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The President’s
Kitchen Cabinet
by Adrian Miller
c.2017, The University of North Carolina Press
$30.00 / $49.00 Canada
261 pages
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Truth Contributor
Eight courses.
You seriously doubted if the food was ever going to stop
coming, though you hoped it wouldn’t: you’d tasted all your
favorite dishes, and then some. It was a meal fit for a king
or queen. Or maybe a president, and in The President’s
Kitchen Cabinet by Adrian Miller, you’ll read about
First Family feasts.
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Last year, while they were on the campaign trail, you
might’ve noticed that presidential candidates often enjoyed
small-town American cuisine. Their willingness to sample,
says Miller, proves that politicians are just like us, a
likeness that stops at the White House doors. Presidents, as
you know, have staff and many presidential families have
dined on the efforts of African Americans in the White House
kitchen.
Early accounts of the first Executive Mansion kitchen
indicate the enormity of cooking for the president, even
then: it was the size of a small house at 43 feet long, 26
feet wide, with fireplaces at either end. Slaves who toiled
there lived in the White House basement or attic and were
fed the same food the presidential family received.
George Washington, says Miller, hired white women to cook
for him at the beginning of his presidency but later
“summoned Hercules,” his Mount Vernon slave, to
Philadelphia, making Hercules the first enslaved White House
cook.
Thomas Jefferson made sure his enslaved cook, James Hemings,
was trained in French cuisine. John Smeades, an accomplished
baker who “ran the kitchen” for William Taft, repeatedly
ruined the president’s diet with pie; according to long-time
White House maid, Lillian Rogers Parks, the Tafts irritated
staff by bringing “any number of guests home… without
advance warning.”
Eisenhower’s chief usher, Howell Crim, struggled once with a
request because he didn’t “know what yoghurt was.” When his
wife was away, Abraham Lincoln’s staff had to remind the
president to eat. Franklin Roosevelt’s cooks were tasked
with a special diet for his dog, Fala.
William T. Crump, who served as steward in the Garfield
White House became the de facto press secretary when the
president was shot. And Teddy Roosevelt avoided a sticky
situation with help from his steward, Henry Pinckney…
They, of course, weren’t the only African Americans to work
in the White House kitchen. Though author Adrian Miller
found 150 people by name, he says there were many who toiled
unnamed. In The President’s Kitchen Cabinet,
he explains.
While this may seem like a dry subject, Miller makes it
lively through quick, interesting and sometimes humorous
vignettes that dash back and forth through history. It might
also have been confusing – official titles changed through
the years – but he keeps readers on track with a good
variety of tales, just enough relevant back story, pictures,
and (bonus!) recipes you can try.
Surprisingly, this book is quite browse-able and so, whether
it’ll sit with your cookbooks or on a shelf with other
history tomes, it’s a book you’ll savor in more ways than
one. This little bit of history is purely tasty and The
President’s Kitchen Cabinet is a book you’ll enjoy, of
course. |
