A Bare Table is Like an Artist’s Canvas

May 16, 2013 by Cynthia Bertelsen

There’s something about tables, big, little, or bare – and those bare ones  in particular – that make me want to festoon them with food I’ve cooked, like floral garlands at a grand wedding. I feel an urge, too, to seat people on the equally vacant chairs, saying, “Come on now, sit down a spell, and let your worries fade away like the mist on a hot summer morning.” Well, maybe I wouldn’t say it exactly that way, but the […]

Categories: Art, Beans, Cassava, Chile Peppers, Corn, Latin America, Photography, Potatoes, Pumpkin, Tomatoes, United States, Virginia • Tags: Beans, Cassava, Chiles, Corn, Photography, Potatoes, Squash, Tomatillos

The Zen of Sheep: More than Just a Photo Shoot

March 25, 2013 by Cynthia Bertelsen

It seemed simple enough. A quick visit to a small sheep operation, twenty or so sheep on a spread of five muddy acres, owned by a retired agronomy professor, some fast snaps of the shutter and off I’d be. But that’s not exactly how it happened. When I first walked up to the owner, the sheep came running. “They’re hungry,” he said. “I waited until you got here to feed them, otherwise all you’d get would be butts and backsides.” […]

Categories: Agriculture, Lamb, Local foods, Photography, Sheep, Virginia • Tags: Agriculture, Farming, Farms, Lamb, Local foods, Photography, Sheep

The South is Rising Again: The 2013 James Beard Nominees

February 20, 2013 by Cynthia Bertelsen

In the culinary world, the equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize or the Oscars comes down to the James Beard Awards. This year, the list of nominees includes a large number of Southern chefs, restaurants, and other food-related entities. What’s so fascinating about this list lies in the evidence of increasing diversity – it’s not all barbecue and fried chicken and French or Italian. A prime example of the mixing and stirring of cultures that’s been going on for hundreds of […]

Categories: American Cooking, Chefs, Cooking, Restaurants, Southern Food, United States • Tags: Chefs, James Beard Awards, Restaurants, Southern cooking, Southern Food

The Ancient Sin of Gluttony: What’s Really Behind the Shunning of Paula Deen

January 26, 2012 by Cynthia Bertelsen

We need strategies that do not drag us back to the dispositional focus of the Inquisition’s witch-hunts, that propelled the notion of the “Satan Within,” when much good and evil is the product of situational and systemic forces acting on the same ordinary, often good people.  ~~ Philip Zimbardo  It’s been with a great deal of amazement that I’ve watched the reaction to the American food-media celebrity Paula Deen’s announcement of her Type 2 diabetes diagnosis three years ago and […]

Categories: American Cooking, Cooking, Critic's Corner, Editorials, Food News, Food writing, France, French Cooking, United States • Tags: Culinary History, Food History, Gluttony, Paula Dean, Southern cooking

Coming Home to Roost: The Chickens of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

November 28, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

“If I had to choose between trees and people, I think I should choose trees.” ~~Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings If you’ve ever read The Yearling, you know the name and work of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. Miz Rawlings owned a 72-acre homestead and citrus grove in Cross Creek, Florida, not that she was a native Floridian or anything like that. Her story began there in 1925, when she and her husband, Charles Rawlings, bought a rather delapidated homestead just south of Gainesville, […]

Categories: Florida, Photography, Poultry • Tags: Chickens, Cross Creek, Florida, Lochloosa Lake, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings home, Orange Lake, Poultry, Southern cooking, The Yearling

Thomas Jefferson: The Francophile Who Became the First U.S. “Foodie”

February 21, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Thomas Jefferson. President. Scientist. Writer. Man of many passions, some hidden, some not. In his writings and in his actions, food clearly revealed itself as one of those passions. Above all, Jefferson was a Francophile. From the design of his dining room in his house, Monticello, to the gardens surrounding him in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, from Paris to the White House — Jefferson’s obsession with food and its preparation inspired him to train his African slaves, particularly […]

Categories: American Cooking, Desserts, French Cooking, Recipes, Southern Food, White House • Tags: American Presidents, Cooks, Cuisine Francaise, Etienne Lemaire, Food, France, French Cooking, Fritters, James Hemings, Karen hess, Mary Randolph, Monticello, Southern cooking, The Virginia House-wife, Thomas Jefferson

The Potager of Thomas Jefferson: A Kitchen Garden in Photos

October 28, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, that amazing genius and inventor, and — according to the late food writer, Karen Hess — probably America’s first real gourmet. Any lover of books, art, architecture, wine, and food should dream of visiting this place at least once. [Note: It's the only house declared a UNESCO World Heritage Centre in North America.] Jefferson’s two-acre potager (loosely translatable as “kitchen garden”), located on the  southeastern side of what used to be the slave quarters […]

Categories: African Cooking, American Cooking, Cooking, French Cooking, Gardens, United States, Virginia • Tags: Colonial Virginia, France, Garden, Menon, Monticello, Potager, Thomas Jefferson

De-Constructing Hawaii’s Loco Moco

January 25, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

For those seeking examples of culinary fusion, Hawaii provides a very deep well to peer into. Rachel Laudan discovered this while teaching at the University of Hawaii and wrote an award-winning book about the subject: The Food of Paradise: Exploring Hawaii’s Culinary Heritage.* One of those fusion dishes which Laudan mentions, albeit briefly, is a “traditional” concoction called Loco Moco. One of the plate specials so popular in Hawaii, Loco Moco generally features two scoops of white sticky rice topped […]

Categories: Beef, Hawaii, Home Economics, Ingredients, Methods • Tags: Beef, Cooks, Eggs, Hawaii, Loco Moco

Thomas Jefferson and His Magic “Maccaroni” Machine

January 11, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Thomas Jefferson, rightly or wrongly credited with first bringing pasta to the tables of Americans, drew a picture of  a pasta-making machine. This drawing, now in the Library of Congress, resulted from a trip to Italy taken by Jefferson in 1787. Don’t forget that “macaroni” served as a generic name for pasta and doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re talking about elbow macaroni … Here’s recipe for Macaroni Pudding from Thomas Jefferson’s Cook Book (the recipe actually comes from Mrs. Horace […]

Categories: American Cooking, Cooking, Italian Cooking, Pasta, United States, Virginia • Tags: Macaroni, Pasta, Pasta Making, Southern cooking, Thomas Jefferson, Virginia

Idylls of Cuisine, #45

January 10, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

[A picture, and nothing more, for silent contemplation.]

Categories: Photography, United States • Tags: Breakfast, Eggs, Hawaii, Spam

Idylls of Cuisine, #44

January 3, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

[A picture, and nothing more, for silent contemplation.]

Categories: Cookbooks, Cooking, Home Economics, Photography, Southern Food, Virginia • Tags: Appalachian Electric Power, Canning, Cookbooks, Virginia, World War II Food

Dig for Victory! Locavorism in Eons Past

December 31, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Looking at the past almost always calls up that old adage: “There’s nothing new under the sun.”* Take locavorism’s wartime antecedents … As these WWII posters from England’s “Dig for Victory!” campaign prove, the idea of local foods is not one whose time has come, but whose time has come again. Aimed at encouraging the civilian population to grow their own gardens, “Dig for Victory” freed up commercially grown food for the troops.  The “Dig for Victory” program began in […]

Categories: Agriculture, American Cooking, Art, Cooking, England, English Cooking, Europe, Gardens, Hunger, Local foods, Locavores, Posters, United States • Tags: Art, Cooking, England, Food, Posters, Propaganda, United States, Victory Gardens, Wartime, World War II

Chocolate and Coffee Pots from Colonial Williamsburg: Slideshow

December 30, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Chocolate and Coffee Pots from Colonial Williamsburg collections, a parade of eighteenth-century goodies. Note the lamb’s head on the end of the spout!

Categories: American Cooking, Cooking, English Cooking, Photography, Virginia • Tags: Chocolate Pots, Coffee Pots, Colonial Williamsburg, Eighteenth Centucky, Kitchen Equipment, Southern cooking, Virginia

Idylls of Cuisine, #43

December 27, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

[A picture, and nothing else, for silent contemplation.]

Categories: Cooking, English Cooking, Photography, Southern Food, United States, Virginia • Tags: Cooking, Cooks, Food Photography, Virginia

Civil War Christmases

December 10, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

I beg to present you as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah, with 100 and 50 guns and plenty of ammunition, also about 25,000 bales of cotton. Telegram from William Tecumseh Sherman to Abraham Lincoln, December 22, 1864 Many authors write about the austerity of American Christmas celebrations prior to the Civil War (1861 – 1865), but that’s because those writers focus on the North’s Puritan heritage. Most of our current ways — mostly Germanic in origin — of […]

Categories: American Cooking, Christmas, Cooking, England, English Cooking, Menus, United States, Virginia • Tags: Accomplisht Cook, American Cooking, Christmas, Civil War, Eggnog, English Cooking, Menus, Robert May, Southern, Thomas Nast, Virginia

Christmas Dinner at Mount Vernon, 1790

December 9, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

George Washington’s Virginia plantation, Mount Vernon, served as the backdrop for many scrumptious dinners, cooked by Washington’s slave cooks. Just reading this menu* makes my lips twitch and my fingers itch for my wooden spoons. Note that even at the relatively late date of 1790 and independence from England, there’s a soup called King’s Soup … . It took our forebearers a long time to cease thinking of themselves as English. At least when it came to the table. An […]

Categories: American Cooking, Christmas, Cooking, Menus, United States, Virginia • Tags: Christmas, George Washington, Menus, MOunt Vernon, Southern cooking, Virginia

In the Kitchen with Barbara Kingsolver: I

December 8, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

I’m going to bed every night now with Barbara Kingsolver’s latest book, The Lacuna: A Novel, about Mexico, politics, art, El Norte, and — best of all — cooks. After her last book (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral: A Year of Food Life), Kingsolver still finds food a fascinating part of life. In The Lacuna, here’s how she describes the cook who works for the chief protagonist’s family: When Leandro came he would push the fire to the sides, keeping the heat […]

Categories: Book Reviews, Books, Cooking, Latin America, Lit & Food, Mexico, United States • Tags: Barbara Kingsolver, Cooking, Cooks, Mexico, The Lacuna

Christmas in Antebellum Virginia: Part II

December 3, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Dey ‘s a-wokin’ in de qua’tahs a-preparin’ fu’ de feas’, So de little pigs is feelin’ kind o’ shy. De chickens ain’t so trus’ful ez dey was, to say de leas’, An’ de wise ol’ hens is roostin’ mighty high. You could n’t git a gobblah fu’ to look you in de face– I ain’t sayin’ whut de tu’ky ‘spects is true; But hit’s mighty dange’ous trav’lin’ fu’ de critters on de place F’om de time dat log commence a […]

Categories: Africa, American Cooking, Christmas, Cookbooks, Cooking, Menus, Pork, Recipes, Southern Food, United States, Virginia • Tags: Booker T. Washington, Cooks, Edna Lewis, Liver Pudding, Plantation Cookery, Slavery, Southern cooking, Virginia

Christmas in Antebellum Virginia: Part I

November 30, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

What is now the state of Virginia boasted the first permanent English settlement in North America. Despite its rocky beginnings in 1607, the settlement eventually flourished. The first Africans arrived in 1619 and the tobacco industry began in earnest. Along with the need for cheap labor, provided by slavery, the colonialists desired nothing more than to live as English gentlemen and gentlewomen on the edge of the vast wilderness. That all this transpired thirteen years prior to the Pilgrims’ landing […]

Categories: Christmas, English Cooking, Menus, United States, Virginia • Tags: Christmas, Cooks, George Washington, Martha Washington, Slavery, Southern cooking

Christmas Cheer, or, Fire Up the Reindeer

November 27, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Black Friday marks the first “official” day of Christmas, er, shopping, that is. (You know it’s almost Christmas when the day after Halloween, the grocery stores start hauling out the red ribbon and fake mistletoe.) A bit premature, but that’s cultural change for you. Used to be that you couldn’t find a bit of tinsel or a reindeer before Thanksgiving was over. But Advent and Christmas will soon be upon us, along with visions of sugarplums and plenty of reindeer.  […]

Categories: American Cooking, Book Reviews, Christmas, Cookbooks, Cooking, English Cooking, United States • Tags: Black Friday, Book Reviews, Christmas, Christmas Cookbook, Cookbooks, John Clancy, Mimi Sheraton, Reindeer

Breaking: State Dinner Menu Released

November 24, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Potato and Eggplant Salad White House Arugula w/ Onion Seed Vinaigrette 2008 Savingnon Blanc, Modus Operandi, Napa Valley Red Lentil Soup w Fresh Cheese 2006 Riesling, Brooks “Ara”, Wilamette Valley Roast Potato Dumplings w Tomato Chutney Chick Peas and Okra or Green Curry Prawns w caramelized Salsify w smoke Collard Greens and coconut aged basmati 2007 Granache Beckman Vineyards, Santa Ynez, CA Pumpkin pie tart Pear tatin Whipped Cream and Caramel sauce Sparkling Chardonnay, Thibaut Janisson Brut, Monticello, VA Petits […]

Categories: American Cooking, Menus, United States, White House • Tags: Barack Obama, State Dinner, White House

Feasting in State: Obama’s First Real State Dinner

November 19, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

In the next week, we will see real-time examples of a few of the different types of feasts common to American culture: Thanksgiving — essentially a harvest feast tinged with overtones of cultural identity — and President Barack Obama’s first true State Dinner, to be held on November 24, 2009 for India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh — a feast based on the display of power and good will. Both feasts carry with them great tradition and historical precedent. Having covered […]

Categories: China, Thanksgiving, United States, White House • Tags: Barack Obama, Manmohan Singh, marcus Samuelsson, State Dinner, State Dinners, Thanksgiving, White House

Hunger is the Best Sauce

November 11, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

A hungry people listens not to reason, nor cares for justice, nor is bent by any prayers. [Lat., Nec rationem patitur, nec aequitate mitigatur nec ulla prece flectitur, populus esuriens.] De Brevitate Vitoe (XVIII), Seneca (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) Chronic hunger is something that most of us in the United States will never really know.* Yet we, like most humans, fear it. Just as people have feared it for centuries. That fear permeated ancient myths and led to such collective cultural […]

Categories: Africa, Agriculture, Bibliographies, Bread, Cooking, Ethiopia, Europe, Evolution, Italian Cooking, Local foods, Methods, United States • Tags: Africa, Discorso sopra la carestia e fame, Famine, Giovan Battista Segni, Hunger, United States

A Rogue’s Gallery: The Many Faces of Polenta

October 9, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

With apologies to Shakespeare and Romeo & Juliet and all lovers of the same: What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet; So polenta would, were it not polenta call’d, Retain that dear perfection which it owes Without that title. The big fuss in today’s food media and fancy restaurants about polenta —  cornmeal mush slyly passing as haute cuisine — proves once again that, in seeking the old, new […]

Categories: Africa, Cooking, Corn, Europe, Latin America, Photography, United States • Tags: Cornmeal Mush, Cou-Cou, Funchi, Kachamak, Mamalgia, Mealie pap, Nshima, Polenta, Puliszka, Ugali

Good Golly, Miss Molly: Mary Randolph’s Boarding House

September 23, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

In March, 1808, readers of The Richmond Virginia Gazette would have read the following advertisement in the pages of that newspaper: “Mrs. RANDOLPH Has established a Boarding House in Cary Street [Richmond], for the accommodation of Ladies and Gentlemen. She has comfortable chambers, and a stable well supplied for a few Horses.” Author of The Virginia House-Wife and affectionately named “Queen Molly” by her friends,* Mary Randolph opened her doors to paying customers when her Federalist husband, David Meade Randolph, […]

Categories: American Cooking, Milk, Rice, United States, Virginia • Tags: American Cooking, Boarding Houses, Cooks, David Meade Randolph, History, Karen hess, Mary Randolph, Refrigeration Invention, Samuel Mordecai, Southern cooking, Thomas Jefferson, Virginia, Virginia House-Wife

Diana Kennedy’s Menu for Charles, Prince of Wales

July 20, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

In 2002, Diana Kennedy, well-known author of Mexican cookbooks, served the following menu to the man who would be king, Charles, Prince of Wales:* Cocktails & Appetizers Tequila Apéritifs Fresh Tortillas Small Pumpkin Seeds Toasted and Ground with Roasted Habanero Chilies Guacamole Enhanced with Grapes and Pomegranate Seeds Meal Cream-of-Squash-Flower Soup Pork Loin Baked in Banana Leaves Cactus and Fresh Young Peas in Green Chile Sauce Dessert Guavas Stuffed with Coconut Mango Sorbet Topped with Tequila-Soaked Strips of Mango Green […]

Categories: Menus, Mexico, Pumpkin, Recipes, Soup, White House • Tags: Cooks, Diana Kennedy, Menus, Mexican Cooking, Mexico, Prince of Wales, Pumpkin, Recipes, Squash, White House

Gardening at the White House

April 4, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

A history of American gardens, a part of the “Eat the View” effort to turn the 18 acres of the White House backyard into a garden. Sounds like the Obama garden is not the first garden to be planted there.

Categories: American Cooking, Gardens, Video, White House • Tags: American Food, Barack Obama, Culinary History, Gardening, Gardens, Video, White House

A Story of Shrimp

March 26, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Every night the roar of that “hog” outside announced her, foretelling the laughing and the clunk-clunk of feet plodding upstairs to the restaurant. Shannon always came to work astride her boyfriend’s Harley. Every night. Or nearly. In the little Gulf-coast town of Cedar Key, we knew everybody’s business before they knew it themselves, or so it seemed. Working in a fish shack, set in the middle of that tiny paradise — except for the gnats, that is, soon turned into […]

Categories: Florida, Southern Food • Tags: Cooking, Food, Restaurants, Shrimp, Southern cooking

President Obama’s First “State” Dinner

February 24, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

According to the White House Web site, dated February 22, 2009, the following discussion took place in the White House kitchen: DISCUSSION WITH THE FIRST LADY, SOCIAL SECRETARY DESIREE ROGERS, EXECUTIVE CHEF CHRIS COMERFORD, PASTRY CHEF BILL YOSSES AND STUDENTS FROM L’ACADEMIE DE CUISINE White House Kitchen Here’s what White House Chef Cris Comerford had to say about the menu for the Governors’ Ball Dinner, not really an official state dinner, but lavish nonetheless: MS. COMERFORD: Thank you, Mrs. Obama.  […]

Categories: American Cooking, White House • Tags: Cooking, Cristeta Comerford, Food, Governors' Ball Dinner, Michelle Obama, White House

Lobster Bisque and Striped Bass à la President Barack Obama

February 24, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

On February 24, 2009, President Barack Obama lunched on lobster bisque and striped bass, along with TV anchors due to report on his “state of the nation” speech. Very interesting was a brief mention of the Obamas’ “family dinners”: He cherishes family dinner in the White House, where “thorns and roses” is now the favorite family game. Each family member describes the day’s highlight, or rose, and the day’s worst moment, the thorn. We were told after describing one particularly […]

Categories: American Cooking, Food Columns, White House • Tags: Barack Obama, Cooking, Food, Lobster Bisque, Presidents' Lunches, Striped Sea Bass, White House

The Inauguration of 2009 Rendered in Art

January 31, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Artist Maira Kalman turned the Inauguration of 2009 into an artistic rendition of universal experience. Antoine Vollon’s eggs and butter caught my attention. I am offering this link in the spirit of the artist, as a celebration of America. And, of course, of food and community. Dine with your friends and sup with your enemies. The world will be a better place for it. Click here to see the whole series of Maira Kalman’s pictures.

Categories: Art, Inauguration 2009 • Tags: Antoine Vollon, Art, Food in Art, Inauguration 2009

The Willard Hotel, and a Near Brush with Obama’s Motorcade

January 18, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

See all photos (unedited) by clicking HERE: Last night’s dinner at the historic Willard Hotel almost didn’t happen because as we walked down 15th St., we couldn’t cross the street because the police had cordoned off the street to await the Obama motorcade’s passing through on the way to Blair House. But at one point we saw people darting across the road in the darker spots and so we did, too. The whole thing reminded me of the times we […]

Categories: Food News, French Cooking, White House • Tags: Barack Obama, Inauguration 2009, Willard Hotel

All the President’s Tables: Ulysses S. Grant’s 1873 Inaugural Supper

January 16, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

The punch froze. So did the canaries. Brought in to sing for the guests, the poor creatures stiffened seemingly in mid-air, falling to their deaths onto the guests below. Luckily, supper began at 9 p.m. with hot coffee and hot oysters. And the people needed something hot to forget their blue noses and the sad fate of the canaries.  Most of the gala took place outside in tents, society women dancing in their furs and men in heavy coats. But […]

Categories: American Cooking, White House • Tags: Cooking, Food, Inaugural menus, Ulysses S. Grant, White House

All the Presidents’ Tables: Dwight D. Eisenhower’s First Inaugural Luncheon, 1953

January 15, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

January 20, 1953 In 1953, the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies (JCCIC) started the now-traditional ritual of hosting a luncheon for the incoming President and Vice President. General Dwight D. Eisenhower enjoyed tremendous public recognition because of his role as Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe. Any man who could keep the troops on target probably could do the same for the country, or so people figured. Under Eisenhower, the U.S. interstate highway system matured, as did the […]

Categories: American Cooking, Chocolate, Potatoes, Recipes, White House • Tags: Cooking, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Food, Inaugural menus, White House

All the President’s Tables: Harry S. Truman’s 1949 Inaugural Luncheon

January 14, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Like Lyndon Johnson, Harry S. Truman first became president after the death of an incumbent president. When Franklin Delano Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945, Truman took the oath of office in a subdued and quiet ceremony in the White House. The 1949 inauguration, on the other hand, presented an entirely different story. To begin with, the Republicans, believing that popular New York governor Thomas E. Dewey would win, allocated $80,000 toward the inaugural ceremonies. The grandstand alone cost $189,000. […]

Categories: American Cooking, White House • Tags: Alonzo Fields, Cooking, Food, Harry S. Truman, Inaugural menus, White House

All the Presidents’ Tables: Ronald Reagan’s First Inaugural Lunch Menu 1981

January 12, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Reagan’s first inauguration boasted the honor of being the first inauguration celebrated on the west front of the U.S. Capitol. Held in Statuary Hall, Ronald Reagan’s 1981 luncheon featured a “California Cuisine” menu. The U.S. Air Force String Quartet and  U.S. Army Strings performed for the 200 guests. Each guest received a series of frameable prints of past inaugurations … January 20, 1981 California Garden Salad Sautéed Chicken Breast Covered with White Wine Sauce and Capers* Rice Pilaf Hot Asparagus […]

Categories: American Cooking, Chicken, Recipes, White House • Tags: Cooking, Food, Inaugural menus, Recipes, Ronald Reagan, White House

Cristeta Comerford: White House Chef

January 10, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

The news is out — Cristeta Comerford will remain as White House chef, according to an article in yesterday’s The Huffington Post. Lots of great photos with that story, BTW. From the AP wire story: Cristeta Comerford took the job in 2005 and is the first woman and first minority to serve as executive chef. Cristeta Comerford brings such incredible talent to the White House operation and came very highly regarded from the Bush family,” Michelle Obama said in a […]

Categories: American Cooking, White House • Tags: Cooking, Cooks, Cristeta Comerford, Food, White House chef

Inaugural Luncheon 2009: Menu and Details

January 9, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

According to an e-mail from the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, the 2009 Inaugural Luncheon looks like this. Note that recipes are also included; click for a .pdf file of the recipes. Around 200 guests will attend this exclusive luncheon in Statuary Hall. Design Cuisine, a top-flight caterer in Washington, designed the menu, which “draws on historic ties to the Presidency of Abraham Lincoln. Growing up in the frontier regions of Kentucky and Indiana, the sixteenth President favored simple […]

Categories: American Cooking, White House • Tags: Abraham Lincoln, Barack Obama, Cooking, Design Cuisine, Food, Inaugural Menu 2009, Inaugural menus, White House

All the Presidents’ Table: George W. Bush’s Second Inaugural Menus

January 9, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

According to the official Senate committee on the 2005 inaugural, The 2005 Inaugural Luncheon menu draws upon historic ties to the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt and the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1803-1806.  In the early twentieth century, the preparation of a decadent layered scalloped course was a common style of menu presentation. Creamed seafood was one of the many courses served at President Roosevelt’s inaugural ball supper in 1905. In great contrast, the thirty-three members of the Lewis and […]

Categories: American Cooking, White House • Tags: Cooking, Food, George W. Bush, Inaugural menus, White House