Janet Yellen has been at the pinnacle of economic policymaking for decades, having previously served as Federal Reserve chief, San Francisco Fed president, and chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, among other roles, before becoming Treasury secretary.
But her visits to various restaurants at home and abroad have recently earned her legions of foodie followers, especially after she ate mushrooms that can have psychedelic effects in Beijing last July.
In an interview with the New York Times, Yellen mused about the effect her much-publicized eating and dining choices have had.
“It’s not like it’s a scheme to conduct some sort of diplomacy,” she told the Times while at a Manhattan deli. “Nevertheless, it does seem to have had that impact.”
While dining out helps her connect with staff and other officials, she also just likes to try different foods and has been quick to head out for a meal after long meetings with finance ministers and briefings with reporters, according to the report.
She even researches different restaurants herself on her phone, and is a fan of Guy Fieri’s show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, the Times said.
Her stop at an In-N-Out in San Francisco last year on her way to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping also made a big splash on social media, and her preference for dining among other restaurant customers instead of separately has been widely noted as well.
During another visit to China in April, Premier Li Qiang said that Yellen’s visit has “indeed drawn a lot of attention in society.”
She also told the Times that dining with officials and interacting with restaurant patrons helps her as a policymaker.
“I certainly look at national data sets to understand what’s happening in the economy, but talking to people about what they’re experiencing is often really helpful in getting your mind around where people are coming from,” Yellen said. “You can establish a friendlier relationship than you can sitting at a conference table.”
Meanwhile, she a lot on her plate when it comes to policy. Last month, she announced a $100 million fund for affordable housing financing amid historically unaffordable market conditions and helped craft a funding mechanism for Ukraine in its war against Russia.
Yellen has also pushed back on China’s industrial policies, warning that its manufacturing overcapacity could flood the world with “artificially cheap” products.
And as U.S. deficits and debt continue to soar, she has tried to down play immediate concerns about current conditions while also acknowledging that the outlook for higher interest rates over the long term will make it harder to contain borrowing costs in the future.