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Today is a great day, a day 8 years coming. I can't believe it's finally here; I feel like I've been holding my breath. It's finally over and we have a new, rational, and intelligent president.
About a year or so ago, I read a book by a former White House chef, Walter Scheib. It's a fascinating account of what it's like to work at the highest level of cuisine, making food and coordinating menus for the president. Chef Scheib worked for the Clintons and the Bushes across eleven years.
To me as a chef, the book was insightful to what it means to be in the service industry: the focus is on always performing at the maximum of your ability, serving your guests, and making sure that the focus is on them, never your own ego (something I think a lot of the current crop of celebrity chefs could learn from). Chef Scheib details the menus and the events he worked, and what it was like to work in each administration. He was very professional and discreet, just as you would expect from someone trained in the service industry. I know I couldn't be that demure if I had experienced what he did!
The job position is, of course, responsible for many state-level events and dinners, but it's also the personal chef for the president. So Chef Scheib would be responsible for big nine course dinners as well as providing snacks for Chelsea Clinton. Several stories focus on how Chef Scheib would put together quick meals for Clinton's late-night snacks, Hillary's tea events, or public events like the Easter dinners. One particular anecdote I found funny was how Hillary would leave notes (through her aides, of course) about what Bill should and shouldn't eat when she wasn't around to supervise. As a chef and as an employee, that put Scheib in a challenging position: don't upset the First Lady, but how do you say "no" to the President?
Chef Scheib doesn't dish too much about each president, though, but the closest he gets to criticism is when he talks about George Bush's diet and, if you can even use the word, culinary preferences. George is one of thos people who has decidedly low-brow food tastes and some very juvenile, bizzare food preferences (He doesn't eat green food, for example; and c'mon, who can't eat a pretzel properly?). From the Clintons where cuisine was viewed as something that should represent the diversity of America to the Bushes where it was all hot dogs all the time, the tone of the book and clearly Scheib's job satisfaction takes a right-hand turn when FORMER president George takes office.
So now that we finally have a real president, I'm eagerly anticipating what happens with cuisine and culture in this country. It will finally be acceptable again to be literate, cultured, diverse, and culinarily adventurous.
Long live arugula; long live President Obama!
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