The menu for Abraham Lincoln’s ill-fated second inaugural ball, at the Patent Office Building, March 6, 1865
George Washington 
The general’s camp chest
The president’s dentures
Food and entertaining shape presidents
and reflect their administrations
Thomas Jefferson’s sketch of a “maccaroni” machine, with pasta-making instructions, c. 1787
The “King Mob” at Andrew Jackson’s inauguration party on March 4, 1829, grew so rowdy that the White House staff used a potent punch to lure his admirers outside before they crushed him. (For a version of this punch, see Recipes, p. 383.)
The White House Kitchen Through the Ages
Circa 1891, with President Benjamin Harrison’s cook, Dolly Johnson
Circa 1909, Theodore Roosevelt’s kitchen
1948, the Harry S. Truman kitchen
2009, Michelle Obama with chef Cristeta Comerford and pastry chef Bill Yosses
The Roosevelt cousins were master gastropoliticians
Teddy Roosevelt’s “shocking” dinner with Booker T. Washington, October 16, 1901
Franklin D. Roosevelt served hot dogs and beer to the Windsors at “the picnic that won the war,” June 11, 1939
Posters encouraged food aid and food rationing in wartime
A poster from World War I
A poster from World War II
The kitchen staff set the tone in the White House
Mrs. Henrietta Nesbitt, c. 1940
Chef René Verdon (third from left), with Julius Spessot (to his right), and assistant cooks, c. 1962
Pastry chef Roland Mesnier, Nancy Reagan, and chef Henry Haller, July 30, 1982
Walter Scheib with Hillary Rodham Clinton, 1994
The Kennedy Style
John F. Kennedy stays cool aboard his yacht, the Honey Fitz, September 7, 1963
The Kennedys’ “Brains Dinner” for Nobel laureates, with novelist Pearl Buck and poet Robert Frost, April 29, 1962
From Opulence to Basics at the Executive Mansion
Luci B. Johnson and Patrick Nugent cut their wedding cake, August 6, 1966
Richard M. Nixon’s last presidential lunch: cottage cheese on a pineapple ring, with a glass of milk, August 8, 1974
The Reagan Years
Ron and Nancy enjoy a TV dinner, November 6, 1981
A magical night: Mrs. Reagan arranged for Princess Diana to dance with the sinuous Saturday Night Fever star John Travolta at a White House gala, November 9, 1985
The Easter Egg Roll has been one of the most popular White House events since Lucy Hayes inaugurated the tradition in 1878
Easter 1958
Easter 2018
First Ladies have always influenced their husbands’ administrations
Dolley Madison helped to invent the role of “Mrs. Presidentress.”
Laura Bush introduces the annual gingerbread White House, December 3, 2001
President Obama Breaking Bread
A bipartisan congressional lunch in the President’s Dining Room, May 16, 2012
The president ate bun cha noodles with the TV star Anthony Bourdain in Hanoi, Vietnam, May 23, 2016
White House China
James K. Polk pattern, c. 1849
A Rutherford B. Hayes oyster plate, 1877
On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln sipped his last cup of coffee from this cup.
The Reagans’ elegant, controversial service, 1982
Dining at the White House is always a special occasion
A menu for a George W. Bush holiday dinner was signed by guests, December 16, 2005
Waiters at a state dinner for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, March 10, 2016
The Reagans hosted a banquet for Prince Charles and Lady Diana in the State Dining Room, November 9, 1985