White House menu may change

  • By Stacy Finz San Francisco Chronicle
  • Friday, January 23, 2009 5:36pm
  • Life

Barack Obama has already picked important members of his Cabinet: secretary of state, attorney general, director of the CIA, defense secretary.

But as he and his family take up residence in the White House, there’s still a big unknown — what is he going to eat?

Rack of lamb was Hillary Rodham Clinton’s go-to meal. President Bill Clinton would have been happy with barbecued ribs every night. Daughter Chelsea loved her Kraft mac and cheese, no matter how hard the White House chef tried to convert her to homemade.

President George W. Bush was up front: no soup, no salads, no greens and no “wet fish,” any seafood that wasn’t baked, broiled or fried. Unlike her husband, Laura Bush was crazy for healthful foods, especially organics.

Everyone from slow-food guru Alice Waters to Gourmet magazine top editor Ruth Reichl has weighed in on how the Obamas should eat and who should run their kitchen. Waters, founder of Chez Panisse, even sent the president-elect a letter, offering her services as well as Reichl’s and those of New York restaurateur Danny Meyer in choosing a White House chef.

Obama politely declined.

The Obamas have decided to keep the current chef, Cristeta Comerford, who has been part of the White House kitchen staff since the Clinton administration, rising to the rank of executive chef under Laura Bush. The Obamas, who have two young daughters, like the idea that Comerford, the first woman ever to head up the kitchen at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., is also a parent.

“I appreciate our shared perspective on the importance of healthy eating and healthy families,” Michelle Obama has said.

So how does Comerford prepare for a new first family bound to have different tastes than its predecessors?

Perhaps she should talk to Carol Andresen, owner of Dixie Kitchen and Bait Shop and Calypso Cafe, both on Chicago’s South Side. The restaurants are favorites with the Obamas, whose home is less than 10 blocks away.

Obama likes the Southern Sampler, a combination of gumbo, jambalaya and red beans and rice at the Dixie Kitchen, and his wife would go for the jerk chicken Caesar salad or the pineapple tilapia at the Calypso.

Presumably Comerford, with her impressive culinary training, can replicate the dishes at the White House. “She may be the best technical chef anywhere,” said Walter Scheib, who was Comerford’s boss when he was executive chef at the White House from 1994 to 2005.

As far as the food, Scheib thinks in the beginning Comerford will pay careful attention to what comes back on the plates. “Hillary Clinton used to always leave over the frisee,” Scheib said, “so I learned not to use it.”

Scheib not only did the cooking, but when the first ladies went on diets, he went on them, too.

“They were always giving me things like the South Beach Diet to follow,” he said. “The first thing I would do is have the diet looked over by the staff doctor to make sure it was safe. Then I’d go on it with them.”

Rene Verdon, a French chef who immigrated to New York, was Jacqueline Kennedy’s choice for executive chef at the White House.

The 84-year-old fondly remembers the couple, whose sophisticated palates called for French cuisine. But in the beginning, he and the president had to come to terms on a few things, specifically, steak.

After his first days in the kitchen, the president wanted a word.

“Chef Verdon, I like my steak grilled,” he told the perplexed Frenchman.

“Monsieur President, it is grilled,” Verdon said he responded.

Kennedy continued to examine his meat dubiously.

“Why is it so shiny on the top?” the president asked.

Verdon turned over the steak and showed the grill marks to Kennedy. As far as why the meat glistened — every French chef worth his knives in those days brushed a good piece of beef with melted butter.

Verdon said Jacqueline Kennedy was so exacting that he would give her four or five menus to choose from for state dinners. Their conversations were nearly always in French, which she spoke fluently.

Verdon left the White House in 1966. Lore is that he quit after President Lyndon Johnson wanted him to cook Texas ranch food. When he opened Le Trianon in San Francisco in 1972, he received a telegram from Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

“We envy San Francisco for having you there,” she wrote.

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