First Lady Michelle Obama, Desiree Rogers preview White House dinner tonight. Menu. Pool reports(1)
A memo from the East Wing with the menu, settings, flowers, china, glassware and silver flatware is at the end or this report. A transcript will be coming. Interviews with students to come.
SOME HIGHLIGHTS
If you did not know:
*"The president loves scallops," according to First Lady Michelle Obama.
*The White House Huckleberry Cobbler is "one of the First Family's favorites."
*Mrs. Obama is fond of a White House soup that "tastes creamy without being creamy" and the creamed spinach that has no cream.
The creamed spinach is "delicious," said White House chief Cristeta Comerford.
Nonetheless, Mrs. Obama said, "Sasha still didn't like it." She added that the White House kitchen staff faces a "test" because the staff has to deal with feeding youngsters. ".....And sometimes kids are like, 'it's green,'" Mrs. Obama said.
*Mrs. Obama is contemplating coming up with her own china. "I think so, I think that's, that's part of the job," she said.
BACKGROUND
Many of the nation's governors are in Washington for the National Governors Association meeting and the Obama White House invited them to a black tie state dinner on Sunday evening. There are 130 guests expected for the dinner and dancing in the State Room on Sunday night.
Music will be performed by the Marine Corps Band and a group White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers said she "really loves," Earth Wind and Fire.
THE DINNER PREVIEW
In the afternoon before the dinner, First Lady Michelle Obama, Rogers, White House Chef Cristeta Comerford and White House Pastry Chef William Yosses previewed the menu in the White House kitchen. The chefs stress the American ingredients in the dinner menu.
As part of Mrs. Obama's plan to open up the White House to the community, six students attended the briefing. Each course was displayed on White House china--Woodrow Wilson State Service, 1918. The students were each served a plate with a desert at the end. Mrs. Obama, implying they should be careful with the china, wisecracked of the plates, "there is a limited number of them." (She referred to the plates as Truman and later corrected herself, saying, I don't have my china down yet.")
The students had a chance to asked questions--Mrs. Obama had to coax the group a few times to to ask away.
The students were from the culinary and pastry programs of L'Academie de Cuisine in Gaithersburg, a Washington suburb. All six were women. The founder and director of the school, Francois Marie-Jacques Dionot said he picked the top ranked students for the event.
Said Rogers, "Maybe one day you guys might wind up being a White House chef."
The scene: If you have seen a big catering kitchen in a hotel--well, this is not the White House kitchen. It is fairly small and compact. The cabinets and counters are stainless steel. A few dozen well used pots and pans and other cooking utensils are hanging from a stainless steel rack. There is a big mixer on the floor. A stove. What looks like a cappuccino machine on one side. A boom box is on a shelf.
The students were in street clothes, many taking pictures as the different courses were brought out.
The staff of about 10 were in their kitchen whites. Their named were sewn on their jackets. The newest assistant chef, Chicago transplant Sam Kass, who was the Obama's personal chef, briefed the group on the winter citrus salad. He put together a sampler plate with watermelon radishes grown close to Washington; oranges and grapefruit.The lettuce was a mix of plants that "grow well in winter," he said.
"This is where the magic happens. No one would expect that all that comes out of these dinners happens in this little bitty space," Mrs. Obama said.
She said one of her goals with this event was to "showcase some of this talent" working in the White House kitchen.
"I can tell you firsthand that this meal is going to be awesome, because I had an opportunity to do some tasting along with Desiree and my mom, we had a wonderful tasting luncheon," Mrs. Obama said.
SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL TO White House kitchen preview with chefs and students before the Obama White House First State Dinner Sunday afternoon.
Q and A with the students.
Quotes from two students at the end.
After about 11 minutes of describing the governor's dinner and celebrating American cuisine, the culinary students were asked if they had questions. Here are some highlights:
0A
*Typical size of staff?
Seven working staff in the kitchen; two full time pastry chefs
Chef Comerford said for big events, she borrows staff. "Chefs from around here, from the Navy mess "that are reputable, talented and really good."
