the Nazis.

“Even in Hitler Germany, you could, you could cross the Alps into Switzerland. You could hide in an attic like Anne Frank did,” Kennedy said.

Then, just last year Kennedy spread a baseless conspiracy theory claiming COVID-19 targets “Caucasians and Black people” while “Ashkenazi Jews and [Chinese people]” are the most immune.

“The claim that COVID-19 was a bioweapon created by the Chinese or Jews to attack Caucasians and Black people is deeply offensive and feeds into sinophobic and antisemitic conspiracy theories,” according to a statement from the Anti-Defamation League at the time.

The Independent has contacted Kennedy, Children’s Health Defense and Evans for comment.