White House Executive Chef: Difference between revisions

Beginning with [[George Washington]], slaves prepared food for American presidents, First Families, and for social gatherings.{{sfn|Miller|2011|pages=73-75}} Although slavery ended in the United States after the American Civil War, African Americans continued to provide nearly all the cooking in the White House kitchen. Occasionally, a professional chef was used beginning in the latter half of the 19th century.{{sfn|Miller|2011|page=75}} President [[Ulysses S. Grant]] employed a [[Union Army]] cook until his embarrassed wife forced him to hire the [[Italy|Italian]]-trained chef Valentino Melah.{{sfn|Perret|1997|page=401}}<ref>{{cite web|title=Ulysses S. Grant's Favorite Breakfast Was An Unusual Combination|url=https://www.tastingtable.com/1615230/ulysses-s-grant-favorite-breakfast/|author=Stephanie Friedman|date=July 5, 2024|work=Tasting Table}}</ref> President Rutherford B. Hayes used the services of cook and nurse Winnie Monroe, a freed African American slave.{{sfn|Hoogenboom|2001|page=144}} [[Chester Arthur]] used a cook who formerly worked at his private residence as his White House chef for casual dining, and hired [[France|French]]-trained professional chef Alexander Fortin to oversee preparation of important political meals and state dinners.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ovo-AQAAMAAJ&q=he+brought+in+a+cook+from+the+Army+as+the+chef+at+the+White+House&pg=PA1065|title=The President's Table|work=Army and Navy Journal|date=July 26, 1884|page=1065|access-date=June 22, 2015}}</ref>{{sfn|Smith|2007|page=623}} President [[Grover Cleveland]] also used a French chef to prepare his meals during his first term.<ref name=time>{{cite magazine|url=https://content.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1877168,00.html|title=A Brief History of the White House Kitchen|magazine=Time|date=2015|access-date=June 22, 2015}}</ref> President [[Benjamin Harrison]] had a French chef as well, but fired him after only a short time in favor of the services of Dolly Johnson, a freed African American slave who had cooked for the Harrisons in [[Indianapolis]].<ref name=miller>{{cite news|last=Miller|first=Adrian|title=African American Cooks in the White House: Hiding in Plain Sight|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=June 3, 2014|access-date=June 4, 2016|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/african-american-cooks-in-the-white-house-hiding-in-plain-sight/2014/06/02/c54cba10-e76a-11e3-afc6-a1dd9407abcf_story.html}}</ref> President William McKinley hired a local cook for everyday dining, but a French-trained chef traveled from New York City to prepare formal dinners.{{sfn|Morgan|2003|page=232}}

Swedish native Sigrid Nilsson served as President Woodrow Wilson's chief cook at the White House from 1915 to 1919.<ref>{{cite news|title=Chief Cook at White House Is Victim of Cupid|work=Berkeley Daily Gazette|date=December 29, 1919|page=5|access-date=September 13, 2016|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=61giAAAAIBAJ&pg=800%2C6256661|postscript=none}}; {{cite news|title=Wilson's Cook To Be Bride|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=December 17, 1919|page=10}}</ref> American-trained professional chef Alice Howard served presidents Theodore Roosevelt, [[William Howard Taft]], and [[Woodrow Wilson]],{{sfn|Henderson|Ganeshram|2011|pages=75-76}} while "head cook" Kathy Buckley worked for [[Calvin Coolidge]] and [[Herbert Hoover]]{{sfn|Allen|2000|page=128}} and Henrietta Nesbitt served as housekeeper and head cook for [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]].{{sfn|Smith|2013|page=713}}<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/11/22/the-first-kitchen|last=Shapiro|first=Laura|title=The First Kitchen|magazine=The New Yorker|date=November 22, 2010|access-date=July 5, 2015}}</ref> Vietta Garr, President Harry S. Truman's long-time personal cook and domestic assistant, came to the White House as head cook in 1945 after Truman fired Nesbitt for insubordination.{{sfn|Burnes|Martin|2003|pages=204-205}}{{sfn|Franklin|2014|page=209, fn. 13}} Dwight D. Eisenhower used the services of French-trained chef François Rysavy from 1954 to 1957<ref>{{cite news|last=McCardle|first=Dorothy|title=Silence Goes on Gold Standard|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=February 24, 1961|page=D4|postscript=none}}; {{cite journal|last=McMillin|first=Fred|title=White House Gastronomy|journal=Wayward Tendrils Quarterly|date=April 2001|page=31}}</ref> and former [[United States Navy]] chef Pedro Udo (a [[Filipinos|Filipino]]) from 1957 to 1960.{{sfn|Whitcomb|Whitcomb|2002|page=354}}{{Efn|Another Filipino Navy cook, Lee Luckey, was staff cook for Presidents Truman and Eisenhower from October 1951 to July 1953. Luckey cooked at Truman's [[Harry S. Truman Little White House|Little White House]] in [[Key West, Florida]], and at Eisenhower's summer retreat in Orange Springs, Georgia.<ref name=mullen>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=6FxWAAAAIBAJ&pg=7206%2C4055891|last=Mullen|first=Holly|title=What's Cooking in the White House? Ask Spokane Native|work=The Spokesman-Review|date=August 22, 1987|page=C4|access-date=June 29, 2015}}</ref>}} [[Zephyr Wright]], one of the last personal chefs to work in the White House, prepared meals for President Lyndon B. Johnson.{{sfn|Miller|2011|page=76}}

Verdon resigned at the end of 1965 in a dispute with President Lyndon B. Johnson over the cuisine being offered at the White House.  The Johnsons brought long-time family cook Zephyr Wright to the Executive Residence, where she became the first family's personal chef.{{sfn|Henderson|Ganeshram|2011|page=76}} For formal dining, the Johnsons hired 43-year-old [[Switzerland|Swiss]]-born and -trained chef [[Henry Haller]] to be executive chef. Haller proved so popular that he remained in the position until October 1, 1987.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/07/us/white-house-chef-to-leave-in-fall.html|last=Burros|first=Marian|title=White House Chef to Leave in Fall|work=The New York Times|date=June 7, 1987|access-date=June 22, 2015}}</ref>

President [[Barack Obama]] retained Comerford as executive chef,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2015/06/03/michelle-obama-makes-the-pitch-for-pollinators/|last=Eilperin|first=Juliet|title=Michelle Obama makes the pitch for pollinators|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=June 3, 2015|access-date=June 22, 2015}}</ref> but brought chef [[Sam Kass]] from Chicago to act as the first family's personal chef. Kass, who assumed several policy positions in the White House as well, resigned in December 2014.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.politico.com/story/2014/12/white-house-sam-kass-113491.html|last=Evich|first=Helena Bottemiller|title=The world's most powerful chef hangs up his apron|work=Politico|date=December 11, 2014|access-date=June 22, 2015}}</ref> In November 2009, [[Marcus Samuelsson]] became the first guest chef at a White House state dinner when Comerford temporarily stepped aside to allow him to cook for [[Prime Minister of India|Indian prime minister]] [[Manmohan Singh]].{{sfn|Ingraham|2010|page=78}}