Eat Like A President

If you were one of the most powerful leaders in the world, what would you eat? The answer is: whatever you want! Serving as President is a tough job, but it does have a few perks. At least you don't have to cook for yourself if you don't want to. Today’s White House staff includes chefs and cooks available pretty much around the clock. They can prepare a meal for just one person, or for hundreds.

George Washington often served his guests peanut soup as a first course. He also loved vegetable soup and his wife Martha’s recipe for cream of crab soup.  The creator of some of these favorites may have been Washington's personal chef, an enslaved man called Hercules. Hercules served as chef for the duration of Washington's term. P.S. I've been watching a show on Netflix called High On The Hog about the origins of soul food. Episode 3 focuses on Hercules, if you would like to know more.

Thomas Jefferson also appeared to be obsessed with soup. When he lived in Paris as minister to France, he apprenticed one of his slaves to a French chef to help ensure some of that fabulous continental cooking made its way back to the USA.

Yes, some of our revered founding fathers owned slaves. There's nothing to be gained by ignoring the unsavory parts of our history.

But I digress.

On the other end of whipping-up-a-bowl-of-soup-for-a-guy spectrum, we have Feeding The Masses, aka The Inaugural Ball. In earlier times, the general public was often allowed to attend. At James Buchanan’s inauguration in 1857, more than 400 gallons of oysters were served, along with mutton, venison, tongue, ham, and 500 quarts of chicken salad. More than 12,000 people attended Benjamin Harrison’s inaugural ball. The menu included oysters served three different ways, terrapin (turtle), sweetbreads (beef or lamb thymus glands, usually fried), and breast of quail.

Impressive as these parties may be, most of a president’s meals are served to him alone or with just a few people. When a president first takes office, the kitchen staff wants to know right away what sorts of foods he would like to have on a daily basis. Many presidents enjoy foods from wherever they grew up. Theodore Roosevelt was from New York and loved fresh wild mint and other greens that grew there. He had some planted at the White House especially for his use. I don't know about you, but Teddy sure didn't seem like a veg guy to me.

Now this is interesting from a human psychology point of view: during FDR's term, which was during the Great Depression, he and his wife Eleanor decided the White House staff should cook and eat the same types of meals the rest of the country was eating. Rationed foods, simple things, easy to prepare. Let's just set aside the irony that the Roosevelts were very upper crust and probably had never prepared a meal for themselves in their entire pampered lives. The new food strategy may have been great Depression-era optics, but according to many news accounts of the time, made for lousy eating. Roosevelt also caused a fuss when he served hot dogs to the King and Queen of England when they visited America in 1939. The public was shocked that he would serve such a common food to such distinguished guests, but he insisted they were a family favorite.  

Dwight Eisenhower was one president who enjoyed cooking for himself. Eisenhower enjoyed hunting. He often made soups and stews from the birds he shot. He was known to barbecue on a patio above the South Portico of the White House. Seeing the smoke emanating from the roof of the White House definitely freaked out nearby residents who didn't realize Ike was grillin' like a villain.

The Kennedys had a reputation for enjoying the finer things in life. Their White House chef was French. I envision lots of dinners with three tiny, unidentifiable yet artistically displayed tidbits per plate. They say JFK also loved the thick seafood soup known as chowder. He probably pronounced it 'CHOW duh'.

I must say I enjoyed reading about the food kerfuffle in the Lyndon Baines Johnson era. A Native Texan, LBJ enjoyed simple foods such as burgers and barbecue. Food preference was just one of many areas in which Johnson and his predecessor JFK were diametrically opposed. Let's just say LBJ did not find amuse bouche all that amusing. So LBJ replaced the fancy-schmancy White House French chef with his family cook, Zephyr Wright. A great quote from the linked article: apparently Ms. Wright was such a great cook, her food "made you wish you had two stomachs".

While researching this post I ran across a rumor that Richard Nixon ate cottage cheese with ketchup. Sweet Mother of Pearl this is too disgusting to even contemplate. Then again, it was Nixon . . .

Ronald Reagan loved macaroni and cheese and any dessert containing coconut. His wife, Nancy, wanted him to eat healthy meals. She told the kitchen staff what to cook for him. But when she was out of town, Reagan would ask the chefs for a nice juicy steak and a double helping of chocolate mousse. Reagan was also fond of jelly beans. He kept a jar of them on his desk in the Oval Office. It is estimated 40 million jelly beans were served during Reagan’s two inaugural parties in the 1980s.

The Obama administration made healthy eating a big part of their message. Specifically, First Lady Michelle Obama spearheaded the Let's Move! program, aimed at combating the obesity epidemic. But I was gratified, and to be honest, not surprised, to learn that the Obamas are only human, and sometimes splurged with a burger and fries. Apparently they were also big fans of the White House chef's pies and red velvet cake.

There's not a tremendous amount of info out there yet about the food preferences of the current Biden administration. The vegetable garden is still going strong. Chef Andre Rush has buff biceps bigger around than my thigh. The President likes vanilla ice cream. The Diet Coke phone panic button, like Biden's predecessor, has been removed from the Oval Office. So far, I'm not hearing anything I don't like.

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