The Bidens Ordered The Same Dish At A Restaurant. It's Weird People Care

President Joe and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden have recently become the center of a surprisingly heated debate after what on the surface seems like a very normal meal at D.C.'s Red Hen restaurant. The order? Two bowls of rigatoni, bread and butter, and a chicory salad ... so, why are people up in arms? The Bidens (gasp!) ordered the same entrée. 

The public cares deeply — and often inexplicably — about the minute details that comprise celebrities' lives; that's nothing new. Entire magazines are filled with inconsequential information such as where Pete Davidson shops for groceries or Timothée Chalamet's favorite smoothie. (Watch John Legend kiss his own infant's cheek! Here's Emily Ratajkowski stepping out of a car in the parking lot of a post office!) And in more than a few ways, the president could even be considered the ultimate celebrity in the U.S., with a fanbase in the millions (aka constituents) and an omnipresent entourage — our version of the royal family, rotated each four to eight years. People want to know about their pets and what music is on their playlists (Obama's a Bad Bunny fan), so it's not difficult to believe people are interested in the Bidens' date night. But what is confounding is the reaction the public is having.

This latest presidential controversy isn't a fire-starting message Tweeted out to millions; this is a very normal meal at an Italian restaurant — and the mundane "event" is stirring up debate about how people should go about ordering when they eat out with a partner.

Not dissimilar to the bipartisan structure that typically surrounds the White House, people apparently staunchly fall into one camp or another when it comes to their dining preferences: the sharers and the non-sharers. Naturally, foodies took to Twitter to express which side they're on (and why the other side is unimaginably wrong).

One user Tweeted, "I find it so annoying when my wife insists on me deciding what to order so that she can decide what to order. Those two things are not related and do not need to be sequenced!" Indeed, when you know what you want, why not order it? Why needlessly subject yourself to an inferior (in your heart, at least) menu item or be able to enjoy less of your desired plate?

But, other diners vehemently disagree: "who would order the same?? if you order different, you get to try both!!" At the time of publication, the battle rages on.

Some foodies cite FOMO as their motivation to order different plates than their dining partners, wanting to try everything on the menu — and that's totally okay! But, on the flip side, it seems silly to succumb to self-imposed FOMO as you gaze over at your friend's plate, watching them happily chow down on the dish you really wanted but refused because you didn't want to order the same thing. At the end of the day, it's probably not that deep.

When it comes down to it, President Biden really isn't a very adventurous eater; he regularly eats some version of soup and salad for lunch and pasta with red sauce for dinner. To people criticizing the Bidens' ordering move, exploring the menu was likely pretty low on his list for the evening. Should the First Lady be forced to never order pasta with red sauce again in the presence of her husband? Because odds are, that dish is going to be his selection if it's on the menu.

Ultimately, whether or not the Bidens' order was "weird" isn't the point here; the point is that their meal preferences don't require any type of justification in the first place. It does not impact your life in the slightest, so let people eat what they want without commentary.

The most difficult thing to digest about this whole controversy is the fact that anybody cares about it at all. The simple act of going to dinner and ordering two of the same dish was apparently enough to warrant days' worth of attention. When it comes down to it, this doesn't matter, and it's strange people care.

If you're a diehard fan of stinky, runny cheese, by all means, order that charcuterie board. Maybe your dining companion loves Époisses as much as you or maybe they're lactose intolerant and you'll be eating it alone. Either is fine! All entrees, identical or totally opposite, can and should coexist on the same dinner table in blissful, gastronomic harmony — even (or perhaps especially) at restaurants. And, if you think your dining companion noticed something enticing on the menu, you're allowed to follow their lead and order the same thing for yourself. The best part of sharing food with the people you love is that it is optional.