GWMV George Washington’s Mount Vernon, www.mountvernon.org
NYT New York Times, www.nytimes.com
TJM Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, www.monticello.org
WHHA White House Historical Association, www.whitehousehistory.org
WP Washington Post, www.washingtonpost.com
On the evening of June 20, 1790: The details of this famous dinner scene are largely based on a reconstruction by the historian Charles A. Cerami, who relied on Jefferson’s notes on the dinner and numerous other sources. Cerami, Dinner at Mr. Jefferson’s, 117–37. Jefferson’s account “The Compromise of 1790” appears in his introduction to the “Anas” (a compilation of his writing) of February 4, 1818, excerpted in “Thomas Jefferson on the Compromise of 1790,” Bill of Rights Institute, billofrightsinstitute.org.
“two of the most irritating questions”: “Thomas Jefferson Residence,” AllThingsHamilton.com.
served by “dumbwaiters”: Cerami, Dinner at Mr. Jefferson’s, 129–30; “A Greater Eye to Convenience,” TJM.
“the attendance of servants”: Smith, quoted in Cerami, Dinner at Mr. Jefferson’s, 126.
“a bitter pill to Virginia”: Cerami, Dinner at Mr. Jefferson’s, 133.
saving Virginia $13 million: Ibid., 136.
Known as the Dinner Table Bargain: “The Dinner Table Bargain,” June 1790, American Experience, PBS, www.pbs.org. See also Chernow, Alexander Hamilton, 326–31; Ellis, Founding Brothers, 48–76.
“There is no single state paper”: Cerami, Dinner at Mr. Jefferson’s, 137.
“The Room Where It Happens”: “The Room Where It Happens,” lyrics, Genius.com, Broadway Cast Recording, Sept. 25, 2015, genius.com.
“fortress disguised as a home”: Obama, Becoming, 325.
“an emblem of the American Republic”: Jacqueline Kennedy Entertains: The Art of the White House Dinner exhibit, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, April 12, 2007–April 3, 2008, www.jfklibrary.org.
the Navy Mess: WHInfo, the White House Mess, whitehouse.gov1.info.
the Sequoia, was sold by Jimmy Carter: “Sold for $0: Sequoia, the Last US Presidential Yacht, Is Repossessed,” Guardian, Nov. 14, 2016.
jambalaya, a fragrant stew: Tipton-Martin, Jubilee, 173.
Caesar salad: L. Sasha Gora, “The Surprising Truth About Caesar Salad,” BBC Travel, May 22, 2019.
The building stands 168 feet long: “White House Dimensions,” WHHA.
(Chipped and broken pieces are destroyed): “Official White House China: From the 18th to the 21st Centuries,” WHHA.
William Howard Taft (at some 350 pounds): Nora Krug, “An Article Outlines President William Howard Taft’s Efforts to Lose Weight,” WP, Oct. 14, 2013.
the White House, which was largely built by slaves: “Did Slaves Build the White House?,” WHHA.
a First Lady descended from slaves: Bonnie Goldstein, “Obama Descended from Slave Ancestor,” WP, July 30, 2012.
“to show a side of the People’s House”: Julia and Paul Child Papers, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, quoted in Prud’homme, French Chef in America, 13.
“She could charm a polecat”: Ibid., 57.
“Many Americans who dislike”: Ibid., 18.
Every minute of the evening: Ibid., 171.
Haller’s menu—one of “the most memorable”: Haller, White House Family Cookbook, 208.
“is responsible for the nation’s gastronomic image”: Prud’homme, French Chef in America, 179.
“the good in American cooking”: Ibid.
the story of Ronald Reagan’s jelly beans: See notes for Chapter 16, “Ronald Reagan.”
The first group of Chinese immigrants arrived: Brad Cohen, “A Brief History of American Chinese Food,” USA Today, June 14, 2017; Emelyn Rude, “A Very Brief History of Chinese Food in America,” Time, Feb. 8, 2016.
Chinese restaurants in the States: Jennifer 8. Lee, The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, March 23, 2009, fortunecookiechronicles.com.
spooned a slurry of mutton: Chernow, Washington, 328.
camp chest: “George Washington’s Camp Chest,” Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History, americanhistory.si.edu.
lost all but one of his teeth: “False Teeth,” GWMV.
stained brown by the dark Madeira wine: “Wooden Teeth Myth,” GWMV.
“a dreary kind of place”: Chernow, Washington, 323.
Washington’s fourteen thousand men: “Valley Forge,” GWMV.
quartermaster reported: Ibid.
“devoured it with as keen an appetite”: Martin, Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier, 90.
“full of burnt leaves and dirt”: Chernow, Washington, 325.
“fire cakes”—patties of flour and water: Ibid.; Mitchell, Revolutionary Recipes, 40–41.
three hundred head of cattle: Trumbull, Jonathan Trumbull, 226; Mitchell, Revolutionary Recipes, 39.
“literally naked”: Nancy K. Loane, “The ABCs of the Valley Forge Encampment,” Journal of the American Revolution, Nov. 1, 2016, 7.
a third of them had no shoes: Ibid., 10; “Valley Forge,” GWMV.
bloody streaks in the snow: Chernow, Washington, 324.
Thirty percent of the army suffered: Ibid., 327.
“starve, dissolve, or disperse”: Ibid.
“Happily, the real condition”: Ibid.
flogging soldiers caught stealing food: Ibid.
“No bread, no soldier!”: Ibid., 326.
He stood six feet two inches tall: The Presidents of the USA: Heights and Weights, presidenstory.com.
he once chased a single fox: Chernow, Washington, 125.
“avarice and thirst for gain”: Ibid., 328–29.
“forage the country naked!”: McDowell, Revolutionary War, 130.
filled with bushels of potatoes: Nancy K. Loane, “An Elegant Dinner with General Washington at Valley Forge Headquarters,” Journal of the American Revolution, June 10, 2014, allthingsliberty.com.
“Instead of being blinded”: Chernow, Washington, 328.
Washington’s slave cooks, Hannah and Isaac: Loane, “Elegant Dinner with General Washington.”
an early run of shad: Mitchell, Revolutionary Recipes, 41.
On May 6, Washington and fifteen hundred men: Chernow, Washington, 336; George Washington, “General Orders Headquarters, Valley Forge Sunday, March 1, 1778,” Historic Valley Forge, www.ushistory.org.
“One might say that the whole revolutionary enterprise”: Allgor, Perfect Union, 185.
in June 1776, Americans sympathetic to the British: Schecter, Battle for New York, 96.
“bountiful and elegant”: Kimball, Martha Washington Cook Book.
a menu of more than twenty dishes: “George Washington’s Last Meal with His Troops,” Monday, Nov. 14, 2005, yourlastmealblogspot.
“the greatest character of the age”: Gillian Brockell, “At the Nation’s First Presidential Transfer of Power, George Washington Was ‘Radiant,’ ” WP, Jan. 19, 2021.
Washington built a 7,600 acre property: “Growth of Mount Vernon,” GWMV.
In 1775, Washington expanded the kitchen: “Kitchen,” GWMV.
“swimming in butter and honey”: “Hoecakes and Honey,” GWMV.
“The cook is governed by the clock”: Chernow, Washington, 580.
“Precisely at a quarter before three”: G. W. Parke Gustis, Recollections and Memoirs of Washington, Lee Family Archive, 1859, leefamilyarchive.org.
“an absurd, and truly barbarous practice”: “Dinner Etiquette,” Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia, TJM.
When Senator William Maclay visited: Robert C. Alberts, “The Cantankerous Mr. Maclay,” American Heritage, Oct. 1974.
“entertained in a very handsome style”: Ashbel Green, in “The True Story of George Washington: Social Life: As President,” by Infoplease Staff, Feb. 28, 2017, www.infoplease.com.
“My manner of living is plain”: “Keeping an ‘Excellent Table’ at Mount Vernon,” GWMV.
“passages of peculiar interest”: “Dining at Mount Vernon,” GWMV.
“The chief part of my happiness”: Washington to Warner Lewis, Aug. 14, 1755, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov.
On September 14, for instance, he was feted: Steve Hendricks, “The Epic Bender to Celebrate George Washington and the Newly Finished U.S. Constitution,” WP, Feb. 22, 2018.
Martha Washington (who also wore dentures): Chernow, Washington, 642.
A Booke of Cookery and A Booke of Sweatmeats: Numerous versions of Mrs. Washington’s books are available in print or online, including Martha Washington Cook Book: A Compendium of Cookery and Reliable Recipes, ed. E. Neill (Chicago: F. T. Neely, 1892); Martha Washington’s Booke of Cookery; and Booke of Sweetmeats, ed. Karen Hess (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995).
she rarely, if ever, took to the stove: “Life at Mount Vernon Before the Presidency,” Martha Washington: A Life, marthawashington.us.
three hundred and seventeen men, women, and children: “10 Facts About Washington and Slavery,” GWMV.
Rachel Lewis, whose “dirty figure”: Chernow, Washington, 637.
Great Cake—a white edifice: “Great Cake,” GWMV.
slave cook Hercules: “Hercules,” GWMV.
“a capital cook…a celebrated artiste”: Ibid.
“Under his iron discipline”: McLeod, Dining with the Washingtons, 25.
three bottles of rum: Ibid.
Hercules was allowed to sell slops: “Hercules,” GWMV.
a face described as “homely”: McLeod, Dining with the Washingtons, 25.
Richmond, join him in Philadelphia: Ibid.
In May 1796, Ona Judge slipped away: Chernow, Washington, 759–62.
“mortified to the last degree”: Tobias Lear to Washington, June 5, 1791, Founders Online, National Archives, founders.archives.gov.
“keep them out of idleness and mischief”: Craig LaBan, “A Birthday Shock from Washington’s Chef,” Philadelphia Inquirer, Feb. 22, 2010.
In early 1797, Hercules was sent outside: Ibid.
“appeared like a grove of moving plumes”: Ibid.
“Are you deeply upset”: Ibid.
In 1801, Hercules was spotted: Ibid.
“We are the only species”: Richard Wrangham, Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human (New York: Basic Books, 2009); Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley, “Shared Plates: How Eating Together Makes Us Human,” Gastropod, podcast audio and transcript, June 2, 2020, gastropod.com; Wrangham, Zoom interview with author, Dec. 12, 2021.
cooking food essentially predigests it: Rachel Carmody, SciCafe—The Raw Truth About Cooking with Rachel Carmody, podcast, amnh.org, March 21, 2019; Peter Reuell, “Why Cooking Counts,” Harvard Gazette, Nov. 7, 2011.
“Cooking completely transformed our biology”: Wrangham, interview with the author, Dec. 12, 2021.
fire was controlled 40,000 years ago, and others saying it was 400,000 years ago: Ibid.; Rachel Moeller Gordon, “Evolving Bigger Brains Through Cooking: A Q&A with Richard Wrangham,” Scientific American, Dec. 19, 2007.
site for the nation’s permanent capital: Robert F. Dalzell Jr. and Lee Baldwin Dalzell, “Memory, Architecture, and the Future: George Washington, Mount Vernon, and the White House,” in “White House History: George Washington: Houses and Palaces,” special issue, Journal of the White House Historical Association 6 (Fall 1999): 38–49, issuu.com.
In December 1799, he toured Mount Vernon: Chernow, Washington, 806–9.
codfish cakes and potatoes: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 43.
“the most insignificant office”: Presidents, John Adams, WhiteHouse.gov, www.whitehouse.gov.
Money…was a constant worry: Edith B. Gelles, “The Paradox of High Station: Abigail Adams as First Lady,” White House History, Collection 2, no. 7 (Spring 2000); Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 11.
lemonade and ice cream: Stewart Mitchell, ed., New Letters of Abigail Adams, 1788–1801 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin: 1947), 131.
due to Abigail’s careful management: “Cradle of a Political Dynasty,” NYT, Oct. 14, 2000.
“the most scandalous Drunkenness”: Lindsay M. Chervinsky, “The Household of President John Adams,” WHHA.
“drawing room service”: “The President’s House—Washington and Adams,” theclio.com; Edward Lawler Jr., “The President’s House in Philadelphia: A Brief History,” Independence Hall Association, May 2010, ushistory.org.
In spite of eight years of construction: Jackie Craven, “Building the White House in Washington, D.C.,” ThoughtCo., July 3, 2019, www.thoughtco.com.
a stolid building 168 feet long: “The White House Building,” WhiteHouse.gov, www.whitehouse.gov.
Adams found the north door: Paul Brandus, “Nov. 1, 1800: The White House Welcomes Its First President—John Adams,” West Wing Reports, June 27, 2015, medium.com.
“the great castle”: “John Adams Moves into White House,” This Day in History, Nov. 1, 1800, History.com, www.history.com; Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 10.
“Even the most trifling articles”: Betty C. Monkman, “John and Abigail Adams: A Tradition Begins,” WHHA.
“I pray Heaven to bestow”: Presidents, John Adams, WhiteHouse.gov.
He wrote Abigail plaintive letters: Gelles, “Paradox of High Station.”
She had settled into a rhythm: Ibid.; Harris, First Ladies Fact Book, 34, 36.
Congress bequeathed the house: Monkman, “John and Abigail Adams.”
“If we mean to have Heroes”: Abigail Adams to John Adams, Aug. 14, 1776, Founders Online, National Archives, founders.archives.gov.
Mrs. Adams rolled up her sleeves: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 39.
her husband’s $25,000 salary: Ibid., 40.
congressmen and “their appendages”: Gelles, “Paradox of High Station.”
“Turtle and every other thing”: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 42.
“As we are here”: Abigail Adams to Mary Smith Crouch, June 23, 1797, Adams Family Correspondence, vol. 12, Massachusetts Historical Society, www.masshist.org.
Slowed by ill health: Gelles, “Paradox of High Station.”
restocked her tea service: Monkman, “John and Abigail Adams.”
citizens’ hunger for a presidential housewarming: Graber and Twilley, “Shared Plates”; R. I. M. Dunbar, “Breaking Bread: The Functions of Social Eating,” Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology, March 11, 2017; Dunbar, Zoom interview with the author, Jan. 6, 2022.
“commensality,” a term borrowed from biology: Adam Gopnik, “Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Who Deserves a Place at the Table,” New Yorker, June 25, 2018; Kerner, Chou, and Warmind, Commensality, 1–6.
New Year’s Day 1801: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 41.
“I held levees once a week”: Ibid., 42.
“We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists”: “First Inauguration,” TJM; Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 15.
“the lowest and coldest seat”: Smith, First Forty Years of Washington Society, 12.
Standing six feet two and a half inches tall: “Jefferson’s Height,” TJM.
who owned six hundred men, women, and children: Lina Mann, “The Enslaved Household of President Thomas Jefferson,” WHHA.
“our most illustrious epicure”: Hess, quoted in “Thomas Jefferson’s Legacy in Farming and Food,” TJM.
“big enough for two emperors”: Frederick Platt, “The Chatter’s Back at the Most Visited Home in the World,” NYT, Jan. 26, 1975.
an $83 million debt: National Park Service, Secretary of the Treasury, “The National Debt,” www.nps.gov.
his Washington “family”: “Dining with Congress,” TJM.
“as great [a] difficulty”: Ibid.
Lemaire recorded his purchases: Fowler, Dining at Monticello, 16.
Eventually, Jefferson secured Honoré Julien: “Dining with Congress,” TJM.
Jefferson’s diet was unusual: David Kamp, “The United States of Arugula,” NYT, Oct. 1, 2006.
Jefferson considered “animal food”: “Vegetarianism,” TJM.
“Never before had such dinners been given”: “Dining with Congress,” TJM.
“What he did eat”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 17.
began hosting three congressional dinners a week: “Dining with Congress,” TJM.
“rice soup, round of beef”: Ibid.
the recipe for vanilla ice cream: “Ice Cream,” TJM.
“cultivate personal intercourse with the members”: “Dining with Congress,” TJM.
“Neither could he [anywhere else]”: Ibid.
“Traditional feasts were entertainment”: Brian Hayden, “How the Village Feast Paved the Way to Empires and Economics,” Aeon, Nov. 16, 2016, aeon.co.
“make the empire go ’round”: Hayden in Graber and Twilley, “Shared Plates.”
“If you want to build the pyramids”: Hayden, interview with the author, Dec. 18, 2021.
“Feasts tend to be competitive”: Hayden, “How the Village Feast Paved the Way to Empires and Economics.”
Jefferson used the semiotics: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 58–59; Graber and Twilley, “Shared Plates”; Hayden, interview with the author, Dec. 18, 2021.
“It was the object of Mr. Jefferson”: “Dinner Etiquette,” TJM.
“a great influence on the conversational powers”: “Dining with Congress,” TJM.
“When brought together in society”: “Dinner Etiquette,” TJM.
“she will have to eat her soup”: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 59.
“greatest cheese in America”: “Mammoth Cheese,” TJM.
“While I wish to have every thing good”: “Dining with Congress,” TJM.
an annual salary of $25,000: Tom Murse, “Presidential Salaries Through the Years,” ThoughtCo., Jan. 19, 2021, www.thoughtco.com.
$50 a day on provisions: Drake Baer, “Feasts Kind of Invented Civilization,” The Cut, Nov. 22, 2016.
the manifest for an 1806 shipment: Fowler, Dining at Monticello, 16–17.
“Let the price be what it has to be”: Tobias Beard, “The Pursuit of Happiness,” C-ville Weekly, April 8, 2008.
“vivacious,” “impulsive,” and “beautiful”: Various sources in “Martha Wayles Skelton,” TJM.
“song and merriment and laughter”: Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson, George W. Bush White House Archives, georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov.
“ten years of unchequered happiness”: “Our Breakfast Table,” TJM.
“with cookery book in hand”: Fowler, Dining at Monticello, 20–21.
“A single event wiped away”: “Martha Wayles Skelton,” TJM.
relationship between food and grief: Amelia Nierenberg, “For Many Widows, the Hardest Part Is Mealtime,” NYT, Oct. 28, 2019.
“emerging from the stupor of mind”: Thomas Jefferson, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov.
“violent burst[s] of grief”: E. M. Halliday, Understanding Thomas Jefferson (New York: HarperCollins, 2001), 49.
“Behold me at length”: Betty Goss, “Paris,” Nov. 2008, TJM.
Mathurin Roze de Chantoiseau’s consommé shop: Rebecca L. Spang, “The Invention of the Restaurant,” www.rebeccalspang.org.
Grande Taverne de Londres: “La Grande Taverne de Londres,” Britannica, www.britannica.com.
“run a couple of sacks”: Jefferson to Edward Rutledge, July 14, 1787, Founders Online, National Archives, founders.archives.gov.
“He has abjured his native victuals”: Fowler, Dining at Monticello, 2.
“no apple here to compare”: Ibid., 3–4.
“for the particular purpose”: Ibid., 3.
Hemings began his tutorial: “James Hemings,” TJM; Edward White, “America’s First Connoisseur,” Paris Review, May 21, 2020.
Jefferson paid Hemings 24 livres: “James Hemings,” TJM.
Hemings was made chef de cuisine: “The Culinary Legacy of James Hemings,” TJM.
Paris was home to more than half a million people: “The Life of Sally Hemings,” TJM.
“this Wide Blot On American…Civilisation”: “Marquis de Lafayette,” TJM.
Sally Hemings was trained as their maid: “The Life of Sally Hemings,” TJM.
“moral and political depravity”: “Jefferson’s Attitudes Toward Slavery,” TJM.
his heirs broke up slave families: “Debt,” TJM.
“as his concubine, one of his own slaves”: Thomas Jefferson Papers, 1800–1809, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov.
In a spate of 2017 media reports: Shaun King, “Thomas Jefferson Was a Horrible Man Who Owned 600 Human Beings, Raped Them, and Literally Worked Them to Death,” New York Daily News, July 7, 2017.
“Not a victim but an agent of change?”: Britni Danielle, “Sally Hemings Wasn’t Thomas Jefferson’s Mistress. She Was His Property,” WP, July 7, 2017.
“the issue is a settled historical matter”: “Monticello Affirms Thomas Jefferson Fathered Children with Sally Hemings,” TJM.
John Wayles, had fathered the mixed-race Sally: “John Wayles,” TJM.
“wasn’t Jefferson’s mistress; she was his property”: Danielle, “Sally Hemings Wasn’t Thomas Jefferson’s Mistress.”
the word “rape” is linked to appetite: Originally suggested by Helen Rosner, “Mario Batali and the Appetites of Men,” New Yorker, Dec. 13, 2017.
spiking the price of bread: Lisa Bramen, “When Food Changed History: The French Revolution,” Smithsonian Magazine, July 14, 2010.
Jefferson offered his apartment: “French Revolution,” TJM.
He brought a few souvenirs: William Short to Jefferson, Nov. 7, 1790, Founders Online, National Archives, founders.archives.gov.
“The taste of [America was] artificially created”: “Wine,” TJM.
Jefferson waxed poetic about his favorites: Ibid.
“disguised in drink”: “Memoirs of a Monticello Slave, as Dictated to Charles Campbell by Isaac” (1847), wps.prenhall.com.
the chef was paid $7 a month: “James Hemings,” TJM.
“Having been at great expence”: Ibid.
James was a free man: White, “America’s First Connoisseur.”
“is not given up to drink”: Thomas Jefferson to Mary Jefferson, May 25, 1797, Founders Online, National Archive, founders.archives.gov.
Gordon-Reed speculates: White, “America’s First Connoisseur.”
committed suicide in Baltimore at age thirty-six: “James Hemings,” TJM.
“There is not a sprig of grass”: Jefferson to Martha Jefferson Randolph, Dec. 23, 1790, Jefferson Quotes and Family Letters,” TJM.
“Agriculture is our wisest pursuit”: Jefferson to George Washington, Aug. 14, 1787, Jefferson Quotes and Family Letters, TJM.
Over sixty years of farming: Nicole Cotroneo Jolly, “Thomas Jefferson’s Farming Failures,” Modern Farmer, Oct. 24, 2013.
“extremely elegant [meals] cooked”: “Edith Hern Fossett,” TJM.
Frances “Franny” Gillette Hern: “Much to Our Comfort and Satisfaction: Monticello’s Enslaved Cooks,” TJM.
This displaced Peter Hemings: “Peter Hemings,” TJM.
Jefferson organized his garden: “Attending to My Farm,” TJM.
“the best wine countries”: Ibid.
His crops rarely turned a profit: Jolly, “Thomas Jefferson’s Farming Failures.”
Peter Hemings, who was bought: Nick Charles, “Meet James and Peter Hemings, America’s First Black Celebrity Chefs,” NBC News, Feb. 13, 2020, www.nbcnews.com.
Four hundred thousand people tour Monticello: “Monticello and the Big Clean,” Jan. 14, 2019, TJM.
In 2011, Alice Waters: Laura Moser, “All the President’s Produce,” Wall Street Journal, April 27, 2012; Jane Black, “A Renowned Chef Inspires a Culinary Revolution at Monticello,” NYT, Sept. 25, 2019.
“It’s a great improvement”: Waters, conversation with the author at Monticello, Sept. 21, 2019, and phone interview, Oct. 28, 2019.
The space was equipped: Fowler, Dining at Monticello, 25.
to wind the clock: Ibid., 19.
220-square-foot wine cave: Sandy Hausman, “Thomas Jefferson’s Love Affair—with Wine,” NPR, Sept. 28, 2008.
In 2017 the original hearth: “Uncovering the Stew Stoves in Monticello’s First Kitchen,” TJM video, March 14, 2017.
“I was a big admirer of Jefferson”: White, conversation with the author, Monticello Heritage Harvest Festival, Sept. 21, 2019; White, interview with the author, Dec. 16, 2019; Dan Pashman, “When Black Chefs Created Plantation Food,” Sporkful with Dan Pashman, podcast audio and transcript, Oct. 21, 2019, www.sporkful.com.
“Poor Jemmy! He is but a withered little apple-John”: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 80.
in a blink, she lost her husband, a son: “Becoming America’s First Lady,” Montpelier.org, www.montpelier.org.
“the great little Madison”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 28.
Dolley’s aptly named son Payne: Ibid., 30, 34.
Montpelier relied on nearly a hundred slaves: “Becoming America’s First Lady.”
claimed to be uninterested in politics (“men’s work”): Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 28.
befriending Elizabeth Merry: “Becoming America’s First Lady.”
“The accomplished Mrs. Madison”: Mary Ellen Scofield, “Unraveling the Dolley Myths,” WHHA.
Dolley’s “conciliatory disposition”: “Becoming America’s First Lady.”
“a stage from which to convey”: Scofield, “Unraveling the Dolley Myths.”
a veteran French steward, Jean-Pierre…Sioussat: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 30.
“the trouble of serving guests”: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 82.
showcased special or regional dishes: Ibid., 84–95.
a Yard of Flannel punch: Ibid., 94.
“collection of great and little men”: Scofield, “Unraveling the Dolley Myths.”
“alarm’d [the Federalists] into a return”: “Becoming America’s First Lady.”
“a magic influence”: Ibid.
“perfect security from hostility”: Women and the American Story, Resource 4, “Parties and Politics,” New-York Historical Society, blog.nyhsdev2.org.
“By her deportment in her own house”: Allgor, Perfect Union, 195.
“There is something very fascinating”: Scofield, “Unraveling the Dolley Myths.”
“the worst Congress ever dealt a president”: Seale, The White House Actors and Observers, 27.
accused him of offering to trade sex with Dolley: “Becoming America’s First Lady.”
“the only permanent power in Washington”: Henry Schenawolf, “James Madison: Champion of Democracy and Father of Our Constitution,” Revolutionary War Journal, Jan. 19, 2021, www.revolutionarywarjournal.com.
“The superior food, the lovely setting”: Allgor, Perfect Union, 185.
Dolley’s “remorseless equanimity”: Daniel Fleming, “When Dolley Madison Took Command of the White House,” Smithsonian Magazine, March 2010.
“I set the table myself”: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 83.
“a bountiful dinner spread”: Ibid.
“to ‘Jemmy’s health’ ”: Fleming, “When Dolley Madison Took Command of the White House.”
“No one…who beheld the radiance of joy”: Allgor, Perfect Union, 333.
Standing about six feet four inches: David Sim, “In Pictures: Tallest U.S. Presidents in History,” Newsweek, March 23, 2018.
he had weighed a robust 180 pounds: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 130.
“seemed unlikely to live”: Ibid., 138.
Breakfast was one egg…Lunch was a biscuit: Mitchell, Presidential Flavors, 81–82; Eighmey, Abraham Lincoln in the Kitchen, 210.
meals featuring his favorite foods: Mitchell, Presidential Flavors, 83–84.
“Both parties deprecated the war”: “Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address,” Lincoln Memorial, nps.gov.
“eight-dollar plug-hat”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 139.
One night, he dreamed that someone: Ibid., 140.
“a great public reception”: Ibid., 139–40.
“The White House looked as if a regiment”: Ibid.
“I could not help thinking”: Amy Henderson, “If Only Hollywood Would Show Us Lincoln’s Second Inaugural,” Smithsonian Magazine, Jan. 15, 2013, www.smithsonianmag.com.
Four thousand revelers strolled: Ibid.
“Mr. Lincoln was evidently trying”: “The Inauguration Ball,” NYT, March 8, 1865.
a 250-foot-long table: “ ‘The Honor of Your Company Is Requested’: Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Ball at the Patent Office (Teaching with Historic Places),” National Park Service, www.nps.gov.
heaped with exquisitely prepared food: “Bill of Fare of the Presidential Inauguration Ball,” Library of Congress, www.loc.gov.
the confectioner G. A. Balzer: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 235–36.
“ornamental pyramids—nougat, orange, caramel”: Ibid.
“The onset of the crowd”: Washington Evening Star, 2nd ed., March 8, 1865, 25, cited in “ ‘Honor of Your Company Is Requested.’ ”
“In less than an hour the table was a wreck”: “Inauguration Ball,” NYT.
“some premonition that there would”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 140.
“Abe was a moderate eater”: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 237.
“Abraham was a good and hearty eater”: Eighmey, Abraham Lincoln in the Kitchen, 36.
“Mr. Lincoln…never lost his tastes”: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 236.
Despite Kentucky’s bounty: McCreary, Lincoln’s Table, 10; Eighmey, Abraham Lincoln in the Kitchen, 38.
Apples were a useful fruit: McCreary, Lincoln’s Table, 12–13.
“There is no grain grown in the U.S.”: Eighmey, Abraham Lincoln in the Kitchen, 10.
“eat corn cakes twice as fast”: McCreary, Lincoln’s Table, 3.
“Abe…[would] put a book inside his shirt”: Eighmey, Abraham Lincoln in the Kitchen, 10.
die of “milk sickness”: McCreary, Lincoln’s Table, 22.
Thomas Lincoln married Sarah “Sally” Bush Johnston: Ibid.
Sally died in childbirth: Ibid., 30.
a muscular 220 pounds: Ibid., ix.
“Long Nine”: Ibid., 38.
“Miss Todd, I wish to dance with you”: McCreary, Lincoln’s Table, 39.
Her sisters did not approve: Ibid., 40.
She bought eleven pounds of sugar: Eighmey, Abraham Lincoln in the Kitchen, 122.
Courting Cake: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 256.
“the best cake”: Eighmey, Abraham Lincoln in the Kitchen, 88–89.
“My wife is as handsome”: Harris, First Ladies Fact Book, 237.
Mary Todd Lincoln hired women, or relied on relatives: Temple, Taste Is in My Mouth a Little, 33.
Eliza Leslie’s best-selling Directions for Cookery: Ibid., 32.
in the 1980s when archaeologists excavated: Eighmey, Abraham Lincoln in the Kitchen, 168; Temple, Taste Is in My Mouth a Little, 137–41.
a Royal Oak #9: Eighmey, Abraham Lincoln in the Kitchen, 169.
“the original gorilla”: Mark Bowden, “ ‘Idiot,’ ‘Yahoo,’ ‘Original Gorilla’: How Lincoln Was Dissed in His Day,” Atlantic, June 2013.
“The taste is in my mouth a little”: Lincoln to Lyman Trumbull, April 29, 1870, in Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, vol. 4, 1809–1865, quod.lib.umich.edu.
“the Hoosier and the Gingerbread Men”: Eighmey, Abraham Lincoln in the Kitchen, 22–23; McCreary, Lincoln’s Table, 16; Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 253.
“the pleasures of life”: “Lincoln’s Favorite Foods,” everythinglincoln.com.
his first encounter with the Democratic senator: Eighmey, Abraham Lincoln in the Kitchen, 22–23.
“species of humbuggery”: Lincoln’s rebuttal, 6th Lincoln-Douglas debate, Quincy, Ill., Oct. 13, 1858, www.nps.gov.
Mary went to sleep early: McCreary, Lincoln’s Table, 66.
“I have no purpose”: Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address (final version), Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress: Series 1, General Correspondence, 1833–1916, www.loc.gov.
Willard’s Hotel for an inaugural luncheon: McCreary, Lincoln’s Table, 67; Eighmey, Abraham Lincoln in the Kitchen, 205–6.
Buchanan was a gourmand fond of duck: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 225, 230.
Cornelia Mitchell: Temple, Taste Is in My Mouth a Little, 44–45; Adrian Miller, President’s Kitchen Cabinet, 44–45; James B. Conroy, “Slavery’s Mark on Lincoln’s White House,” WHHA.
Harriet Lane, a blonde woman: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 220.
French chef Charles Gautier: Ibid.
Mary spent lavishly on silk brocade dresses: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 132–33.
The federal government granted her $20,000: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 232.
“smiling guests [would] pull her to pieces”: Ibid., 233.
“Gallo-American” menu: Eighmey, Abraham Lincoln in the Kitchen, 206.
hailed her “exquisite taste”: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 233.
lead to a “horrible jam”: Ibid., 234.
elaborate decorations—a model: Ibid.
“Never make any preparation of which alcohol”: McCreary, Lincoln’s Table, 74.
“one of the finest displays”: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 233.
accused her of outrageous “leniency”: McCreary, Lincoln’s Table, 74.
sickened by drinking Washington’s water: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 134.
“his mother’s favorite child”: Brady Dennis, “Willie Lincoln’s Death: A Private Agony for a President Facing a Nation in Pain,” WP, Oct. 7, 2011.
“a judgment of God upon the Lincolns”: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 235.
It was largely due to Sarah Josepha Hale: Ariel Knobel, “For Decades, Southern States Considered Thanksgiving an Act of Northern Aggression,” Gastro Obscura, Nov. 22, 2018, www.atlasobscura.com.
Southerners resented the “repugnant” idea: Ibid.
“this theatrical claptrap of Thanksgiving”: Ibid.
“a day of Thanksgiving and Praise”: Transcript for President Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation from Oct. 3, 1863, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov.
Texas refused to declare: Valerie Strauss, “Why We Celebrate Thanksgiving Every Year. It Isn’t What You Think,” WP, Nov. 24, 2016.
baking sweet potato pie with bourbon: Knobel, “For Decades, Southern States Considered Thanksgiving an Act of Northern Aggression.”
the “first Thanksgiving” in America: Rebecca Beatrice Brooks, “History of the First Thanksgiving,” History of Massachusetts Blog, Aug. 31, 2011, historyofmassachusetts.org.
the Wampanoags brought five deer and does not mention turkey: Maya Salam, “Everything You Learned About Thanksgiving Is Wrong,” NYT, Nov. 21, 2017.
the “first” Thanksgiving meal between Native Americans and Europeans: Gillian Brockell, “Thanksgiving’s Hidden Past: Plymouth in 1621 Wasn’t Close to Being the First Celebration,” WP, Nov. 22, 2017.
David Silverman of George Washington University: Claire Bugos, “The Myths of the Thanksgiving Story and the Lasting Damage They Imbue,” Smithsonian Magazine, Nov. 26, 2019, www.smithsonianmag.com.
In 1616, the Wampanoag were devastated by “the Great Dying”: Dana Hedgpeth, “This Tribe Helped the Pilgrims Survive for Their First Thanksgiving. They Still Regret It 400 Years Later,” WP, Nov. 4, 2021.
“national day of mourning”: “What Does Thanksgiving Mean to Native Americans?,” Native Hope, blog.nativehope.org.
“the next 100 years”: Charles M. Blow, “The Horrible History of Thanksgiving,” NYT, Nov. 27, 2019.
In King Philip’s War: Áine Cain and Joey Hadden, “The True Story Behind Thanksgiving Is a Bloody One, and Some People Say It’s Time to Cancel the Holiday,” Insider, Nov. 24, 2020, www.insider.com.
in 1769, when New Englanders: Bugos, “Myths of the Thanksgiving Story.”
“the first Thanksgiving, the great festival”: Ibid.
“he promised to go”: Doris Kearns Goodwin, “The Night Abraham Lincoln Was Assassinated,” Smithsonian Magazine, April 8, 2015, www.smithsonianmag.com.
army surgeon, following protocol: Temple, Taste Is in My Mouth a Little, 87.
“I had an ambition to be Mrs. President”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 141.
“we are living at the absolute pinnacle”: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 277–78.
hunks of roast beef, turkey: Chernow, Grant, 647.
Hiram Ulysses Grant (the “S.” in his name): Evan Andrews, “10 Things You May Not Know About Ulysses S. Grant,” History.net, July 23, 2015, www.history.com.
he was nicknamed Useless: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 153.
“always aching for a fight”: Ibid., 153–54.
lost in civilian purgatory: Ibid., 154.
“Unconditional Surrender Grant”: Ibid.
“No, but I do not see”: Chernow, Grant, 614.
Speaking in a soft voice: President Ulysses S. Grant’s First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1869, Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site, National Park Service, www.nps.gov.
When he told the organizers: Chernow, Grant, 633.
several women passed out: Ibid.
“Grant’s whole character was a mystery”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 159.
dubbed “the butcher”: Ibid., 154.
“practically to charcoal”: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 281.
roll bits of bread into spitballs: Ibid., 280–81; Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 156.
“that tribe of Dents”: Jensen, White House and Its Thirty-Five Families, 103.
War of the Geezers: Ibid., 103.
strabismus, or crossed eyes: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 155.
With fifty-three thousand citizens: Chernow, Grant, 644–45.
Washington, D.C., remained a small town: Ibid., 645–46.
“damp and unhealthy”: Jensen, White House and Its Thirty-Five Families, 106.
The East Room was done over: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 155.
his new billiard room: Chernow, Grant, 646; Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 159.
$20 speeding ticket: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 159.
Julia held public receptions: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 281.
“In the Blue Room the President’s wife”: Jensen, White House and Its Thirty-Five Families, 104.
inviting the wives of senators and cabinet members: Chernow, Grant, 647; “First Lady Biography: Julia Grant,” firstladies.org.
“The gorgeous costumes of the diplomats”: Jensen, White House and Its Thirty-Five Families, 105.
“brilliant” and “elegant” soirees: Ibid.
“pink grenadine, with flounced over-skirt”: Ibid., 106.
“I’d rather storm a fort!”: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 281.
He’d rise at 7:00 a.m. to read: Ibid., 280.
Used to spartan rations of cucumbers: Ibid., 281; Kat Kinsman, “Ulysses S. Grant Enjoyed a Morning Cucumber,” Extra Crispy, MyRecipes, Feb. 13, 2018, www.myrecipes.com.
steward named Valentino Melah: “Orphan Becomes White House Steward,” WHHA.
Known as “the Silver Voiced Italian”: McCabe, Behind the Scenes in Washington, 376, 381.
“aristocratic stew”: “Orphan Becomes White House Steward,” WHHA; Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 278.
One newspaperwoman under Melah’s spell: McCabe, Behind the Scenes in Washington, 381, 382.
a large, flower-draped mirror: Chernow, Grant, 647.
Grant invited only those he wanted to see: Jensen, White House and Its Thirty-Five Families, 104.
food bill for Prince Arthur: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 279; Jensen, White House and Its Thirty-Five Families, 106.
“I have visited many courts”: Chernow, Grant, 647.
New Year’s reception for the public in 1873: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 279.
“Andy ain’t a drunkard”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 148–49. This familiar quotation has been disputed; see responses to Jonathan R. Allen, “Andrew Johnson Drunk at Lincoln’s Second Inauguration,” The Civil War (blog), www.nellaware.com.
“a drunken tailor”: Chernow, Grant, 649.
“He had very poor brains for drinking”: Ibid., 84.
He slurred his words “foolishly”: Ibid., 80.
he’d throw up or suffer the delirium tremens: Ibid., 58.
“Liquor seemed a virulent poison to him”: Ibid., 80.
George B. McClellan, found his lapses: Ibid., 80–81.
“Overwhelming evidence suggests that Grant resigned”: Ibid., 85–86; “Was Ulysses S. Grant an Alcoholic? An Analysis of Claims Made by Ron Chernow,” Exploring the Past (blog), Nov. 7, 2018, pastexplore.wordpress.com.
“I got in a depressed condition”: Chernow, Grant, 85.
“then Grant was the drunken”: Ibid., 649.
Grant celebrated his second inauguration: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 278.
Known as the Merrie Monarch: Steve Hendrix, “ ‘Brilliant Beyond All Precedent’: The First White House State Dinner for the King of Hawaii,” WP, April 25, 2018.
probably domesticated in prehistoric New Guinea: Tim Denham, “Early Agriculture and Plant Domestication in New Guinea and Island Southeast Asia,” Current Anthropology 52, no. S4 (Oct. 2011), 379–95.
In Hawaii, the first sugar mill: Peter T. Young, “Sugar, the Early Years,” Images of Old Hawai‘i, Dec. 3, 2021, imagesofoldhawaii.com.
Sugar planters imported workers: “History of Labor in Hawai‘i,” Center for Labor Education & Research, University of Hawai‘i–West O‘ahu.
He was greeted by a full marine battalion: Douglas V. Askman, “Our Royal Guest: American Press Coverage of King Kalākaua’s Visit to the United States, 1874–1875,” The Hawaiian Journal of History 54 (Honolulu: Hawaiian Historical Society, 2020).
“no young ladies present”: Hendrix, “ ‘Brilliant Beyond All Precedent.’ ”
Sandwich Islanders feasted on up to thirty courses: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 278; “General Grant’s Birthday Dinner,” in Ziemann and Gillette, White House Cook Book, 504.
“No soup, foreign or domestic”: McCabe, Behind the Scenes in Washington, 381.
Kalakaua brought two guards: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 278.
value of exports from Hawaii: Kuykendall, Kalakaua Dynasty, 83.
The last Hawaiian plantation shut down in 2016: Brittany Lyte, “With Pineapple and Sugar Production Gone, Hawaii Weighs Its Agricultural Future,” WP, Dec. 17, 2017.
the “alcoholic republic”: Rorabaugh, Alcoholic Republic.
“the people of corn”: Pollan, Omnivore’s Dilemma, 23, 101.
wedding of their daughter, Nellie: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 282–83; Chernow, Grant, 772–73.
Grant led his only daughter: Ibid.; Chernow, Grant, 774.
Whitman recited his poem: “A Kiss to the Bride,” May 21, 1873, Walt Whitman Archive, whitmanarchive.org.
soft-shell crab on toast: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 282.
For the grand finale: Ibid., 282–83.
As the newlyweds were showered: Chernow, Grant, 774.
“something rather touching and tragic”: Ibid., 774–75.
At least forty Grant relatives profited: Salinger, Encyclopedia of White Collar & Corporate Crime, vol. 1, 374.
Orville Babcock, played a central role: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 160.
fifteen-cigar-a-day habit: Geoffrey C. Ward, “A Hero in Spite of Himself,” WSJ, Oct. 6, 2017.
70 percent of net profits: Chernow, Grant, 936.
earned $450,000: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 162.
“never so happy in my life”: Ibid.
“quite the happiest period of my life”: Ibid.
Vice President Theodore Roosevelt: Morris, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, 780; Brinkley, Wilderness Warrior, 394.
forty-two years, ten months, and eighteen days old, America’s youngest chief executive: Tom Murse, “The Youngest President in American History,” ThoughtCo., Oct. 21, 2019, www.thoughtco.com.
“I feel as if I should go mad”: Jamison, Exuberance, 8.
the tumor made it painful to eat: “Theodore Roosevelt, Sr.,” Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace, National Park Service, nps.gov.
a bestiary that included: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 223.
“I am of a very buoyant temper”: Jamison, Exuberance, 8–9.
he gained the nickname Teddy: “The Story of the Teddy Bear,” Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace, National Park Service, nps.gov.
“The light has gone out of my life”: Wendy Maloney, “New Online: Theodore Roosevelt Papers,” Library of Congress Blog, Oct. 17, 2018, blogs.loc.gov.
“as calm and imperturbable as a Buddha”: Morris, Theodore Rex, 449.
“Like a shuttle, keeping everything”: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 355.
“Whenever I go against her judgment”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 225.
Edie miscarried twice: Ibid.
“coarse food and plenty of it”: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 352.
“stoking up prodigiously”: Wagenknecht, Seven Worlds of Theodore Roosevelt, 30.
fiddlehead ferns that he foraged: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 359–60.
oysters, green turtle soup, crab flake Newburg, quail : “TR’s 42nd Birthday Dinner, October 27, 1900 [Courtesy of the Theodore Roosevelt Association],” American Presidents’ Food Favorites, foodtimeline.org.
At breakfast he would order: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 352.
big bowl of hominy: Ibid., 352–53.
black Hu-Kwa from China: Ibid., 353.
“the King of Ultima Thule’s scepter”: Ibid., 354.
a temperance group accused Roosevelt: Ibid., 353.
“drank two glasses of champagne”: Ibid.
“in the nature of a bathtub”: Ibid., 352.
shrewdly spun the press: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 220.
“you had to wring the personality out”: Jamison, Exuberance, 11.
“I have seen two tremendous works”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 219.
“one of the most useful”: Roosevelt, Winning of the West, 548.
“show some respect to a man”: Dewey W. Grantham Jr., “Dinner at the White House: Theodore Roosevelt, Booker T. Washington, and the South,” Tennessee Historical Quarterly 17, no. 2 (June 1958): 125.
“The action of President Roosevelt”: Marcia Davis, review of Guest of Honor, by Deborah Davis, WP, Aug. 17, 2012.
“Coon-Faced” and “A Rank Negrophilist”: Morris, Theodore Rex, 55.
“ ‘Dining’…was really a code word for social equality”: Deborah Davis, “Teddy Roosevelt’s ‘Shocking’ Dinner with Washington,” Talk of the Nation, NPR, May 14, 2012.
“The president…mentioned the inviting”: Howe, George von Lengerke Meyer, 416.
in the racial reckoning of the twenty-first century: Arturo Conde, “Teddy Roosevelt’s ‘Racist’ and ‘Progressive’ Legacy, Historian Says, Is Part of Monument Debate,” NBC News, July 20, 2020, www.nbcnews.com; Rachel Treisman, “New York City’s Natural History Museum Has Removed a Theodore Roosevelt Statue,” NPR, Jan. 20, 2022.
“When I asked Booker T. Washington”: John K. Severn, “Theodore Roosevelt Entertains Booker T. Washington: Florida’s Reaction to the White House Dinner,” Florida Historical Quarterly 54, no. 3 (1975): 314.
first president to use the mansion’s nickname: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 229.
Army Corps of Engineers found, “dilapidated”: Ibid., 233.
“a cross between Neo-Classic”: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 352.
A renovation had been rumored: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 233–35.
One Thanksgiving meal included: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 354.
“When anyone desires to make”: Ibid., 352.
“I don’t think any family”: Ibid., 357.
Roosevelt had launched on: Elaine Evans, “The Rough Rider Tours Illinois,” Illinois State Historical Society, Oct. 4, 2021, www.historyillinois.org.
The two were a contrast in styles: Ralph H. Anderson, “We Will Pitch Camp at Bridalveil!,” Yosemite Nature Notes 30, no. 5 (May 1951).
“poetico-trampo-geologist-bot”: Muir to [Robert Underwood] Johnson, Sept. 13, 1889, John Muir Papers, University of the Pacific, scholarlycommons.pacific.edu.
“by far the grandest of all”: Syd Albright, “History Corner: Yosemite,” Coeur d’Alene/Post Falls Press, Nov. 21, 2021.
“Pres. Roosevelt…is cut off”: Epting, Teddy Roosevelt in California, 78.
Grizzly Giant, a sequoia that stands: “The Grizzly Giant: 4 Must-Know Facts About Yosemite’s Most Famous Tree,” The Redwoods in Yosemite, redwoodsinyosemite.com.
three thousand years old: Sequoia Research, National Park Service, nps.gov.
“the best kind of steaks”: “President Makes Camp at Bridal Veil Falls,” San Francisco Call, May 18, 1903, 1–2, chroniclingamerica.loc.gov.
“An influential man from Washington”: Epting, Teddy Roosevelt in California, 17.
“the sanctum sanctorum of the Sierras”: Muir, Letters to a Friend, July 26, 1868.
“Conservation of natural resources”: Christen Duxbury, “The Fundamental Problem,” Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, www.trcp.org.
As the guides erected a “shelter half”: Constance Carter, “Roosevelt, Muir, and the Camping Trip,” Library of Congress Blog, Aug. 11, 2016, blogs.loc.gov.
“We lay in the open”: Epting, Teddy Roosevelt in California, 122.
thirty-five-mile trek: Ibid., 83.
“the greatest view on earth”: “President Makes Camp at Bridal Veil Falls.”
Leidig prepared a second round: “Charlie Leidig’s Report of President Roosevelt’s Visit in May, 1903,” Sierra Club, vault.sierraclub.org.
“I stuffed him pretty well”: Albright, “History Corner: Yosemite.”
“The crisp mountain air”: “President Leaves Yosemite,” San Francisco Call, May 19, 1903, 1, chroniclingamerica.loc.gov.
Pelican Island, Florida: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 226.
He created eighteen national monuments: Elizabeth Kolbert, “Obama the Conservationist,” New Yorker, Sept. 4, 2016.
“the Conservationist President”: “Theodore Roosevelt and Conservation,” National Park Service, www.nps.gov.
“the most consequential camping trip”: Kolbert, “Obama the Conservationist.”
he picked the sausage up like a dead mouse: “The Jungle,” Theodore Roosevelt Center, Dickinson State University, www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org.
“I aimed at the public’s heart”: Ibid.
shooting the leaders of the Populist Party: Anthony Gaughan, “Harvey Wiley, Theodore Roosevelt, and the Federal Regulation of Food and Drugs,” Harvard Law School, Winter 2004, dash.harvard.edu.
died from food poisoning: Ibid.
“sheer fraud”: Ibid.
“Uncle Joe” Cannon: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook.
“the manufacture, sale, or transportation”: The Pure Food and Drug Act, History, Art & Archives, U.S. House of Representatives, June 23, 1906, history.house.gov.
an annual budget of $5.7 billion: FDA at a Glance, U.S. Food & Drug Administration, Oct. 2019, www.fda.gov.
“There is something hanging over his head”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 237.
an amiable three-hundred-and-thirty-two-pound legal scholar: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 370.
Nellie Taft, a slim, intense woman: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 238.
But at one stop things got weird: Jeffrey Bourdon, “ ‘Just Call Me Bill’: William Taft Brings Spectacle Politics to the Midwest,” Midwestern History 2, no. 10 (Oct. 2016), scholarworks.gvsu.edu.
“inexpressibly happy”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 238, 239.
“prison”…“loneliest place in the world”: Ibid., 239, 248.
the first First Lady to smoke cigarettes: Helen “Nellie” Taft, Fascinating Facts, First Ladies Library, www.firstladies.org.
built the first Oval Office: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 239.
there were rumors of tension: William Manners, “There Was a Storm Outside and a Bit of Frost Within,” American Heritage, Dec. 1969.
weight yo-yoed between 270 and 354 pounds: Krug, “An Article Outlines President William Howard Taft’s Efforts to Lose Weight.”
“liked every sort of food”: Jaffray, Secrets of the White House, 23.
“physical culture man”: Kolata, “In Struggle with Weight, Taft Used a Modern Diet.”
“He wanted a thick, juicy twelve-ounce steak”: Jaffray, Secrets of the White House, 23.
he gorged on grapefruit: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 370.
prodigious quantities of seafood: Ibid., 373.
Billy Bi (or Billy By): Sam Sifton, “Craig Claiborne’s Classic Billi Bi,” NYT, March 10, 2015; Ana Kincaid, “The Story of Billi Bi Soup,” We Are Chefs, wearechefs.com.
“looks as if he actually weighs 400”: Jaffray, Secrets of the White House, 24.
“I tell you, it’s a sad state”: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 371.
“Somehow, he really didn’t take off”: Jaffray, Secrets of the White House, 25.
“While I was talking to him”: As I Knew Them: Memoirs of James Watson (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1936), 135.
“Sleeping Beauty”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 243.
“corpulence” was replaced by “obesity”: Kolata, “In Struggle with Weight, Taft Used a Modern Diet.”
Taft wrote to the British diet expert: Krug, “Article Outlines President William Howard Taft’s Efforts to Lose Weight”; Andrew M. Seaman, “U.S. President Taft Followed a Weight Loss Program Too,” Reuters, Oct. 14, 2013.
255 pounds—a loss of 59 pounds: Kolata, “In Struggle with Weight, Taft Used a Modern Diet”; Seaman, “U.S. President Taft Followed a Weight Loss Program Too.”
ballooned to as much as 354 pounds: Krug, “Article Outlines President William Howard Taft’s Efforts to Lose Weight.”
stuck in a bathtub: Christopher Klein, “Did William Howard Taft Really Get Stuck in a Bathtub?,” History.com, Sept. 3, 2018, www.history.com.
planted 3,020 cherry trees: Joel D. Treese, “Mrs. Taft and the Cherry Blossoms,” WHHA.
She replaced the male cooks: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 374.
Nellie had a passion for technology: “Advances in Entertaining,” WHHA.
“I wanted a woman who could relieve me”: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 374.
Nellie kept a gimlet eye: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 247; Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 374.
the last bovine to board: WHHA.
“butter by the tub”: Jaffray, Secrets of the White House, 13.
hosted a reception for two thousand guests: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 373.
the First Lady collapsed from a stroke: Feather Schwartz Foster, “Nellie Taft’s Lonely Dinner,” Presidential History Blog, June 24, 2013, featherfoster.wordpress.com.
“large white possum”: Adrienne LaFrance, “President Taft Ate a Lot of Possums,” Atlantic, Nov. 26, 2015.
“it was the reproachful look”: “Taft Meets a Possum,” NYT, Jan. 23, 1909.
eighteen-pound “Billy Possum and taters”: Lucas Reilly, “Billy Possum: President Taft’s Answer to the Teddy Bear,” Mental Floss, June 10, 2013, www.mentalfloss.com.
“Billy Possum” toy: Ibid.; Genevieve Carlton, “Jealous of the Teddy Bear, President Taft Tried to Make Billy Possum Happen,” Ranker, June 23, 2021, www.ranker.com.
not to mention his love of golf: Bourdon, “ ‘Just Call Me Bill.’ ”
“Yes, Taft carried out TR’s policies”: Manners, “There Was a Storm Outside.”
Roosevelt began to openly attack Taft: Lewis L. Gould, “1912 Republican Convention: Return of the Rough Rider,” Smithsonian, Aug. 2008.
managed to reconcile in 1918: “Roosevelt Grips the Hand of Taft,” NYT, May 27, 1918.
at 237 pounds, had swelled: “Weight of All U.S. Presidents Elected Between 1789 and 2021,” statista.com.
a relatively feathery 280 pounds: Kolata, “In Struggle with Weight, Taft Used a Modern Diet.”
killed 512 large animals: Roosevelt African Expedition Collects for SI, Smithsonian Institution Archives, siarchives.si.edu; Phil Edwards, “All 512 Animals Teddy Roosevelt and His Son Killed on Safari,” Vox, Feb. 3, 2016, www.vox.com. For total of 23,151 specimens, see “Smithsonian African Expedition (1909),” Smithsonian Institution, www.si.edu.
“game butchery”: Roosevelt, African Game Trails, vol. 1, 15.
“I toasted slices of elephant’s heart”: Morris, Colonel Roosevelt, 19.
shot a neighbor’s dog: Jamison, Exuberance, 9.
tech bros such as Mark Zuckerberg: Leo Hickman, “Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Only Eats Meat He Kills Himself,” Guardian, May 27, 2011. Zuckerberg gave up the practice in 2012.
showed signs of bipolar disorder: Jonathan R. T. Davidson, Kathryn M. Connor, and Marvin Swartz, “Mental Illness in U.S. Presidents Between 1776 and 1974,” Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 194, no. 1 (Jan. 2006): 47–51.
Roosevelt was of the latter persuasion: Morris, Theodore Rex, 452.
“I eat too much”: TR to Kermit, in Wagenknecht, Seven Worlds of Theodore Roosevelt, 29.
“done up in pajamas”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 259.
Wilson broke precedent: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 385–86.
“ball-gown frivolity”: Mrs. Josephus Daniels (Adelaide Worth Bagley Daniels), Recollections of a Cabinet Minister’s Wife, 1913–1921 (Raleigh, NC: Mitchell Printing Company, 1945), 7–8.
“I am very fond of country hams”: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 387.
clear soup, chicken salad, and strawberry ice cream: Ibid., 384–87.
fillet of sole, fillet of beef, breast of chicken: Ibid., 384.
hostilities broke out in the White House kitchen: Seale, The President’s House, vol. 2, 69.
Wilson’s central nervous system: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 256.
staring eyes of a moose: Ibid., 259.
diagnosed with Bright’s disease: Ibid., 257–58.
Edith Bolling Galt: Betty Boyd Caroli, “Edith Wilson,” Encyclopaedia Britannica.
“America First”: Will-Weber, Mint Juleps with Teddy Roosevelt, 219.
the president wept in private: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 260.
“food will win the war”: Suzy Evans, “Woodrow Wilson: ‘Foods That Will Win the War,’ and Liberty Cabbage,” The History Chef!, March 27, 2011, lincolnslunch.blogspot.com; Timothy Horning, “Food Will Win the War,” The PhillyHistory Blog, June 22, 2011, blog.phillyhistory.org.
“I did not realize it at the moment”: Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum, Museum Exhibit Galleries, The Humanitarian Years, web.archive.org/web/20110109151702/http://hoover.archives.gov/exhibits/Hooverstory/gallery02/index.html.
U.S. soldiers were better fed: “World War I Rations: Full Belly, Fully Ready,” Army Heritage Center Foundation, www.armyheritage.org.
“Wheatless Mondays and Wednesdays”: Together We Win, The Philadelphia Homefront During the First World War, togetherwewin.librarycompany.org; Lauren Young, “The Meatless, Wheatless Meals of World War I America,” Gastro Obscura, Jan. 10, 2017, www.atlasobscura.com.
replace Germanic food names: Evans, “Woodrow Wilson: ‘Foods That Will Win the War,’ and Liberty Cabbage.”
“At table I’ll not leave a scrap”: Kelly Burgess, “The Clean Plate Club: Why Your Family Shouldn’t Join,” iParenting Media, recipestoday.com.
Charles Lathrop Pack: Laura Schumm, “America’s Patriotic Victory Gardens,” History.com, Aug. 31, 2018, www.history.com; Tomoko Steen and Alison Kelly, “Charles Lathrop Pack: Pioneering the Idea of the ‘Victory Garden’ in the United States,” Biodiversity Heritage Library (blog), July 2, 2019, blog.biodiversitylibrary.org; Ruby Scalera, “Not So Secret Gardens,” Culture Crush, www.theculturecrush.com.
most notably Alice Waters: Waters in conversation with the author, Sept. 12, 2019.
a flock of sheep: “Why Did President Wilson Keep a Flock of Sheep on the White House Lawn?,” WHHA; Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 260.
Wheat prices spiked dramatically: World War I and Wheat Farmers, Harry S. Truman Library, www.trumanlibrary.gov.
a fixed price of $2 a bushel: “Price Control in Wartime,” CQ Press Library, library.cqpress.com.
in 1918 the administration had to ration sugar: “Food Will Win the War,” Together We Win, The Philadelphia Homefront During the First War, togetherwewin.librarycompany.org.
“rather hard game of golf”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 260.
“My right eye is like a horse’s”: Ibid., 258.
Grayson’s dietary advice: Ibid., 256; Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 387.
“a ten-cent pickled mackerel”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 250.
“put on his war paint”: Woodrow Wilson, AZQuotes.com, www.azquotes.com.
“intolerable burden of…ignorant Negroes”: Becky Little, “How Woodrow Wilson Tried to Reverse Black American Progress,” History.com, July 14, 2020.
decisions that have tarnished his legacy: Princeton University Office of Communications, “Board of Trustees’ Decision on Removing Woodrow Wilson’s Name from Public Policy School and Residential College,” press release, June 27, 2020.
“No man has ever been a success”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 251.
“imperious passions”: Auchincloss, Woodrow Wilson, 22.
Mrs. Mary Allen Hulbert Peck: Frances W. Saunders, “Love and Guilt: Woodrow Wilson and Mary Hulbert,” American Heritage, April/May 1979.
“I found him longing”: Horst Augustinovic, “Do You Know…About Woodrow Wilson’s ‘Flirtatious Relationship’ in Bermuda?,” Bermuda.com, www.bermuda.com.
Wilson claimed to have told: Molly McCartney, “A President’s Secret Letters to Another Woman That He Never Wanted Public,” WP, Sept. 16, 2018.
“poor, mixed, inexplicable nature”: Cooper, Woodrow Wilson, 100.
“Hunger does not breed reform”: Woodrow Wilson, “Address to a Joint Session of Congress Concerning the Terms of Armistice Signed by Germany,” Nov. 11, 1918, American Presidency Project, University of California, Santa Barbara, www.presidency.ucsb.edu.
“there will come some time”: Hogan, Woodrow Wilson’s Western Tour, 159.
He accused the hotel staff of being spies: Michael S. Rosenwald, “In 1918, the Flu Infected the White House. Even President Wilson Got Sick,” WP, Oct. 2, 2020; Auchincloss, Woodrow Wilson, 96.
“the president is able-minded”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 261.
Edith fiercely guarded the door: Anthony Bergen, “Woodrow Wilson’s Wives and the Freudian Typo,” Dead Presidents, Feb. 4, 2011, deadpresidents.tumblr.com.
He was a moderate drinker: Will-Weber, Mint Juleps with Teddy Roosevelt, 217–25.
considered one of the worst presidents: Jay Tolson, “Worst Presidents: Warren Harding (1921–1923),” U.S. News & World Report, Feb. 16, 2007.
“the atmosphere was as different”: Thomas Mallon, “Less Said,” New Yorker, March 3, 2013.
“silent in five languages”: H. W. Brands, “Silent Cal: The Taciturn Coolidge’s Term Spoke Volumes About the Modern Presidency,” WP, Jan. 21, 2007.
“I made a bet today”: Ibid.
“had taught the deaf”: Mallon, “Less Said.”
apple pie…pave a road: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 418.
Rebecca (who lived in a tree house): Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 283.
“Weaned on a pickle”: Mallon, “Less Said.”
pork-apple-pie: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 415–16.
chickens…Roosevelt’s former mint garden: Ibid., 411.
called every meal “supper”….nuts: Ibid., 405.
roast beef: Ibid., 406.
six Virginia hams “seems an awful lot”: Cheryl Mullenbach, “White House Secrets Revealed by Iowa Woman in 1920s,” IowaWatch.org, Nov. 18, 2017, www.iowawatch.org.
his “greatest disappointment”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 276.
asked for the recipe: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 411.
The intellectual parts of a dinner: Quan, To a President’s Taste, 8–17; Daniel L. Wright, “On Food,” The Importance of the Obvious (blog), July 30, 2013, crackerpilgrim.com.
“a chicken in every pot”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 290.
contracted malaria, stumbled into a tiger’s den: Mayer, Lou Henry Hoover, 72, 123; Harris, First Ladies Fact Book, 467–77.
“If a man hasn’t made a million”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 289.
“the food regulator of the world”: Bertrand M. Patenaude, “Food as a Weapon,” Hoover Digest, Jan. 30, 2007.
“America’s Food Czar”: Tori Avey, “Discover the History of Meatless Mondays,” The History Kitchen, PBS, Aug. 16, 2013, www.pbs.org.
“The prime objective of the United States”: Patenaude, “Food as a Weapon.”
“Gentlemen, food is a weapon”: Ibid.
But when five to ten million Russians died: Ibid.
“Twenty million people are starving”: Herbert Hoover, White House, from Freidel and Sidey, Presidents of the United States of America, www.whitehouse.gov.
“Medicine Ball Cabinet”: Jeffries, In and Out of the White House, 331–32.
dressed in a formal dinner jacket: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 292.
Lou directed her fifty-eight staff members: Ibid., 290.
three full-time secretaries: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 420.
they dined alone just once a year: Jeffries, In and Out of the White House, 331.
“the best” foods: Ibid., 332.
they relied on Mary Rattley: Ibid., 335–36.
when he burst out of the elevator: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 291.
On April 1, 1912, Karl Anderson: John Mundt, “The Historic Penobscot: America’s Atlantic Salmon Fishing Legacy,” American Fly Fisher 22, no. 3 (Summer 1996): 6.
“wash one’s soul with pure air”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 296.
Maine did not vote Democratic: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 421.
The last Presidential Salmon was delivered: Caroline Lester, “The Last Presidential Salmon,” New Yorker, Aug. 7, 2019.
in 2014 only 248 salmon: “Penobscot River Salmon Run Surges for Second Straight Year,” NOAA Fisheries, July 28, 2020.
only 561 a year later: “Fewer Atlantic Salmon Found in Maine River,” Associated Press, Feb. 14, 2022.
fifteen generations of Atlantic salmon: John Holyoke, “Maine’s Atlantic Salmon Likely to Be on ‘Endangered List’ Another 75 Years,” Bangor Daily News, Feb. 13, 2019.
“The political machinery [is] unable to cope”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 291–92.
Hoover lost thirty-five pounds: Ibid., 297.
The staff took bets on how quickly: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 421; Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 296.
“minimum actual suffering”: Roger Lambert, “Hoover and the Red Cross in the Arkansas Drought of 1930,” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 29, no. 1 (Spring 1970): 3–19, www.jstor.org; “Drought of 1930–31,” Encyclopedia of Arkansas, encyclopediaofarkansas.net.
The homeless built shanties: “Hoovervilles,” History.com, Nov. 2, 2018, www.history.com.
“My men are dropping”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 297.
“a gibbering idiot”: Ibid., 298.
“I can’t go on with it anymore”: Ibid., 297.
private dinner with Wendell Willkie: Roosevelt and Shalett, Affectionately, F.D.R., 324–25; Wendell Willkie (1892–1944), Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project, George Washington University, erpapers.columbian.gwu.edu.
terrapin soup…a delicacy made with the flesh: Nesbitt, White House Diary, 123.
The diamondback terrapin is native: Callum Cleary, “Washington’s Lost Food Craze: Terrapin Soup,” Boundary Stones (blog), WETA, Oct. 19, 2017, boundarystones.weta.org.
“white and sweet” terrapin flesh: Ibid.
“muddy, dirty, mushy and chewy”: Turtle Meat—Boneless, Cajun Grocer, www.cajungrocer.com.
By the twentieth century, Heinz: Natasha Frost, “How America Fell into—and out of—Love with Mock Turtle Soup,” Gastro Obscura, Aug. 3, 2017, www.atlasobscura.com.
For the Willkie dinner to succeed: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 439.
Over bowls of the elixir: Fullilove, Rendezvous with Destiny.
“Great bursts of laughter”: Roosevelt and Shalett, Affectionately, F.D.R., 324–25.
FDR liked to serve the broth: Nesbitt, White House Diary, 307.
“These are the bones of rats!”: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 439.
kippered herring or creamed chipped beef: Nesbitt, White House Diary, 298.
He delighted in the “curious food gifts”: Ibid., 70–73, 297–98; Roosevelt and Shalett, Affectionately, F.D.R., 238.
FDR liked to grind his own coffee: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 431.
“the most delicious thing”: Roosevelt and Shalett, Affectionately, F.D.R., 238.
“Very few things which I eat”: Eleanor Roosevelt, Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt’s Own Program, episode 14, June 13, 1940, www2.gwu.edu.
“Mother is a wonderful woman”: Roosevelt and Shalett, Affectionately, F.D.R., 238.
Washington’s crab soup: Mitchell, Presidential Flavors, 169–70.
“Crisis or no crisis, the tension of the country”: Laura Shapiro, “The First Kitchen,” New Yorker, Nov. 22, 2010.
“The woman who boils potatoes”: Ibid.
Milkorno: Elaine Engst and Blaine Friedlander, “Cornell Rewind: The Influence of Eleanor Roosevelt,” Cornell Chronicle, Dec. 11, 2014.
“A loaf of bread sent me”: Nesbitt, White House Diary, 10.
She married Henry Nesbitt: Haber, From Hardtack to Home Fries, 116.
“kindest face I’ve ever seen”: Nesbitt, White House Diary, 9.
“Would you mind making up”: Ibid., 11–13.
“only saloonkeepers are Democrats”: Ibid., 14–15.
“someone I know”: Ibid., 20.
“I can’t work up any charm for cockroaches”: Ibid., 30.
Public Works Project No. 634: Ibid., 146; “The White House Kitchen Nightmare,” National Women’s History Museum, June 28, 2013, www.womenshistory.org.
the Roosevelts’ first diplomatic dinner: Nesbitt, White House Diary, 34–35.
Ida Allen, and a rotating cast: Ibid., 118; Nolan Moore, “The Delicious History of the White House Executive Chef,” Mental Floss, Jan. 23, 2017, www.mentalfloss.com.
“economy meals”: Nesbitt, White House Diary, 42.
noodles with chicken scraps: Ibid.; “White House Kitchen Nightmare.”
gumbo z’herbes: Henrietta Nesbitt’s Recipes, Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out, ourwhitehouse.org.
“so many meals it all blurred”: Nesbitt, White House Diary, 40.
“I was sick of food”: Ibid., 251.
“plain foods, plainly prepared”: Nelson, President Is at Camp David, 16.
“My God! Doesn’t Mrs. Nesbitt know”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 305.
called “Fluffy” behind her back: Haber, From Hardtack to Home Fries, 112.
“Same Menu Four Days Palls”: NYT, March 2, 1937.
“Do you remember that about a month ago”: Roosevelt and Shalett, Affectionately, F.D.R., 238–39.
“You ought to get a manager”: Nesbitt, White House Diary, 50.
“did not enjoy a very high reputation”: Roosevelt and Shalett, Affectionately, F.D.R., 237.
“the worst I’ve ever eaten”: James Atlas, “The Private Hemingway: From His Unpublished Letters, 1918–1961,” New York Times Magazine, Feb. 15, 1981.
“tizzy-wizzies”: Nesbitt, White House Diary, 263.
“When he said ‘The vegetables are watery’ ”: Ibid., 185–86.
“The responsibility for what she spent”: Roosevelt and Shalett, Affectionately, F.D.R., 381–82.
he shied from confrontations with his staff: Ibid., 236–37.
“it became part of his nature”: Ibid., 236.
“Pa couldn’t even bring himself”: Ibid., 237.
FDR “liked her cooking”: Nesbitt, White House Diary, 299.
“ostensibly in jest but actually”: Roosevelt and Shalett, Affectionately, F.D.R., 237.
an ordeal to be borne: Russell Baker, “The Charms of Eleanor,” New York Review of Books, June 9, 2011.
“deserved a good time”: Allida M. Black, “For FDR, an Enduring Relationship,” WP, March 1, 1998.
“an armed truce that endured”: Joseph E. Persico, “FDR’s Secret Love,” U.S. News & World Report, April 18, 2008.
“I have the memory of an elephant”: Michael Kernan, “Eleanor Roosevelt, Pioneer,” WP, Sept. 13, 1984.
“simple foods that…reflected the hard times”: Haber, From Hardtack to Home Fries, 120–23.
Blanche Wiesen Cook: Ibid., 122.
“ER’s revenge”: Shapiro, “First Kitchen.”
FDR hatched a plan: David Levine, “Franklin Delano Roosevelt: The Picnic That Won the War, the Royal Visit, the Hot Dog Summit of 1939, and Hyde Park on the Hudson Movie,” Hudson Valley Magazine, Nov. 25, 2012.
FDR staged his coup de théâtre: Conradi, Hot Dogs and Cocktails, 213–14.
The king eyed the hot dog and said, “What should I do?”: Doug Mack, “Why American Leaders Relish Hot-Dog Diplomacy,” Gastro Obscura, June 17, 2022, www.atlasobscura.com.
“King Tries Hot Dog and Asks for More”: NYT, June 11, 1939.
“wait for the consequences”: Transcript of King George VI’s Handwritten Notes for a Memorandum on His Conversation with President Roosevelt on June 10 and 11, 1939, Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum.
“the picnic that won the war”: Levine, “Franklin Delano Roosevelt: The Picnic That Won the War.”
“One p.m. small lunch, about thirty-four”: Nesbitt, White House Diary, 268–69.
nab FDR “by the elevator”: Ibid., 264.
“ ‘Hush-hush,’ ‘Confidential,’ ‘V.I.P.’ ”: Ibid., 271.
“We will be having some guests tonight”: Author’s re-creation, based on Eleanor Roosevelt, “Churchill at the White House,” Atlantic, March 1965.
“going fishing”: Nesbitt, White House Diary, 266.
To cross the Atlantic, Churchill: Stelzer, Dinner with Churchill, 66.
“looked poor-colored and hungry”: Nesbitt, White House Diary, 273.
“to the Common Cause!”: Stelzer, Dinner with Churchill, 75.
“tummy time”: Ibid., 170.
He suffered “indy”: Ibid., 169, 171.
“a hot bath, cold champagne”: Edward Helmore, “The Wonderful World of Winnie,” Wall Street Journal, April 27, 2012.
“superannuated drunkard supported”: Stelzer, Dinner with Churchill, 187.
noodle soup; roast beef: Ibid., 79.
“new people, new places”: Eleanor Roosevelt, “Churchill at the White House.”
“It was a thrilling experience”: Stelzer, Dinner with Churchill, 20.
“It is fun to be in the same century”: Ibid., 41.
“Mother would fume and go in and out”: Ibid., 79.
“two little boys playing soldier”: Thomas Maier, “A Wartime White House Christmas with Churchill,” Wall Street Journal, Dec. 21, 2014.
On December 26, 1941: Ibid.
“hardboiled egg of a man”: Stelzer, Dinner with Churchill, 92.
in 1942, Stalin had plied Churchill: Ibid., 91–93.
Mrs. Nesbitt wrestled with strict rationing: Nesbitt, White House Diary, 284–85.
“Damn it, I don’t want beef!”: Ibid., 298.
Mrs. Nesbitt noted in her diary: Ibid., 299, 305.
The first was held in Tehran: Stelzer, Dinner with Churchill, 102.
Churchill hosted a party: Ibid., 109–11.
“a never-to-be forgotten” event: Ibid., 103.
used starvation as a weapon: Shashi Tharoor, “In Winston Churchill, Hollywood Rewards a Mass Murderer,” WP, March 10, 2018; Shashi Tharoor, “Winston Churchill—War Criminal, Enemy of Humanity & Decency,” Print, Feb. 16, 2019.
The drive to acquire and deny calories: “Food as a Weapon of War,” Encyclopedia.com, www.encyclopedia.com.
“Hunger Plan”: Timothy Snyder, “The Reich’s Forgotten Atrocity,” Guardian, Oct. 21, 2010; Mette Bruaas, “Hitler’s Hunger Plan,” Nobel Peace Center, May 19, 2021.
Vietnamese rice, one to two million people died: Geoffrey Gunn, “The Great Vietnamese Famine,” Sciences Po, May 12, 2011.
“the stomach governs the world”: Stelzer, Dinner with Churchill, 169.
“tired to the point of an inhuman loneliness”: Nesbitt, White House Diary, 301.
“all went smoothly”: Ibid., 309.
“A man came in from one of the hotels”: Ibid., 306.
Truman was tucking into a bourbon: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 319.
“Being President is like riding a tiger”: “Truman: The First 100 Days,” Truman Library Institute, www.trumanlibraryinstitute.org.
On May 8, 1945, he celebrated: Peter Grier, “V-E Day: How President Truman Reacted on May 8, 1945,” Christian Science Monitor, May 8, 2015.
“celebrated the winning of the war”: Yank, the Army Weekly, Sept. 7, 1945.
“a dizzy whirl”: McCullough, Truman, 464.
“I just dread moving”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 318.
“I’m not the one elected”: Ibid., 321.
“Although it went unsuspected”: West, Upstairs at the White House, 63–66.
“the Roosevelts’ tyrannical housekeeper”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 326–27; Feather Schwartz Foster, “Mrs. Truman and the Housekeeper,” Presidential History Blog, featherfoster.wordpress.com.
“It’s time to find a new housekeeper”: West, Upstairs at the White House, 73–74.
“until the Trumans got settled”: Nesbitt, White House Diary, 312.
“We pour whiskey down the guests’ throats”: West, Upstairs at the White House, 73–74.
“a meat and potatoes man”: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 450.
“no butter, no sugar, no sweets”: McCullough, Truman, 857–58.
“A man in my position”: West, Upstairs at the White House, 62.
“get the engine going”: McCullough, Truman, 857–58.
“emotional separation”: Quoted in ibid., 578–79.
Vietta Garr: “Miss Vietta Garr,” Harry S. Truman National Historic Site, National Park Service, www.nps.gov.
“Never so lonesome in my life”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 323–24.
“Damn place is haunted”: Ibid., 324–25.
“sagged and moved like a ship”: Michael Beschloss, “Harry Truman’s Extreme Home Makeover,” NYT, May 9, 2015.
“skyscraper-strength”: Ibid.
the building looked almost identical: “Saving the White House: Truman’s Extreme Makeover,” Truman Library Institute, www.trumanlibraryinstitute.org.
“a modern office inside a deserted castle”: McCullough, Truman, 1043.
The 62 rooms, fourteen baths: Russoli and Russoli, Ike the Cook, 63.
Founding the Citizens Food Committee: Harry S. Truman, Remarks to Members of the Citizens Food Committee, Oct. 1, 1947, American Presidency Project; John W. Ball, “Marshalling America,” WP, Oct. 6, 1999.
Truman launched Operation Vittles: Bob van der Linden, “Supplying a City by Air: The Berlin Airlift,” Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, Sept. 14, 2018, airandspace.si.edu; David Kindy, “How the ‘Candy Bomber’ Left a Lasting Legacy in Cold War Germany,” Smithsonian, Feb. 24, 2022.
At 9:20 on Saturday evening, June 24, 1950: Details from McCullough, Truman, 928–31. For background, see Brinkley, White House Butlers, 77–78; Debbie Elliott, “On Eve of War, Truman Turned to Comfort Food,” NPR, Sept. 30, 2006.
At a raucous lunch: James E. Chinn, “Being Home Best, ‘Ike’ Tells Luncheon,” WP, June 19, 1945.
“simple and homey…community supper”: Russoli and Russoli, Ike the Cook, 32.
a spat over protocol: Ibid., 62; Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 333.
“Cooking gave me a creative feeling”: Russoli and Russoli, Ike the Cook, 6–7.
Ike grew corn and cucumbers: Ibid., 3.
“Food is part of a soldier’s pay”: Ibid., 7–8.
“I was never permitted in the kitchen”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 336.
“I was a cooking school dropout”: Russoli and Russoli, Ike the Cook, back cover.
“I’ve been a mess sergeant”: Ibid.
the Eisenhowers’ marriage was strained: Michael Beschloss, “D-Day Wasn’t the First Time Eisenhower Felt as if He Had Lost a Son,” NYT, June 11, 2014.
“hifalutin’ gourmet stuff”: Russoli and Russoli, Ike the Cook, 32.
disenchanted with English breakfasts: Ibid., 20, 68.
lunch of hot dogs and baked beans: Ibid., 24–25.
they subsisted on K rations: Ibid., 28.
Ike pictured himself: Ibid., 35.
What’s Cooking at Columbia: Ibid., 39–40.
“At last I have a job”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 334.
“knife and fork” meetings: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 466; Russoli and Russoli, Ike the Cook, 76.
a series of private stag dinners: “What Goes on at Ike’s Dinners,” U.S. News & World Report, Feb. 4, 1955.
a stag dinner nearly every week: “More Men Who Came to Dinner,” U.S. News & World Report, April 8, 1955.
invited them to a series of breakfasts: “What Goes on at Ike’s Dinners.”
“In conversation he is not a fencer”: Ibid.
“hidden weapon…presidential charm”: “More Men Who Came to Dinner.”
“Those who have put money and work”: “What Goes on at Ike’s Dinners.”
Pink was her signature color: Russoli and Russoli, Ike the Cook, 62, 75.
“the best career that life”: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 465.
Mamie snapped, “What’s this?”: West, Upstairs at the White House, 120–21.
“loved quality…rich silks and brocades”: Melissa Naulin, “ ‘Proud Housewife’: Mamie Eisenhower Collects for the White House,” WHHA.
“terribly disappointed that she couldn’t transform”: West, Upstairs at the White House, 129.
complete a project started by First Lady Caroline Harrison: Russoli and Russoli, Ike the Cook, 75.
“china closet in order”: Naulin, “ ‘Proud Housewife.’ ”
“How about lunch, tea & dinner today?”: John Kifner, “Eisenhower Letters Hint at Affair with Aide,” NYT, June 6, 1991.
General Omar Bradley said: Merle Miller, Plain Speaking, 339–40.
“I suppose inevitably, we found ourselves”: Kifner, “Eisenhower Letters Hint at Affair with Aide”; Tom Buckley, review of Past Forgetting, by Kay Summersby, NYT, Feb. 13, 1977.
throwing euphoric holiday parties: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 466; Russoli and Russoli, Ike the Cook, 103–4.
He was up at 6:00 a.m.: Russoli and Russoli, Ike the Cook, 69.
Eisenhower’s quail hash: Ibid., 77.
Mamie steered the cooks: Ibid., 78.
“Look, in my house the ladies”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 340.
Mamie liked Scrabble and canasta: Russoli and Russoli, Ike the Cook, 71.
Sun Chop Suey Restaurant: Ibid., 78.
“gossips say [the First Family’s trays]”: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 466.
Ike preferred Westerns: Russoli and Russoli, Ike the Cook, 82, 78.
“What are those portholes for?”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 340.
first real TV president: Russoli and Russoli, Ike the Cook, 78–80.
“this damnable thing of war”: Dwight D. Eisenhower obituary, Daily Kent Stater, April 1, 1969.
“the military-industrial complex”: President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Farewell Address, Jan. 17, 1961, National Archives, www.archives.gov.
“You know, farming looks mighty easy”: Eisenhower address at Bradley University, Peoria, Ill., Sept. 25, 1956, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum & Boyhood Home, National Archives, www.eisenhowerlibrary.gov.
189-acre farm near the Gettysburg battlefield: Eisenhower National Historic Site, Virtual Museum Exhibit, National Park Service, www.nps.gov.
which he froze and proudly brought: Russoli and Russoli, Ike the Cook, 118.
Using his position in ways: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 338.
cooked for family and friends: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 467, 471, 479; Russoli and Russoli, Ike the Cook, 77, 87, 89; “Eisenhower Steak,” Smoke Signals, WP, Sept. 17, 2014; Matt Lee and Ted Lee, “For a Better Steak, Cook Directly on Charcoal,” NYT, June 25, 2015.
“hunger and insecurity are the worst enemies”: Statement of General Marshall, issued Oct. 1, 1947, noted in Harry S. Truman, “Remarks to Members of the Citizens Food Committee,” American Presidency Project.
“Food and Fiber as a Force for Freedom”: Public Law 480, “Better Than a Bomber,” Middle East Research and Information Project.
Food for Peace was a way to spread: Russoli and Russoli, Ike the Cook, 83.
Food for Peace has operated: USAID Office of Food for Peace, www.usaid.gov; Brett D. Schaefer, “Reforming U.S. Food Aid Can Feed Millions More at the Same Cost,” National Review, May 14, 2018.
“food, family, friendship, and freedom”: Dwight D. Eisenhower, Remarks at the Opening of the World Agricultural Fair in New Delhi, Dec. 11, 1959.
Rysavy brought an unusual global repertoire: Rysavy and Leighton, Treasury of White House Cooking, jacket copy and recipes.
He preferred steak cooked rare: Harrison Kinney, “Exclusive! White House Chef Reveals President Eisenhower’s Special Diet,” McCall’s, Dec. 1957.
he and Mamie took a vacation: Russoli and Russoli, Ike the Cook, 92; Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 344–45.
four packs of cigarettes: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 343.
“my first serious illness”: Eisenhower, Mandate for Change, 544–45.
suffered through a “lite” diet: Kinney, “Exclusive!”
Ike’s light diet was as trying: Ibid.
Eisenhower must keep his temper: Ambrose, Eisenhower, vol. 2, 291.
guest list was kept secret: Ibid., 288–89, 571.
“Should I run again?”: Ibid.
“I suspect that Foster’s estimate”: Ibid., 295.
“idleness” for a man of Ike’s temperament: Ibid., 571.
“What on earth would we talk about?”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 343.
“It was years before he asked me”: Ibid., 347.
On June 7, 1956, President Eisenhower: Ibid., 346; Russoli and Russoli, Ike the Cook, 93.
“What a bellyache!”: Russoli and Russoli, Ike the Cook, 93.
Rysavy was instructed to make: Kinney, “Exclusive!”
That night, David Eisenhower and Julie Nixon: Russoli and Russoli, Ike the Cook, 99–101.
A year later, the president was confined to bed: Ibid., 102.
greeted the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 467.
The Soviets reciprocated with dinner: Russoli and Russoli, Ike the Cook, 109–110.
“nothing short of awful”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 340.
“I find that self-rising flour”: Russoli and Russoli, Ike the Cook, 83.
“You can’t stop the president from cooking”: Ibid., 71.
“The food is marvelous”: Leonard Bernstein, recorded interview by Nelson Aldrich Jr., July 21, 1965, John F. Kennedy Library Oral History Program.
Mrs. Kennedy modeled her soirees: Sally Bedell Smith, “Grace and Power,” NYT, July 25, 2004.
“showcase for great American art and artists”: Margaret Leslie Davis, “The Two First Ladies,” Vanity Fair, Oct. 6, 2008.
“Perhaps more than any other President”: Baldrige and Verdon, In the Kennedy Style, 33.
had prepared an exquisite banquet: Ibid., 72.
“perhaps the greatest cellist”: Ibid., 67.
“The moment Senor Casals drew his bow”: Ibid., 70.
“The French know this”: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, interviewed by Terry L. Birdwhistell for the University of Kentucky Libraries’ John Sherman Cooper Oral History Project, May 13, 1981, transcript in “Jackie Kennedy Talks About the Coopers in 1981 Interview,” Courier Journal, Nov. 21, 2013.
Speaking to the political historian: Sally Bedell Smith, Grace and Power, excerpted in NYT, July 25, 2004.
One night in May 1951: Edward Klein, “Young Love,” Vanity Fair, Sept. 1996.
After defeating Richard M. Nixon: Thomas Reeves, A Question of Character, 214–15, as quoted in “Closeness of 1960 Election,” Kennedy Library.
“took the wine but needed no more”: Todd Purdum, “From That Day Forth,” Vanity Fair, Feb. 2011.
“I want a good party”: Baldrige and Verdon, In the Kennedy Style, 27–28.
White House curator: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 352.
“Everything in the White House”: “Jacqueline Kennedy in the White House,” Kennedy Library.
The resulting TV documentary: The Reliable Source, “Jackie Kennedy’s White House Tour; JFK Library Details Her Role in Restoration,” WP, Feb. 13, 2012.
small round tables: Baldrige, quoted by Maureen Orth, “When Washington Was Fun,” Vanity Fair, Nov. 5, 2007.
she reduced the traditional five-course meals to four: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 485.
“the opposite of what you’d find in a funeral home”: Balridge and Verdon, In the Kennedy Style, 31–32.
Bui Van Han: Henry Voigt, “What Jackie Liked to Eat,” The American Menu (blog), March 20, 2013, theamericanmenu.com.
La Caravelle: Frank DiGiacomo, “La Renaissance de La Caravelle,” Observer, Jan. 15, 2001; Florence Fabricant, “La Caravelle, a French Legend, Is Closing After 43 Years,” NYT, May 12, 2004.
“I worked at Le Pavillon”: Pépin to the author, June 12, 2018.
On April 5, 1961, Verdon served a lunch: William Grimes, “René Verdon, French Chef for the Kennedys, Dies at 86,” NYT, Feb. 5, 2011.
“There’s nothing like French cooking”: Katrina Heron, “Heavy Is the Toque at a State Dinner,” NYT, Nov. 5, 2009.
“I cooked everything fresh”: Emma Brown, “Rene Verdon, White House Chef for the Kennedys, Dies at 86,” WP, Feb. 3, 2011.
la Maison Blanche: “Jacqueline Kennedy in the White House,” Kennedy Library.
“how to make average food appetizing”: Polan, Julia Child’s The French Chef, 59.
“Nothing is too much trouble”: Child with Prud’homme, My Life in France, 302.
Julius Spessot: Luisa Spessot, phone interview with the author, July 23, 2018.
“tastes are distressingly normal”: Voigt, “What Jackie Liked to Eat.”
Joe’s Stone Crab: Letitia Baldrige, “A Party in Camelot,” McCall’s, May 1998.
“was no less attentive”: Voigt, “What Jackie Liked to Eat.”
Her favorite dinner was cold poached salmon: Voigt, “What Jackie Liked to Eat.”
Jackie kept her weight at exactly 120 pounds: Sally Bedell Smith, “Private Camelot,” Vanity Fair, May 2004.
“irritating…vain…impossible to please”: Ted Sorensen, in Margaret Leslie Davis, “The Two First Ladies,” Vanity Fair, Oct. 6, 2008.
“I am the man who accompanied”: Baldrige and Verdon, In the Kennedy Style, 41.
The evening “was magic”: Ibid., 39.
the Pakistanis worried that it would be seen as a snub: Bruce Reidel, “JFK’s Forgotten CIA Crisis,” Daily Beast, Nov. 8, 2015.
“a total mastery of detail”: Davis, “Two First Ladies.”
To accommodate 132 guests: Description of Khan state dinner at Mount Vernon in Baldrige and Verdon, In the Kennedy Style, 49–50; “Kennedy State Dinner: Four Grand Yachts Transport 140 Guests to a Memorable Feast on the East Lawn,” George Washington’s Mount Vernon, mountvernon.org.
“their own state dinner”: “Kennedy State Dinner.”
“a quiet little phrase of iron”: Baldrige and Verdon, In the Kennedy Style, 53.
Just before the eight o’clock dinner: Reidel, “JFK’s Forgotten CIA Crisis.”
JFK’s charm and Jackie’s spectacular: Ibid.
“As they walked with their escorts”: Baldrige and Verdon, In the Kennedy Style, 61.
Verdon’s dinner included crabmeat: Ibid., 62–63; Heron, “Heavy Is the Toque at a State Dinner.”
Khan as the George Washington of Pakistan: Reidel, “JFK’s Forgotten CIA Crisis.”
“Jackie wanted to do Versailles in America”: Davis, “Two First Ladies.”
“Brains Dinner”: Baldrige and Verdon, In the Kennedy Style, 88.
“Jack and Jackie actually shimmered”: William Styron, “Havanas in Camelot,” Vanity Fair, July 1996.
Verdon created a seafood mousse: Cannon and Brooks, Presidents’ Cookbook, 484.
“I think this is the most extraordinary”: Sally Bedell Smith, “Private Camelot,” Vanity Fair, May 2004.
“intellectual crush”: Davis, “Two First Ladies.”
“Where are the…really great Americans”: Emery Roe, “Recalibrating Politics: The Kennedy White House Dinner for André Malraux,” When Complex Is as Simple as It Gets, Dec. 16, 2019, mess-and-reliability.blog.
a détente was secretly brokered: Clyde H. Farnsworth, “Where Spies Are…or Have Been, or Might Be,” NYT, Nov. 14, 1985.
“Mona Mania” drew more than a million visitors: Davis, “Two First Ladies.”
golden interlude: Schlesinger, in ibid.
“Maybe I’m just dazzled”: Lindsey Bever, “Jacqueline Kennedy’s Newly Discovered Personal Letters Reveal 14 Years of Secrets,” WP, May 13, 2014.
“No one ever knew John Kennedy”: Adam Bernstein, “Charles Bartlett, Pulitzer-Winning Journalist and Kennedy Loyalist, Dies at 95,” WP, Feb. 18, 2017.
His liaisons spanned the gamut: Amy Davidson Sorkin, “Mimi and the President,” New Yorker, Feb. 10, 2012; Smith, “Private Camelot”; Caitlin Flanagan, “Jackie and the Girls,” Atlantic, July/Aug. 2012.
“like my father in a way”: Michael Parsons, “He’s Like My Father in a Way—Loves the Chase and Is Bored with the Conquest,” Irish Times, May 13, 2014; Kate Sheehy, “Jackie Kennedy’s Letters to Priest Reveal Loneliness, Suspicion,” New York Post, May 13, 2014.
“Happy biiiirthday, Mis-terr Pres-i-dennt”: Marilyn Monroe, “Happy Birthday Mr. President,” youtube.com.
Jackie arranged for a birthday dinner: Smith, “Private Camelot.”
“they were doing the twist”: Ian Shapira, “JFK’s Last Birthday: Gifts, Champagne, and Wandering Hands on the Presidential Yacht,” WP, May 26, 2017.
“never more intense and more complete”: Davis, “Two First Ladies.”
On November 22, JFK had his usual breakfast: Daisy Nichols, “Last Meals of 23 Famous People,” The Daily Meal, Aug. 29, 2018, www.thedailymeal.com.
“Mr. President, you can’t say Dallas”: Testimony of Mrs. John Bowden Connally Jr., Warren Commission Hearings, Assassination Archives and Research Center, 147.
“No, you certainly can’t”: Testimony of Mrs. John F. Kennedy, Warren Commission Hearings, Assassination Archives and Research Center, 179.
Ninety-eight minutes: Olivia B. Waxman, “The Story Behind the Photo of LBJ Being Sworn In as President After JFK Died—and the Trailblazing Woman in the Corner,” Time, Nov. 21, 2018.
“An assassin’s bullet has thrust upon me”: LBJ addresses Congress following JFK’s assassination, Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress, Nov. 27, 1963, “Lady Bird Johnson,” PBS, 2001, www.pbs.org.
by 1962 fifty million Americans: Markku Ruotsila, “Michael Harrington,” Britannica, www.britannica.com.
Even by the U.S. government’s conservative estimate: “Poverty in America,” Monthly Labor Review 87, no. 3 (March 1964), 285–91.
For Johnson, the issue was personal: Robert Caro, in “For LBJ, the War on Poverty Was Personal,” Morning Edition, NPR, Jan. 8, 2014.
“No single weapon or strategy”: Lyndon Baines Johnson, First State of the Union Address, Jan. 8, 1964, American Rhetoric Online Speech Bank, www.americanrhetoric.com.
They called it the Stonewall ranch: Lyndon B. Johnson Ranch House, Park Road 49, Stonewall, Gillespie County, Tex., Library of Congress, loc.gov.
On a typical visit: Hal K. Rothman, “Our Heart’s Home”: A Historic Resource Study of the Texas White House, National Park Service Southwest Region, Professional Paper No. 60, 121.
a successful radio and TV business: Meathead, “In 1963, a First State Dinner for the Record Books,” HuffPost, Dec. 6, 2017.
Marlboro cigarette ads: Kathleen Salch, “Present at the Creation: Marlboro Man,” NPR, Oct. 21, 2002.
“began a universalization of the ranch”: Rothman, “Our Heart’s Home,” 73.
On December 29, the American and German delegates: Ibid.
“left time for relaxation”: Max Frankel, “Hopes of U.S. High for Erhard Talks,” NYT, Dec. 26, 1963.
“barbecue diplomacy”: Meathead, “In 1963, a First State Dinner for the Record Books.”
“where no child will go unfed”: Lyndon B. Johnson, Remarks in Athens at Ohio University, May 7, 1964, American Presidency Project.
“The Great Society rests on abundance”: President Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” Speech, delivered at the University of Michigan, May 22, 1964, Bill of Rights Institute, billofrightsinstitute.org.
“A generation ago it would have been”: Joshua Zeitz, “What Everyone Gets Wrong About LBJ’s Great Society,” Politico, Jan. 28, 2018.
“the central political error”: Ibid.
“Government is not the solution”: Reagan Inaugural Address, Jan. 20, 1981, Reagan Quotes and Speeches, Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute.
Lady Bird Johnson hired Zephyr Wright: Addie Broyles, “From the Archives: Zephyr Wright’s Legacy Lives On Through Famous LBJ Chili Recipe,” austin360, Nov. 25, 2015.
“almost as popular as the government pamphlet”: Rachel Saslow, “Exhibit Shows Government’s Role in U.S. Diet; Book Details Drug Firms’ Influence,” WP, June 27, 2011.
“Lady Bird Johnson’s Pedernales River Chili”: Johnson postcard, courtesy of Constance Carter, Library of Congress.
“Senator, I’m not going to do it”: “Recipes from the President’s Kitchen,” NPR, Feb. 19, 2008, www.npr.org.
“Mrs. Coopersmith…is given credit”: Brendan Gill, “Barbecue,” Talk of the Town, New Yorker, Aug. 29, 1964.
Johnson-Goldwater donnybrook reached a “fever pitch”: “President Johnson’s Pedernales River Chili,” UT News, Feb. 15, 2016.
at the end of 1965, Verdon resigned: Brown, “Rene Verdon, White House Chef for the Kennedys, Dies at 86.”
“I’m here in this country longer”: “Versatile Swiss Chef Joins LBJ,” Sarasota Journal, Jan. 20, 1966.
paid $10,000 a year: Henry Haller obituary, Times (London), Nov. 28, 2020.
“there is no better job”: Marian Burros, “White House Chef to Leave in Fall,” NYT, June 7, 1987.
“The greatest honor history can bestow”: First Inaugural Address of Richard Milhous Nixon, Jan. 20, 1969, Yale Law School, Avalon Project, avalon.law.yale.edu.
“I think we could open a grocery store”: West, Upstairs at the White House, 326.
Patricia “Pat” Nixon ordered four steaks: Ibid., 325; Haller, White House Family Cookbook, 80–82.
“just a bowl of cottage cheese”: Haller, White House Family Cookbook, 80.
“I eat cottage cheese”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 389.
“Unless I have a guest”: Ibid.
“Dick eats everything”: Marie Smith, “How Nixon Lives, What He Likes,” WP, Jan. 17, 1969, in Food Timeline, Richard M. Nixon, www.foodtimeline.org; Haller, White House Family Cookbook, 84–85.
“I am an introvert in an extrovert’s profession”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 384.
Richard the Lionheart: Aitken, Nixon, 6.
“the best potato masher”: Michael Rogin and John Lottier, “The Inner History of Richard Milhous Nixon,” Society 9 (November/December, 1971), 19–28.
made enough by gambling on poker: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 387.
“If you can’t lie”: Ibid., 395.
“After hooking a limb”: Ibid., 391.
“If you give me a week”: Ibid., 387.
concerns about food safety: Theresa Vargas, “Thanksgiving Panic: How a Cranberry Crisis Changed the Way Americans See Food,” WP, Nov. 20, 2017.
Pat Nixon stood just five feet six inches: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 389.
“marriage weight” of 175 pounds: Haller, White House Family Cookbook, 77.
his controlled diet verged on mania: Ibid., 71–72, 78–79, 91.
oenophile who collected fine bottles: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 390.
The Nixons reserved dessert: Haller, White House Family Cookbook, 106–7.
Tricia asked Haller for a hot dog: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 389.
White House Conference on Food, Nutrition, and Health: “1969 White House Conference,” 50th Anniversary of the White House Conference on Food, Nutrition, and Health, Tufts University, 2019, sites.tufts.edu.
Marian Wright brought a group of senators: Ellen Meacham, “50 Years Ago, RFK Exposed Hunger in Mississippi Delta,” Clarion Ledger, April 10, 2017.
The media latched on to the story: “Hunger in America,” CBS Reports, CBS News, peabodyawards.com.
“The nation cannot live with its conscience”: Walter Cronkite, CBS Evening News, Dec. 2, 1969; “White House Conference on Food, Nutrition, and Health,” Wikipedia.
6.6 million students: Jack Rosenthal, “White House Acts to Provide Meals for More Pupils,” NYT, Dec. 25, 1969.
“as if it had been a major military battle”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 388.
“the ineffable boredom of state dinners”: Kissinger, White House Years, 923–24.
“Men don’t really like soup”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 389.
One afternoon in February 1972: Hugh Davies, interview with the author, June 13, 2018; Maxine Cheshire, “Nixon-Kennedy ‘Surprise’ Film,” WP, Feb. 24, 1972.
“the week that changed the world”: “Nixon in China and the Week That Changed the World,” Asia Society: Northern California, asiasociety.org; Allen McDuffee, “How Secret Talks Between the U.S. and China Led to ‘the Week That Changed the World,’ ” timeline.com, Dec. 7, 2017.
“If you eat the things of others”: Coe, Chop Suey, 228.
“The Chinese take great pride”: Joseph Temple, “Dining for Détente: The Role Food Played During Nixon’s Trip to China,” International Wine & Food Society, July 18, 2014.
Winston Lord, who was married to: Coe, Chop Suey, 235.
“Banquet food served in [the PRC]”: Ibid.
in practicing with ivory, wood, and silver chopsticks: Ibid., 232.
“Dragon, Tiger, Phoenix” stew: Ibid., 231.
“It was very crunchy”: Ibid., 232.
“What is President Nixon’s favorite Chinese food?”: Ibid., 233.
Haldeman’s job was to portray: Ibid., 234, 236.
unaware that the chairman was ailing: Ibid., 237.
“We had our first taste of food”: Ibid., 238.
Maotai—a brand of baijiu: Ibid., 235.
“galley west”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 389.
“UNDER NO REPEAT NO CIRCUMSTANCES”: Temple, “Dining for Détente.”
“seize the day, seize the hour”: Coe, Chop Suey, 239.
Meanwhile, platters of food: Ibid., 238–39; Raymond A. Sokolov, “The Menus at Peking Banquet Didn’t Do Justice to the Foods,” NYT, Feb. 26, 1972.
“boiled water (cold)”: Florence Fabricant, “Nixon in China, the Dinner, Is Recreated,” NYT, Jan. 25, 2011.
Cronkite squeezed his chopsticks: Temple, “Dining for Détente.”
“The food is vastly more interesting”: Sokolov, “Menus at Peking Banquet Didn’t Do Justice to the Foods.”
“Here is a tremendous picture”: Ibid., 238.
Gallup poll: Temple, “Dining for Détente.”
gourmet Cantonese cookery flowered: Coe, in Macy Halford, “The Exchange: Chop Suey,” New Yorker, Oct. 18, 2009; Kate Heyhoe, “Chinese Food Fun,” Kate’s Global Kitchen, 2009, foodwine.com.
One evening in October 1973: Jeanette Smith, “Nixon’s Return Visit,” WP, Oct. 3, 1973.
It was one of many cocktails: Greg Morabito, “Remembering Trader Vic’s, New York’s Favorite Tiki Bar,” Eater New York, Oct. 30, 2013.
“My entire family was very sorry”: “Trump to Close a ‘Tacky’ Trader Vic’s,” NYT, Jan. 25, 1989.
“seeing Julie Eisenhower breast-feeding”: Roxanne Roberts, “Bye-Bye Mai Tai,” WP, July 1, 1995.
“We decided, ‘Why not be young again’ ”: Smith, “Nixon’s Return Visit.”
seventy-five worried Republicans: Martin Tolchin, “One Reaction to Nixon Breakfast,” NYT, Nov. 15, 1973.
In a private meeting with GOP supporters: Don Fulsom, “The Nixon Resignation Quiz,” WP, Aug. 7, 1994.
corned beef hash topped by a poached egg: Haller, White House Family Cookbook, 147–48.
At 12:03 p.m. on August 9, 1974: Fulsom, “Nixon Resignation Quiz.”
“We can do it”: Richard Norton Smith, “First Lady Betty Ford,” First Ladies, C-SPAN, Dec. 2, 2013, c-span.org.
“Well, it certainly smells better”: Fulsom, “Nixon Resignation Quiz.”
celebrated over lasagna: Cannon, Gerald R. Ford, 35.
short baby-blue pajamas: Mark Jones, “When the White House Was in Alexandria,” Boundary Stones (blog), WETA, May 8, 2013, boundarystones.weta.org.
fix a breakfast: Haller, White House Family Cookbook, 153–55.
“You are what you eat”: Ibid., 153.
“I happen to be the nation’s”: Gerald Ford, “June 17, 1974—Speech, Grocery Manufacturers’ Association, White Sulphur Springs, W. Va.,” Gerald R. Ford Vice Presidential Papers, Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, fordlibrarymuseum.gov.
“eating and sleeping are a waste of time”: Craig Claiborne, “De Gustibus,” NYT, Aug. 12, 1975.
his lunch, like his predecessor’s: Haller, White House Family Cookbook, 176–79.
“That big Michigan Christmas tree and I”: Gerald Ford, “12/17/74—Remarks for the Christmas Ball,” President’s Speeches and Statements, Reading Copies at the Ford Library.
“Great Tamale Incident”: “Food Fails: Presidential Edition,” NYT, July 26, 2016.
But when Ford shed fifteen pounds: Haller, White House Family Cookbook, 168.
Julia Child, a diet skeptic: Prud’homme, French Chef in America, 152–56.
“do something about improving”: Julia Child, “A White House Menu,” New York Times Magazine, Jan. 16, 1977.
“Jimmy isn’t mysterious”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 422.
a “down-home lunch” in Georgia: Child, “White House Menu.”
southern staples: catfish, biscuits: Haller, White House Family Cookbook, 229–321; Kandy Stroud, “Jimmy Carter, Cheese Buff,” NYT, Dec. 27, 1976.
“Plains Special”: Stroud, “Jimmy Carter, Cheese Buff”; “Jimmy Carter’s Plains Special Cheese Ring,” Esquire, Nov. 10, 2008.
“the kind of cooking…to which [those] who strayed”: Haller, White House Family Cookbook, 237.
“Daddy makes grits”: Stroud, “Jimmy Carter, Cheese Buff.”
“While New Englanders gasped”: Haller, White House Family Cookbook, 229–31.
“That sounds mighty good to me”: Child, “White House Menu.”
“Each family that occupies the White House”: Rosalynn Carter, “How We Entertain in the South,” McCall’s, Feb. 1977.
the farm made just $187: Charles McFarlane, “7 Presidents Who Farmed: Jimmy Carter,” Modern Farmer, Feb. 17, 2014.
“Jimmy cooked as much as I did”: Stroud, “Jimmy Carter, Cheese Buff.”
“There probably are still people”: Carter, “How We Entertain in the South.”
“If there’s any secret to hospitality”: Ibid.
“The press had painted us”: Carter, First Lady from Plains, 227.
a $600 food bill: Bethany Nagle, “The Inauguration of Jimmy Carter,” WHHA.
“Hi! C’mon in!”: Haller, White House Family Cookbook, 234.
reading a book at a state dinner: Mary Finch Hoyt, “Now That Carters Have Put Their Stamp on White House Social Life,” U.S. News & World Report, April 4, 1977.
“There was a small accident”: Mesnier, All the Presidents’ Pastries, 107–8.
“a friend inside the White House”: Chip Heath, “Willie and the Weed Factory,” GQ, Aug. 31, 2015.
“I don’t know how I would have managed”: Carter, “How We Entertain in the South.”
“They make me sound like a real prude”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 420.
“policy, protocol, the whole image”: Hoyt, “Now That Carters Have Put Their Stamp.”
“Official entertaining can’t replace”: Carter, “How We Entertain in the South.”
the morning of July 20, 1978: Carter, “Summit at Camp David,” in First Lady from Plains, 255–90.
“First Egyptian-Jewish peace”: Wright, Thirteen Days in September, 59.
“peace in the Middle East would be”: Carter, First Lady from Plains, 258.
“I slowly became hardened”: Ibid., 259.
“It was necessary we be completely isolated”: Nelson, The President Is at Camp David, 112.
“It’s so beautiful here”: Carter, First Lady from Plains, 258.
Less well known is that burrowed deep beneath: Wright, Thirteen Days in September, 63.
On September 5, 1978, the three: Carter, First Lady from Plains, 256.
“Security yes! Land no!”: Ibid., 267.
“There must be a way”: Ibid., 268.
Rosalynn had an idea: Ibid., 257, 269.
“the Bible says you cannot serve God”: Ibid., 270–71.
Begin proved less flexible: Ibid., 277.
The two relaxed by watching: Ibid., 284.
food to feed two hundred: Ibid., 289.
toasted to achieving the impossible: Ibid., 288–89.
Peace Treaty Dinner for 1,340 people: Haller, White House Family Cookbook, 318–20.
“The impossible had been made possible”: Carter, First Lady from Plains, 288.
The Carters were frugal, but they did not stint on official entertaining: Carter, First Lady from Plains, 232–33, 236.
“pigeonholed [Carter] as a hick”: Mesnier, All the Presidents’ Pastries, 291.
“There’s no doubt about it”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 422.
“final supper” at the White House: Mesnier, All the Presidents’ Pastries, 113.
Reagan celebrated his inauguration: The 49th Presidential Inaugural Luncheon, the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, www.inaugural.senate.gov/49th-inaugural-ceremonies; Reagan, My Turn, 235.
“With thanks to Almighty God”: Bernard Gwertzman, “Reagan Takes Oath as 40th President; Promises an ‘Era of National Renewal’—Minutes Later, 52 U.S. Hostages in Iran Fly to Freedom After 444-Day Ordeal,” NYT, Jan. 21, 1981.
At that moment, Jimmy Carter: Terence Smith, “A Weary Carter Returns to Plains,” NYT, Jan. 21, 1981; Reagan, My Turn, 234.
At his inauguration: Bob Colacello, “Ronnie & Nancy, Part I,” Vanity Fair, July 1998.
at $16 million, the most expensive: Ibid.
Carter’s “ ‘people’s’ inauguration”: Bernard Weinraub, “Five-Day ‘People’s’ Inauguration Begins in Capital Tuesday,” NYT, Jan. 16, 1977.
White House staffers “in bare feet”: Charles Moore, “Margaret Thatcher’s First Visit to Washington of the Reagan Presidency,” HuffPost, July 21, 2013.
“Queen Nancy” Reagan: Colacello, “Ronnie & Nancy, Part I.”
Reagans’ inaugural guests included a dozen: Ibid.
“Some folks are jokingly calling it”: Pete Earley, “Reagan Inauguration Most Expensive Ever,” WP, Jan. 16, 1981.
Nancy’s wardrobe: Colacello, “Ronnie & Nancy, Part I.”
a man of simple tastes: Haller, White House Family Cookbook, 335.
“the Iron Butterfly”: Colacello, “Ronnie & Nancy, Part I.”
“scared shitless”: Mesnier, All the Presidents’ Pastries, 118.
“Mrs. Reagan, you don’t have a chance in hell”: Bob Colacello, “The White House’s Dinner Theater,” Vanity Fair, June 2010.
“wanted to have people consider her”: Ibid.
“an amiable dunce”: David S. Broder, “Clark Clifford Says Reagan Can Be Beaten,” WP, Dec. 15, 1983.
“a very smart thing”: Bob Colacello, “Ronnie & Nancy, Part II,” Vanity Fair, Aug. 1998.
a private, “surprise” black-tie dinner dance: Donnie Radcliffe and Elisabeth Bumiller, “Birthday Bonanza President’s Birthday,” WP, Feb. 7, 1981.
Reagan had “nothing there”: Geoffrey Wheatcroft, “The Thatcher-Reagan Love Affair Wasn’t All Plain Sailing,” Guardian, Nov. 10, 2014.
“This is the century”: Colacello, “Ronnie & Nancy Part II.”
“the relaxed, almost lazy generalist”: Moore, “Margaret Thatcher’s First Visit to Washington of the Reagan Presidency.”
“has to be fun”: Colacello, “White House’s Dinner Theater.”
“How did I do?”: White House insider, who wished to remain anonymous, verbally to the author.
Haller prepared a classic: Maryse Chevriere, “The Most Elaborate White House State Dinners of All Time,” Chowhound.com.
“Oh, the anemones”: Colacello, “Ronnie & Nancy Part II.”
“a curious sensation”: Larry Clark, “March Madness: The Improbable Making of an American Icon,” Historic America, March 30, 2021, historicamerica.org.
split pea, and hamburger soup: Reagan, My Turn, 14.
“I thought if he watched the news”: Ibid., 15.
“the greatest political win”: Colacello, “Ronnie & Nancy, Part II.”
They called the property Rancho del Cielo: Carter Woolly, “Reagan’s Ranch in the Heavens,” WHHA.
twenty-four hundred feet above sea level: Steven R. Weisman, “On Holiday Back at the Reagans’ Ranch,” NYT, Nov. 26, 1981.
The house was a simple one-story: Todd Purdum, “Keeping Reagan’s Legacy Alive at His Old Ranch,” NYT, May 24, 1998.
Every Thanksgiving, the extended Reagan family: Manuel Roig-Franzia, “At a White House Thanksgiving, Tradition Is a Presidential Thing,” WP, Nov. 13, 2012.
Berkley replaced traditional, sharp: C. K. Hickey, “All the Presidents’ Meals,” Foreign Policy, Feb. 16, 2019; Barbara Gamarekian, “The White House; All the President’s Wines,” NYT, Jan. 15, 1986.
“wear my oldest suit”: Transcript of “Question-and-Answer Session with Reporters on Foreign and Domestic Policy Issues, April 5, 1982,” Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum, reaganlibrary.gov.
“world-class worrier”: Reagan, My Turn, 235.
she dropped from a featherweight 114 pounds: Donnie Radcliffe, “First Lady’s Weight Loss,” WP, Sept. 20, 1983.
Some worried that Nancy had cancer: “Princess Diana, Nancy Reagan Stay Slim Almost Effortlessly,” South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Dec. 30, 1985.
“The sufferer attempts to take control”: Emily T. Troscianko, “Taking, Losing, and Letting Go of Control in Anorexia,” Psychology Today, Aug. 18, 2015.
“People believe that when one occupies”: “Princess Diana, Nancy Reagan Stay Slim Almost Effortlessly.”
“the presidential (or Tecumseh)”: Steve Friess, “Bush’s Legacy: He Survived!,” Slate, Jan. 14, 2009.
“it was very obvious”: Angela D. Blessing, Joyce Wadler, Dirk Mathison, and Margie Bonnett Sellinger, “The President’s Astrologers,” People, May 23, 1988.
“the most closely guarded domestic secret”: Ibid.
“No First Lady need make apologies”: Bill McAllister, “The Nancy Reagan Rebuttal,” WP, June 10, 1988.
“Nobody was hurt by it”: Mary Kay Linge, “How Ronald Reagan’s Wife Nancy Let Her Astrologer Control the Presidency,” New York Post, Oct. 18, 2021.
veal stew and fresh coconut cake: Colacello, “Ronnie & Nancy, Part I.”
Herman Goelitz Candy Company: “Jelly Belly History,” www.jellybelly.com.
“Addicts vow” that the candies: “Living: Hill of Beans,” Time, Feb. 23, 1981.
“worldwide company overnight”: Kate Kelly, “Ronald Reagan’s Jelly Beans,” American Presidents & Their Families, America Comes Alive!, americacomesalive.com.
three and a half tons: Ibid.
“You can tell a lot about a fella’s character”: “Everything You Need to Know About Jelly Belly Jelly Beans,” OldTimeCandy.com, May 12, 2022.
“I keep riding younger and younger horses”: Haller, White House Family Cookbook, 347.
“you were the most important person”: Schifando and Joseph, Entertaining at the White House with Nancy Reagan, 106.
“a preternatural affability”: Ibid.
“role of a lifetime”: For example, Roxanne Roberts, “In First Lady, Nancy Reagan Found the Role of a Lifetime,” WP, March 6, 2016.
“You don’t just move into the White House”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 432.
“the gaze”: Richard Zoglin, “The First Lady and the Slasher,” Time, April 22, 1991.
“Ronnie says I should just forget”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 432.
A famously picky eater: “Princess Diana, Nancy Reagan Stay Slim Almost Effortlessly.”
President Reagan’s breakfast consisted: Haller, White House Family Cookbook, 329.
Their “TV dinners” became famous: Eliza Barclay, “Reagan’s Unsung Legacy: Frozen Food Day,” The Salt, NPR, March 7, 2012.
“We would have been shot”: Mesnier, All the Presidents’ Pastries, 129–30.
“a sophisticated diner. She has an artist’s eye”: Phyllis Hanes, “Dinner Is Served, Mr. President. Former White House Chef Reminisces About His Tenure at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue,” Christian Science Monitor, Jan. 13, 1988.
“a tough character”: Mesnier, All the Presidents’ Pastries, 144–45, 152.
“I am the only person who decides”: Ibid.
“Here we see a squirrel eating his nuts”: Ibid., 139.
“Ketchup Is a Vegetable?”: Marion Nestle, “Ketchup Is a Vegetable? Again?,” FoodPolitics, Nov. 15, 2011, foodpolitics.com; and EricT_Culinarylore, “Did Ronald Reagan Say Ketchup Was a Vegetable?,” Culinary Lore, Nov. 2, 2016, culinarylore.com.
“egg on its face”: Mary Thornton and Martin Schram, “U.S. Holds the Ketchup in Schools,” WP, Sept. 26, 1981.
$1.44 billion spent on five executive dining rooms: Jonathan Harsh, “Reagan Cuts Eat into School Lunches,” Christian Science Monitor, Sept. 17, 1981.
“That our young people are not as important”: Ibid.
the president claimed he wasn’t aware of the details: Steven R. Weisman, “Reagan Abandons Proposal to Pare School Nutrition,” NYT, Sept. 26, 1981.
a new set of bone china: Helen Thomas, “First Lady Pays $210,000 for New China,” UPI, Sept. 12, 1981.
“was a symbol of my supposed extravagance”: Colacello, “Ronnie & Nancy, Part II.”
seven kings and three queens: Cook, Presidential Leadership by Example, 290.
fifty-two state dinners: Hickey, “All the Presidents’ Meals.”
“It was a vital part of our roles”: Schifando and Joseph, Entertaining at the White House with Nancy Reagan, 165.
“The step you are about to take”: Elisabeth Bumiller, “A Cozy Little Dinner, Fit for a Prince,” WP, May 4, 1981.
“Nothing short of absolute perfection”: Mesnier, All the Presidents’ Pastries, 141–42.
“Would you care to dance?”: Kenzie Bryant, “John Travolta Called His Dance with Princess Diana a Highlight of His Life,” Vanity Fair, Sept. 26, 2016.
Diana would famously struggle: Andrew Morton, Diana: Her True Story (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997).
Di became “the people’s princess”: Jane Mendle, “How Princess Diana Changed Lives by Discussing Her Mental Health,” Time, Aug. 30, 2017.
“They thought, ‘Those Californians, they don’t know anything’ ”: Schifando and Joseph, Entertaining at the White House with Nancy Reagan, 121.
“Don’t you get it?”: Colacello, “Ronnie & Nancy, Part II.”
“Gucci comrade”: Nina Martyris, “Cold War, Hot Tea: Nancy Reagan and Raisa Gorbachev’s Sipping Summit,” NPR, March 8, 2016.
the first American-born executive chef: Marian Burros, “White House Said to Pick a Replacement Chef,” NYT, Aug. 20, 1987; “Chef at White House Quits After 4 Months,” Associated Press, Jan. 10, 1988; Moore, “The Delicious History of the White House Executive Chef.”
a menu that featured American ingredients: “126 VIPs Chosen for Historic White House Dinner During Summit,” Jet, Dec. 28–Jan. 4, 1988.
“The principal lesson of WASP cookery”: Jonathan Yardley, “Bush’s Green Revolution,” WP, March 26, 1990.
“I do not like broccoli”: Maureen Dowd, “ ‘I’m President,’ So No More Broccoli!,” NYT, March 23, 1990.
“Now, look….There are truckloads”: David Hoffman, “Bush the Broccoli Thing,” WP, March 23, 1990.
“You’re darn right I do”: Tim Carman, “As President, George H. W. Bush Never Wavered from His Hard Line on Broccoli,” WP, Dec. 5, 2018.
“he’s no fan of slimy white fish”: Peggy Grodinsky, “Dining with Former First Couple Barbara and George Bush,” Houston Chronicle, Jan. 4, 2006.
Bush bought a gallon of milk: Andrew Rosenthal, “Bush Encounters the Supermarket, Amazed,” NYT, Feb. 5, 1992.
Her repertoire included: “Recipes by Barbara Bush: Barbecued Chicken; Mushroom Quiche; Zuni Stew,” Classic Celebrity Recipes (blog), March 12, 2016; “Mexican Mound: A Great Bush Favorite,” cooks.com.
cereal for dinner: Grodinsky, “Dining with Former First Couple.”
tomato bisque, salad: De Guzman, Bush Family Cookbook, 58–59.
“it’s no exaggeration to say the undecideds could go”: Michael S. Rosenwald, “Fragrant Armpits, Napping Aides, Corny Duck Jokes: George H. W. Bush’s Wonderful Humor,” WP, Dec. 4, 2018.
long-running affair with Jennifer Fitzgerald: Page, Matriarch, cited in Peter Baker, “To Barbara Bush, Donald Trump Represented ‘Greed, Selfishness,’ ” NYT, March 27, 2019.
When Zachary Taylor died: Michael Marriott, “Verdict In: 12th President Was Not Assassinated,” NYT, June 27, 1991.
“combination of official scandals”: Morison, Oxford History of the American People, as quoted by Andrew Glass, “Zachary Taylor’s Body Exhumed, June 17, 1991,” Politico, June 16, 2011.
CNN received a call: Dennis McDougal, “CNN Averts Hoax About Bush’s ‘Death,’ ” Los Angeles Times, Jan. 10, 1992.
“The President is human”: Michael Wines, “Bush in Japan; Bush Collapses at State Dinner with the Japanese,” NYT, Jan. 9, 1992.
Chambrin prepared a luscious dinner: Donnie Radcliffe and Roxanne Roberts, “Hail, and Thunder, to the Queen,” WP, May 15, 1991.
Roland Mesnier’s dessert: Mesnier, All the Presidents’ Pastries, 172.
At his first dinner as president: Marian Burros, “High Calories (and Chef!) Out at White House,” NYT, March 5, 1994.
“We’re trying to get a kitchen cabinet”: Marian Burros, “Hillary Clinton’s New Home: Broccoli’s In, Smoking’s Out,” NYT, Feb. 2, 1993.
The resulting menu was a sophisticated mix: Ibid.
“I can’t say I’m very pleased”: Burros, “High Calories (and Chef!).”
“not hard to please”: Ibid.
“The president did like unhealthy foods”: David S. Martin, “From Omnivore to Vegan: The Dietary Education of Bill Clinton,” CNN, Aug. 18, 2011.
“Pierre is incapable of doing low fat”: Burros, “High Calories (and Chef!).”
paid an unprecedented $37,026 settlement: Boise City News, May 24, 2013.
“Hillary Clinton don’t know nothing”: Hickey, “All the Presidents’ Meals.”
“The big issue about health”: Burros, “High Calories (and Chef!).”
“The Clintons, a minority choice”: Keith Botsford, “The Clintons Cook Up a Storm,” Independent, March 26, 1994.
“I don’t think anyone wants to call that array”: Jack Hitt, “Sweetness and Bite,” Slate, July 23, 1996.
“is recognizably different from that”: Freedman, American Cuisine, 378.
The healthy eating trend flowered: Ibid.
Food Network, which debuted in 1993: Rachel Sugar, “How Food Network Turned Big-City Chef Culture into Middle-America Pop Culture,” Grubstreet.com; Simone Migliori, “The History of the Food Network,” WGBH, July 23, 2018.
“delicious revolution”: “Alice Waters and Her Delicious Revolution,” American Masters, PBS, March 19, 2003, pbs.org; Freedman, American Cuisine, 1.
“seasonal, pure foods [and] health”: Marian Burros, “First Chef: American, Perhaps?,” NYT, Dec. 9, 1992.
washed each leaf individually: Ruth Reichl, “Hail to the Chef,” Los Angeles Times, Jan. 7, 1993.
served only “perfect” peaches: Alice Waters, “Alice Waters on the Persuasive Power of the Peach,” Vanity Fair, Nov. 1, 2017.
“We chefs…believe that good food”: Burros, “First Chef.”
“Just seeing what Clinton eats”: Candy Sagon, “Doesn’t Clinton Deserve a Break Today?,” WP, Dec. 16, 1992.
“the food police”: Laurie Ochoa, “Taking Her Revolution Beyond the Kitchen,” Los Angeles Times, Aug. 22, 1996.
Paul Bocuse declared that nationalism: Burros, “High Calories (and Chef!).”
“I would be a hypocrite”: Burros, “First Chef.”
“wouldn’t have received such attention”: Ochoa, “Taking Her Revolution Beyond the Kitchen.”
“A decision about the White House chef”: Burros, “First Chef.”
“a breakthrough figure”: Burros, “Hillary Clinton’s New Home.”
“I have five kids”: David Blum, “The Lives They Lived: Patrick Clark; the Man Who Loved to Cook,” NYT, Jan. 3, 1999.
Hay-Adams paid Clark a princely $170,000: Ibid.
received four thousand applications: Scheib and Friedman, White House Chef, 12.
“We’re not going to entertain”: Ibid., 15.
“a fat band boy”: Marian Burros, “A Crusade and Some Diet Advice from That ‘Fat Band Boy,’ ” NYT, Oct. 11, 2006.
In New Hampshire, he inhaled almost a dozen doughnuts: Martin, “From Omnivore to Vegan.”
Saturday Night Live sketch: Originally aired Dec. 5, 1992: Mike Thomas, “Phil Hartman’s Greatest Sketch Ever: Secrets of SNL’s Perfect Clinton Parody,” Salon, Sept. 30, 2014; Don Roy King, “Clinton at McDonald’s,” SNL Transcripts Tonight, snltranscripts.jt.org.
Clinton’s weight ballooned to 230 pounds: Eric Spitznagel, “America’s Fattest Presidents,” Men’s Health, Dec. 13, 2013.
“the kind of diet most people his age”: Marian Burros, “Bill Clinton and Food: Jack Sprat He’s Not,” NYT, Dec. 23, 1992.
“An occasional trip to a fast-food restaurant”: Burros, “Hillary Clinton’s New Home.”
“Let’s put broccoli in the White House again!”: Hillary Reinsberg, “Hillary Clinton Wanted Broccoli in the White House Back in 1992,” BuzzFeed, July 9, 2013.
“I suppose I could have stayed home”: Amy Chozick, “Hillary Clinton and the Return of the (Unbaked) Cookies,” NYT, Nov. 5, 2016.
when Family Circle asked Mrs. Clinton and Barbara Bush: David A. Graham, “Bill Clinton’s Half-Baked Entry in the Presidential Cookie Contest,” Atlantic, Aug. 18, 2016.
“We are trying to move toward healthy”: Burros, “Hillary Clinton’s New Home.”
“I’m a lousy cook”: Mimi Sheraton, “How Hungry Is Hillary Clinton?,” Slate, Feb. 20, 2008.
“periodically undisciplined about what I eat”: Burros, “Bill Clinton and Food.”
not above the occasional olive burger: Sheraton, “How Hungry Is Hillary Clinton?”
became “one of the serious issues”: Burros, “Bill Clinton and Food.”
“a stylish palate”: Sheraton, “How Hungry Is Hillary Clinton?”
“High Calories (and Chef!) Out at White House”: Burros, NYT, March 5, 1994.
“You should apply for that job”: Scheib and Friedman, White House Chef, 11.
“a backward-looking spectacle”: Ibid., 17.
“The money might not be as good as you’re used to”: Ibid., 14.
“marks another milestone in the evolution”: “White House Sets Healthy Example, Logs Milestone with New Exec Chef,” Nation’s Restaurant News, April 25, 1994.
“the Casa Blanca Gang”: Scheib and Friedman, White House Chef, 58.
He quickly learned that the president: Ibid., 38–39, 329.
fifteen to twenty thousand mini crab cakes: Ibid., 74.
“If you wanted a ripe tomato”: Ibid., 43.
“Walter, could you please calculate calories?”: Ibid., 67.
lest the “Clinton diet” become a gossipy distraction: Ibid., 65–66.
The South Lawn became a favorite party venue: Ibid., 120–21.
“Mrs. Clinton presided over a minor revolution”: Mesnier, All the Presidents’ Pastries, 201.
“I was stealing his spotlight”: Scheib and Friedman, White House Chef, 128.
“We were there…to bring”: Ibid., 56.
“an atrocious concoction”: Mesnier, All the Presidents’ Pastries, 207.
vegetable garden on the White House roof: Scheib and Friedman, White House Chef, 52–54.
three standard elements: Ibid., 124.
state dinners “are not Escoffier”: William Grimes, “Walter Scheib, Innovative Former White House Chef, Is Dead at 61,” NYT, June 22, 2015.
His first state dinner was held: Scheib and Friedman, White House Chef, 124–27.
the dinner was served “American style”: Ibid., 127.
“I get to do every day”: Grimes, “Walter Scheib.”
“the Bill and Boris show”: “The Bill and Boris Show,” Baltimore Sun, Oct. 1, 1994.
“wanted a taxi to go out for pizza”: Becky Little, “When a Russian President Ended Up Drunk and Disrobed Outside the White House,” history.com, Aug. 30, 2018.
Yeltsin was an alcoholic: Ibid.
“That victory is your victory”: Martin Weil, “Nelson Mandela Made Many Memorable Trips to Washington,” WP, Dec. 5, 2013.
Mandela state dinner on October 4: Scheib and Friedman, White House Chef, 131–37.
The Clinton china, which depicts: Ibid., 135.
Scheib’s kitchen catered 220 dinners: Ibid., 131.
The Clintons had invited Patrick Clark: Ibid., 134.
“No visiting head of state inspired”: Ibid.
Chelsea Clinton asked for cooking lessons: Ibid., 82–84.
suffered “psychic damage”: Todd S. Purdum, “Chelsea Clinton, Still a Closed Book,” NYT, June 21, 2001.
“bore a striking resemblance to cabbages”: Mesnier, All the Presidents’ Pastries, 242.
“bent and ugly” coronary artery: “The Last Heart Attack: Dr. Sanjay Gupta Reports,” interview with Clinton, CNN, Sept. 3, 2011.
“Because of your genetics”: Katie Robbins, “Bill Clinton Goes Vegan to Get Healthy,” Delish, Aug. 22, 2011.
“the way we consume food”: Joe Conason, “My Lunch with Bill,” AARP: The Magazine, Aug.–Sept. 2013.
was as picky an eater: Scheib and Friedman, White House Chef, 206–7.
Laura Welch Bush, liked food: Ibid., 215–16.
“Food wasn’t much of a priority”: Ibid.
Scheib considered his collaboration: Ibid., 205, 216.
In those days W. was a charming rake: Lois Romano and George Lardner Jr., “Bush’s Life-Changing Year,” WP, July 25, 1999.
In Midland, W. was known for wearing: Amy Herstek, “Black Tie & Boots Gala to Be Bush’s Texas-Sized Victory Party,” CNN, Jan. 19, 2001; Skip Hollandsworth, “I Had a Ball,” Texas Monthly, March 2001.
the first Little Leaguer in the White House: Scheib and Friedman, White House Chef, 241.
Sandlot-themed meals: Ibid., 240–53.
Bush hosted lunch for Hall of Famers: Ibid., 244–45, 250–53.
On May 6, Bush invited two teams of kids: Ibid., 250.
Bushes hosted their first state dinner: Ibid., 222–27.
The assistant usher Dan Shanks: Ibid., 224.
Six days later, Walter Scheib: Ibid., 254–63.
“Don’t talk to anyone whom you don’t know”: Ibid., 267.
“extreme anxiety”: Mesnier, All the Presidents’ Pastries, 281–82.
offered the staff psychological counseling: Scheib and Friedman, White House Chef, 265–66.
“We could have served [them] ham sandwiches”: Ibid., 268.
A new protocol created a firewall: Ibid., 266–67.
“Right after 9/11…the food changed”: Hilary Pollack, “Confessions of a Former White House Chef, Part One,” Vice, Feb. 5, 2015.
Consider the battle over French fries: Timothy Bella, “ ‘Freedom Never Tasted So Good’: How Walter Jones Helped Rename French Fries over the Iraq War,” WP, Feb. 11, 2019; Sheryl Gay Stolberg, “An Order of Fries, Please, but Do Hold the French,” NYT, March 12, 2003.
The food fight was too delicious: Bella, “ ‘Freedom Never Tasted So Good.’ ”
“white-wine swillers”: Adam Nagourney, “White House Memo; List of Guests Throws Light on the Bush Style,” NYT, Aug. 19, 2002.
“There was no red-state food”: Emily Langer, “Walter Scheib, White House Chef Who Served Two Presidents, Dies at 61,” WP, June 22, 2015; Hilary Pollack, “Confessions of a Former White House Chef, Part Two,” Vice, Feb. 6, 2015.
huevos rancheros for brunch, and bags of Lay’s potato chips: Scheib and Friedman, White House Chef, 232, 238.
fans of barbecue: Pollack, “Confessions of a Former White House Chef, Part One.”
“You might be considered a presidential assassin”: Langer, “Walter Scheib, White House Chef Who Served Two Presidents, Dies at 61.”
Both were hot sauce aficionados: Pollack, “Confessions of a Former White House Chef, Part One.”
Yucatan Sunshine Habanero Pepper Sauce: Scheib and Friedman, White House Chef, 207.
both women favored organic vegetables: Marian Burros, “What’s Cooking at the White House? Who’s Asking?,” NYT, Jan. 20, 2009.
W. was munching a Hammond pretzel: Moeller, Dining at the White House, 206–7; “Bush on Fainting Episode: ‘Chew Your Food,’ ” CNN, Jan. 14, 2002, cnn.com.
“like…mustard on pretzels”: Tim Carman, “White House Memories: Chef John Moeller on Pretzels, Maple Syrup, and Calorie-Counting,” WP, Feb. 18, 2014.
“You’re not going to get us to cough up”: Elisabeth Bumiller, “D.C. Shocker: The President Snacks Alone,” NYT, Jan. 20, 2002.
“Am I going to be working here”: Carman, “White House Memories.”
Scheib found his role “drastically reduced”: Scheib and Friedman, White House Chef, 205, 217.
“My work had ceased being fun”: Ibid., 277.
“I was…one part private chef”: Ibid., 278.
“What’s your book called”: Ibid., 299.
Thaddeus DuBois as the new executive pastry chef: Ibid., 308.
persuaded Mesnier to rejoin the kitchen: Ibid., 313–15.
“I never imagined I’d get that call”: Yosses in conversation with the author, Aug. 22, 2019.
“I don’t want the White House to feel like a hotel”: Ibid.; Yosses to Andrew Friedman, Andrew Talks to Chefs, podcast, episode 68, Dec. 29, 2018.
Berman as a coldhearted: Scheib and Friedman, White House Chef, 279–87.
Those were the last words: Ibid., 291–92.
Scheib did not subscribe: Ibid., 292; Marian Burros, “Top White House Chef Is Leaving, an Idea That Wasn’t His,” NYT, Feb. 5, 2005.
Scheib was told not to return: Scheib and Friedman, White House Chef, 292.
“being the most famous anonymous person”: Pollack, “Confessions of a Former White House Chef, Part Two.”
On June 13, 2015, Scheib went for a hike: Grimes, “Walter Scheib”; Edmundo Carrillo, “Former White House Chef Drowned, OMI Reports,” Albuquerque Journal, June 23, 2015.
“intimate secrets that threaten”: Mike Jaccarino, “Dark Mysteries Behind Clinton Chef’s Drowning,” National Enquirer, July 2, 2015.
flash flood swept him away: Michelle Toh, “Former White House Chef Drowned While Hiking: What to Do in a Flash Flood,” Christian Science Monitor, June 24, 2015.
$80,000 to $100,000: Marian Burros, “First Woman Is Selected as Executive Chef at White House,” NYT, Aug. 15, 2005.
“I look for an open door”: Waters, verbally in conversation with the author, July 11, 2019.
“Throughout our history”: Judith Weinraub, “Group Asks First Lady to Consider Woman for the Top Chef Job,” WP, March 9, 2005.
“sophisticated restaurant food”: Candy Sagon, “Toque of the Town: White House Names 1st Female Executive Chef,” WP, Aug. 15, 2005.
quietly offered to Patrick O’Connell: Justin Dickerson, “Way to White House Is Through Its Taste Buds,” Los Angeles Times, Feb. 27, 2005.
“I am delighted”: Burros, “First Woman Is Selected.”
Cristeta Gomez Pasia Comerford: Amanda Cohen, “Lady Chef Stampede: Cristeta Comerford, the White House Chef,” Mediaite.com, Oct. 10, 2013; Jose Antonio Vargas, “Hail to the Chef,” WP, Aug. 22, 2005.
“so driven. So ambitious”: Vargas, “Hail to the Chef.”
Moeller…bore no grudge: Moeller, Dining at the White House, 220–23; Moeller in conversation with the author, Feb. 17, 2020.
“That…makes a beautiful statement”: Burros, “First Woman Is Selected.”
“a message around the world”: Sagon, “Toque of the Town: White House Names 1st Female Executive Chef.”
Barack Obama was the son: Barack Obama, Dreams from My Father, 10.
“The boy should know where his dinner”: Ibid., 34–35.
decidedly non-American fare: Ibid., 37.
his single mother relied on food stamps: Joanne Samuel Goldblum, “Most Powerful Man in the World Grew Up on Food Stamps,” HuffPost, June 11, 2014.
“the main livestock is squirrels”: Jason Zengerle, “How Barack Obama Sold Out the Kale Crowd,” New Republic, April 29, 2014.
“insufferable foodie”: Rebecca Flint Marx, “What Obama Has Meant for Food,” New Yorker, Sept. 28, 2016.
“President Poupon”: Chris Riotta, “Fox News Was Attacking Barack Obama for Using Dijon Mustard at This Point in His Presidency,” Newsweek, June 9, 2017.
He was hailed as “the Food President”: David Johnson and Samuel P. Jacobs, “The State of Obama’s Plate,” Time, Jan. 20, 2015.
he would scarf down: Morgan Olsen, “Eat Like an Obama at 7 Chicago Restaurants,” Chicago Tribune, Jan. 9, 2017.
“Americans should know”: Zengerle, “How Barack Obama Sold Out.”
“Our entire agricultural system”: Joe Klein, “The Full Obama Interview,” Time, Oct. 23, 2008.
“second food revolution”: Kim Severson on The Leonard Lopate Show, “Obama on Food,” WNYC, Jan. 27, 2009, quoted by Melissa Waldron Lehner, “Alice Waters Playing Pol Pot? Ruth Reichl Responds to Inaugural Dinner Bashing,” Civil Eats, Jan. 29, 2009.
“People are so interested in a massive change”: Kim Severson, “Is a New Food Policy on Obama’s List?,” NYT, Dec. 25, 2008.
Pollan calls Big Food—a $1.5 trillion industry: Michael Pollan, “Big Food Strikes Back,” New York Times Magazine, Oct. 5, 2016.
“paraphrased” Pollan’s Times article: Ibid.
“a one-term president”: Glenn Kessler, “When Did Mitch McConnell Say He Wanted to Make Obama a One-Term President?,” WP, Jan. 11, 2017.
“Our nation is at a critical juncture”: Kim Severson, “A Pitch to Obama on Food and Farming,” NYT, Dec. 4, 2008.
“Alice is a utopian”: A chef, who wished to remain anonymous, to the author.
“USDA administrator” is a bland bureaucratic title: Michael Lewis, “Made in the USDA,” Vanity Fair, Dec. 2017.
“an agricultural economy of the future”: Michael Grunwald, “Vilsack: Some Hard Choices on Ethanol,” Time, Dec. 18, 2008.
Michael Pollan bristled at this: “Michael Pollan on Vilsack, Agriculture—and Food,” Morning Edition, NPR, Dec. 18, 2008.
“The purity and wholesomeness”: Alice Waters, “Alice Waters’s Open Letter to the Obamas,” Gourmet, Jan. 15, 2009.
“have a central, core message”: Melissa Waldron Lehner, “Alice Waters Playing Pol Pot? Ruth Reichl Responds to Inaugural Dinner Bashing,” Civil Eats, Jan. 29, 2009.
“Pol Pot in a muumuu”: “5 Great Chef Disses,” Eater, Nov. 20, 2009.
“When I started writing about food”: Lehner, “Alice Waters Playing Pol Pot?”
“Nothing is more political than food”: John Boone, “Anthony Bourdain on ‘Wasted!,’ the Politics of Food in the Trump Era and Twitter Trolls (EXCLUSIVE)”, ETonline.com, Oct. 13, 2017.
In Chicago, the Obamas reserved Friday nights: Michelle Obama, Becoming, 185.
“We ordered the same thing”: Ibid.
This left her with even less time to monitor: Ibid., 238–39.
Sam Kass: Ibid., 239.
“they both love really good food”: Kass in conversation with the author, April 26, 2018.
“We eat what we see”: Kass, Eat a Little Better, 27.
But the truth, Obama explained: Michael D. Shear, “Obama Sets the Record Straight on His 7-Almond Habit,” NYT, July 28, 2016.
1.8 million people gathered in Washington: Kass, Eat a Little Better, 18.
The night before the inauguration: Pollan, “Big Food Strikes Back”; Pollan in conversation with the author, Nov. 13, 2019.
celebrated his inauguration with a lunch: Jennifer Treuting, “President Barack Obama’s Inaugural Luncheon,” Delish, Jan. 16, 2009.
Jim Robinson was a slave at Friendfield: “Michelle Obama Is Invited to Visit the Grave of Slave Kin,” New York Daily News, Oct. 14, 2008.
“hotly awaited”: Darlene Superville, “Obama Mother-in-Law to Join Family in White House,” Associated Press, Jan. 9, 2009.
“a person with integrity and devotion”: Waters, “Alice Waters’s Open Letter to the Obamas.”
“redefine” the position: Tara Parker-Pope, “Alice Waters and Obama’s ‘Kitchen’ Cabinet,” NYT, Dec. 11, 2008.
a “name” chef: Severson, “Is a New Food Policy on Obama’s List?”
Three candidates who fit that description: Jo Piazza, “Chef Executive: Three Cooks in the Running for Obama’s Top White House Kitchen Post,” New York Daily News, Nov. 8, 2008.
“She brings such incredible talent”: “Cristeta Comerford to Remain White House Chef,” HuffPost, Feb. 9, 2009.
South Lawn into a vegetable garden: Michelle Obama, Becoming, 321.
the self-described “mom in chief”: Ibid., 329.
“will begin to educate their families”: Marian Burros, “Obamas to Plant Vegetable Garden at White House,” NYT, March 19, 2009.
“I wanted this garden”: Michelle Obama, “Excerpt: American Grown by First Lady Michelle Obama,” ABC News, May 28, 2012.
more optimistically “Victory Gardens”: Claudia Swain, “Eleanor and Diana’s Victory Garden,” Boundary Stones (blog), WETA, May 25, 2017, boundarystones.weta.org.
Pollan called on George H. W. Bush: Michael Pollan, “Abolish the White House Lawn,” NYT, May 5, 1991.
Scheib grew veggies on the roof: Scheib and Friedman, White House Chef, 52–53.
“will be able to taste it”: Jane Black, “The First Garden Gets Its First Planting,” WP, April 9, 2009.
“phenomenal symbolic value”: Zengerle, “How Barack Obama Sold Out.”
American Council on Science and Health: Michael Pollan, “Big Food Strikes Back: Why Did the Obamas Fail to Take on Corporate Agriculture?,” New York Times Magazine, Oct. 5, 2016.
four biggest meatpacking companies controlled: Zengerle, “How Barack Obama Sold Out.”
Obama initiated an antitrust investigation: Pollan, “Big Food Strikes Back.”
“make sure the playing field is level”: Ibid.
Furious, Big Meat responded: Ibid.
“overpromised reforms, underestimated the strength”: Zengerle, “How Barack Obama Sold Out.”
“Let’s Move!” campaign: “Let’s Move!,” blog archive, https://letsmove.obamawhitehouse.archives.gov.
“We need you all to step it up”: “Remarks by the First Lady at a Grocery Manufacturers Association Conference,” White House, March 16, 2010.
the First Lady shifted the focus of Let’s Move!: Let’s Move!, letsmove.obamawhitehouse.archives.gov.
“attention to the issue has really helped”: Julia Belluz, “How Michelle Obama Quietly Changed What Americans Eat,” Vox, Oct. 3, 2016.
“Little Food”: Pollan, “Big Food Strikes Back.”
“I’ve seen a shift”: Brie Mazurek, “Remembering the Obamas’ Food Legacy,” KQED, Jan. 20, 2017.
“the importance of Michelle’s garden”: Bayless in conversation with the author, July 2, 2019.
“philosophy isn’t that different from yours”: Ben Rhodes, Director’s Cut: “Why Obama Wanted to Sit Down with Bourdain,” Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, explorepartsunknown.com.
Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown: “Hanoi,” season 8, episode 2, CNN, Sept. 25, 2016, cnn.com.
The Vietnamese ambassador to the United States: Rhodes, Director’s Cut.
Off camera, Bourdain wondered: Anthony Bourdain, “Obama, Bourdain Chew the Fat in Hanoi,” CNN Travel, March 21, 2017, cnn.com.
“[Tony] taught us about food”: Barack Obama (@BarackObama), Twitter, June 8, 2018, 12:01 p.m., twitter.com; Emily Stewart, “Obama Honors Anthony Bourdain: He Made Us ‘a Little Less Afraid of the Unknown,’ ” Vox, June 8, 2018.
When a waiter approached, Trump: Dwight Garner, “Chris Christie Goes Easy on Trump in New Tell-All Book but Hits Out at Steve Bannon,” Independent, Jan. 29, 2019.
“The demand was like Sammy the Bull’s”: “Comey Book Claims President Trump Sought Loyalty Like Mafia Boss ‘Sammy the Bull’s’ Induction Ceremony,” ABC News, April 12, 2018.
“I just fired the head of the FBI”: Matt Apuzzo, Maggie Haberman, and Matthew Rosenberg, “Trump Told Russians That Firing ‘Nut Job’ Comey Eased Pressure from Investigation,” NYT, May 19, 2017.
Donald Trump acquired his: Trump, Too Much and Never Enough, 95–96.
“my mother’s meat loaf”: Maxine Shen, “Watch President Trump Make Meatloaf on a Vintage Martha Stewart Episode,” Food & Wine, June 9, 2017.
“best meatloaf in America”: Donald J. Trump, @realDonaldTrump, Twitter, Dec. 29, 2011.
“ ‘There’s the menu, you guys order’ ”: Margaret Hartmann, “Chris Christie Brags That Trump Made Him Eat Meatloaf at the White House,” New York, Feb. 17, 2017.
“the person with the power”: Trump, Too Much and Never Enough, 53.
“an amazing peacemaker if he didn’t have the problem”: Rebecca Kheel, “Trump Helped Draft Will That Excluded His Brother’s Children: Report,” Hill, Jan. 2, 2016.
“four major food groups”: Michael Kranish, “Trump’s Campaign: Big Macs, Screaming Fits, and Constant Rivalries,” WP, Dec. 2, 2017.
“I think fast food’s good”: Ashley Parker, “Donald Trump’s Diet: He’ll Have Fries with That,” NYT, Aug. 8, 2016; Gregory Krieg, “Donald Trump Really Likes Fast Food,” CNN Politics, Feb. 19, 2016, cnn.com.
“keep the weight down”: Nick Carbone, “What the Fork? Trump Explains Why He Used Utensils with His Pizza—Sort Of,” Time, June 3, 2011.
“He would go and work 14 or 16 or 18 hours”: Allan Smith, “Trump’s Former Campaign Manager Explains His 2,400-Calorie McDonald’s Order and Compares Him to ‘an Amazing Professional Athlete,’ ” Insider, Dec. 5, 2017.
2,630-calorie bomb: C. Brian Smith, “We Ate Trump’s Dinner—2 Fish Filets, 2 Big Macs, and a Large Chocolate Shake,” Mel Magazine, melmagazine.com.
“the healthiest individual ever elected”: Matt Schudel, “Harold Bornstein, Doctor Who Said Trump Would Be ‘the Healthiest Individual Ever Elected’ President, Dies at 73,” WP, Jan. 14, 2021.
“blue-collar billionaire”: Molly Prince, “Don Jr. Explains Why His Dad Is a ‘Blue Collar Billionaire,’ ” Daily Wire, Nov. 11, 2019, dailywire.com.
“I have a gut”: Philip Rucker, Josh Dawsey, and Damian Paletta, “Trump Slams Fed Chair, Questions Climate Change, and Threatens to Cancel Putin Meeting in Wide-Ranging Interview with the Post,” WP, Nov. 27, 2018.
“I love the Hispanics!”: Donald Trump video, in The Hill (@thehill), Twitter, Sept. 13, 2020, 11:34 p.m., twitter.com.
“banquet” for the Clemson University Tigers: Maura Judkis, “What It Means That Trump Served Big Macs in the State Dining Room,” WP, Jan. 15, 2019.
“President McDonald Trump”: Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.
it actually cost $2,911.44: Philip Bump, “President Trump’s Extravagant, $3,000, 300-sandwich celebration of Clemson University,” WP, Jan. 15, 2019.
“We went out and we ordered”: Kaitlan Collins and Liz Stark, “Trump Personally Paying for Clemson’s Fast-Food White House Meals,” CNN Politics, Jan. 15, 2019.
“Our nutritionist must be having a fit”: Maura Judkis, “What It Means That Trump Served Big Macs in the State Dining Room,” WP, Jan. 15, 2019.
“the White House into a White Castle”: Allyson Chu, “Trump Has Turned the White House into a White Castle: President Roasted for Serving Clemson Fast Food,” WP, Jan. 15, 2019.
“a little bit P. T. Barnum”: Megan Garber, “The President’s McFeast,” Atlantic, Jan. 15, 2019.
“The media comes across”: Annaliese Griffin, “What America Hears When the Press Makes Fun of the Way Trump Eats,” Quartz, Jan. 19, 2019.
“people who eat similar foods”: Graber and Twilley, “Shared Plates”; Ayelet Fishbach, interview with the author, Dec. 17, 2021.
a dry-aged New York strip: Helen Rosner, “Actually, How Donald Trump Eats His Steak Matters,” Eater, Feb. 28, 2017.
“rocked on the plate”: Jason Horwitz, “A King in His Castle: How Donald Trump Lives, from His Longtime Butler,” NYT, March 15, 2016.
“Steaks with even a little bit of red”: Rosner, “Actually, How Donald Trump Eats.”
“Why on earth would someone”: Nick Solares, “The Case Against Ketchup,” NickSolaris.com.
“quintessentially American” foodstuff: Amy Bentley, “Is Ketchup the Perfect Complement to the American Diet?,” Zócalo, June 4, 2018; Bentley, interview with the author, Jan. 31, 2020.
The condiment originated in China: Kat Eschner, “There’s Something Fishy About the Ketchup You Put on Your Burgers,” Smithsonian, June 5, 2017.
The secret to Heinz’s success: “Is There High-Fructose Corn Syrup in Ketchup?,” Knowyourpantry.com.
“class leveler”: Bentley, interview with the author, Jan. 31, 2020; Bentley, “Is Ketchup the Perfect Complement to the American Diet?”
ten billion ounces of ketchup: Casey Seidenberg, “Do You Know How Much Sugar Is in Your Ketchup?,” WP, June 2, 2015.
During a June 2022 House committee hearing: Dana Milbank, “Cassidy Hutchinson Could Read the Ketchup on the Wall,” WP, June 28, 2022.
Food scientists have capitalized on: Michael Moss, “The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food,” NYT, Feb. 20, 2013.
One tablespoon of HFCS: Melissa Kravitz Hoeffner, “Food Companies Intentionally Make Their Products Addictive, and It’s Making Us Sick,” Salon, March 28, 2019.
“Salt is extremely addictive”: Ibid.
In 2020, just one in five American adults: Jane E. Brody, “How Poor Diet Contributes to Coronavirus Risk,” NYT, April 20, 2020.
“report positive attitudes toward fast food”: Mary Kekatos, “Trump’s Fast Food Affinity May Be Leading More Americans to Eat Unhealthy Diets, Study Suggests,” Daily Mail, Jan. 9, 2020.
“my every day delicious & healthy breakfast”: Christine-Marie Liwag Dixon, “This Is What the First Lady Eats,” Mashed, July 10, 2020.
turn the garden into a putting green: Anastasia Day, “How the White House Garden Became a Political Football,” WP, April 3, 2018.
Obamas had reinforced it with stone: Helena Bottmiller Evich, “Michelle Obama Sets Her Garden in Stone,” Politico, Oct. 6, 2016; Burpee Seeds and Plants, “Burpee Funds Permanent White House Kitchen Garden,” press release, burpee.com.
When Donald Trump arrived in Washington: Carl Abbott, “The Myth That Washington Was a Swamp Will Never Go Away,” Smithsonian, March 9, 2017; Gillian Brockell, “Is the White House ‘a Dump’? A History of Extreme Makeovers at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue,” WP, Aug. 7, 2017.
“I don’t know a chef”: Jennifer Steinhauer, “Trump Kicks Away Obama Traditions Even at the Dinner Table,” NYT, Dec. 14, 2018.
“couldn’t match the satisfaction”: Annie Karni, “Trump’s ‘Loyal Lieutenant’ to Testify on 2013 Russia Visit,” Politico, Nov. 6, 2017.
“We should be eating a hamburger”: Tessa Berenson, “Here’s Donald Trump’s Idea for a Very Unusual State Dinner,” Time, June 15, 2016.
When he hosted China’s president: Dan Merica, “Trump, Xi Talked Syria Strike over ‘Beautiful’ Chocolate Cake,” CNN, April 12, 2017.
Comerford’s menu included seasonal specialties: Chris Fuhrmeister, “Here’s the Menu for Trump’s Fancy State Dinner with Emmanuel Macron,” Eater, April 24, 2018.
bought the former Kluge estate: Annie Gowen, “Trump Buys Former Kluge-Owned Winery,” WP, April 7, 2011.
meeting was hailed as “le bromance”: Nikki Schwab, “Le Bromance Is On!,” Daily Mail, Feb. 26, 2018.
Trump called NATO “obsolete”: Cyra Master, “Trump Tells German Paper: NATO Is ‘Obsolete,’ ” Hill, Jan. 15, 2017.
“some nice ISIS fighters”: Quint Forgey, “Macron Confronts Trump on ISIS: ‘Let’s Be Serious,’ ” Politico, Dec. 3, 2019.
Trump’s second state dinner: Emily Heil, “On the Menu for the Trumps’ Australian State Dinner: A Refined Taste of America,” WP, Sept. 19, 2019.
“a hundred years of mateship”: Nina Zafar and Caitlin Moore, “Full Transcript: The Toasts of President Trump and Prime Minister Scott Morrison at the State Dinner for Australia,” WP, Sept. 20, 2019.
In mid-January 2020, an American man: Mike Baker, “A Scramble to Retrace the Steps of the First Wuhan Coronavirus Case in the U.S.,” NYT, Jan. 22, 2020.
By late April 2020, nearly sixty-five hundred workers: Gaby Galvin, “CDC: Nearly 5,000 Meat Processing Workers Infected with COVID-19,” U.S. News & World Report, May 1, 2020.
“It tore me up enough”: Alisa Roth, “Pandemic Disruptions Taking a Toll on Farmers’ Mental Health,” MPRNews, May 28, 2020.
“critical infrastructure”: Ana Swanson and David Yaffe-Bellany, “Trump Declares Meat Supply ‘Critical,’ Aiming to Reopen Plants,” NYT, April 28, 2020.
It was an open secret: Joshua Partlow and David A. Fahrenthold, “Trump Organization Fires More Undocumented Workers—a Year After Its Use of Illegal Labor Was Revealed,” WP, Dec. 31, 2019.
Restaurants were particularly hard-hit: Amy McCarthy, “Will the Restaurant Industry Survive Stricter Immigration Screenings?,” Eater, March 4, 2016.
Since the opening of Mathurin Roze de Chantoiseau’s Paris consommé shop: Adam Gopnik, foreword to Spang, Invention of the Restaurant, xiv.
“Do you hear the babies crying?”: Meagan Flynn, “Kirstjen Nielsen Heckled by Protesters at Mexican Restaurant. Other Diners Applauded Them,” WP, June 20, 2018.
“the moment in our democracy when people”: Avi Selk and Sarah Murray, “The Owner of the Red Hen Explains Why She Asked Sarah Huckabee Sanders to Leave,” WP, June 25, 2018.
“filthy”: Madeleine Aggeler, “Trump, Whose Restaurant Has 78 Health-Code Violations, Calls Red Hen ‘Filthy,’ ” The Cut, June 25, 2018.
“they’re not welcome”: John Wagner and Avi Selk, “ ‘Be Careful What You Wish for Max!’: Trump Takes Aim at Waters After She Calls for Public Harassment of His Cabinet,” WP, June 25, 2018.
“Go after her children”: Selk and Murray, “Owner of the Red Hen Explains.”
“should be allowed to eat dinner in peace”: “Let the Trump Team Eat in Peace,” WP, June 24, 2018.
“How can a space be open and welcoming”: Amy McCarthy, “Trump Officials Don’t Deserve Hospitality,” Eater, June 25, 2018.
“Nothing is more fundamental”: Adam Gopnik, “Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Who Deserves a Place at the Table,” New Yorker, June 25, 2018.
Lea Berman, George W. Bush’s social secretary: Berman and Bernard, Treating People Well, xvi.
“The personal smooths the professional”: Lea Berman and Jeremy Bernard, videotaped discussion of Treating People Well, Politics and Prose bookstore, YouTube, Jan. 23, 2018.
The ability to “disagree agreeably”: Berman in conversation with the author, Nov. 9, 2019.
He gave an inaugural address: Inaugural Address by President Joseph R. Biden Jr., White House: Speeches and Remarks, Jan. 20, 2021.
“trust, confidence, and stability”: Hanna Flanagan and Gabrielle Chung, “Jill Biden’s Inauguration Night Dress Included Subtle Style Nod to All of America,” People, Jan. 21, 2021.
“Everybody knows Joe”: Betsy Andrews, “ ‘Everybody Knows Joe’: I Ate at Biden’s Favorite Hometown Restaurants,” Food & Wine, Oct. 30, 2020.
“He’s pretty much a basic eater”: Lauren Barth, “Here’s What Jill Biden Typically Eats in a Day,” List, Jan. 21, 2021, thelist.com.
“My name is Joe Biden”: Paulina Firozi, “Vice President: ‘My Name Is Joe Biden, and I Love Ice Cream,’ ” Hill, May 18, 2016.
“ice cream” was his “performance enhancer”: Patrick Cooley, “Jeni’s Releases Special Flavor for Biden Inauguration,” Columbus Dispatch, Jan. 19, 2021.
White House Chocolate Chip: Ibid.
She was an accomplished cook: Alison Ashton, “Jill Biden Shares Her Favorite Foods, What She’s Been Reading, and Her Parmesan Chicken Recipe,” Parade, Jan. 19, 2021.
employees had been fired or quit: Merrit Kennedy, “Scientists Desert USDA as Agency Relocates to Kansas City Area,” The Salt (blog), NPR, July 17, 2019.
“Our mission is to provide”: Dan Charles, “Biden Plans to Bring Vilsack Back to USDA Despite Criticism from Reformers,” Morning Edition, NPR, Dec. 9, 2020.
“a blatant attack on science”: Kennedy, “Scientists Desert USDA.”
The number of hungry Americans: Christianna Silva, “Food Insecurity in the U.S. by the Numbers,” NPR, Sept. 27, 2020; Mireya Villarreal, “More Than 50 Million Americans Facing Hunger in 2020, Projections Show,” CBS Evening News, Nov. 24, 2020.
“It’s a tradition I really care about”: Mattie Kahn, “What’s Cooking, Kamala Harris?,” Glamour, May 21, 2020.
She cooked masala dosas: Monica Chon, “Watch Mindy Kaling and Kamala Harris Cook Indian Food in This Delightful Video,” Oprah Daily, Dec. 2, 2019.
“onion-cutting goggles”: Kahn, “What’s Cooking, Kamala Harris?”
proper tuna-melt technique: Lydia Greene, “Kamala Harris Shows How to Make a Perfect Tuna Melt Sandwich Recipe,” WideOpenEats.com, June 3, 2021.
“creased apron”: Naomi Lim, “Democratic Women Don Aprons and Pose in Kitchen to Woo 2020 Voters,” Washington Examiner, May 17, 2019.
Recalling the “magic” cilantro rice: Kahn, “What’s Cooking, Kamala Harris?”
Harris’s consistent focus on food: Ibid.
“make schmoozing great again”: Roxanne Roberts, “Washington’s Establishment Hopes a Biden Presidency Will Make Schmoozing Great Again,” WP, Nov. 23, 2020.
“finish with tarallucci and wine”: Abigail Napp, “Will Dr. Jill Biden Bring ‘Red Sauce’ to the White House?,” LaCucinaItaliana.com, Nov. 9, 2020.
“Unfortunately, we’re not able to facilitate”: Harleth, email to the author, May 24, 2019.
John Moeller agreed to prepare: See Moeller, Dining at the White House; “Meet Chef John Moeller,” Greenfield Restaurant & Bar, www.thegreenfieldrestaurant.com.
“my White House dinner”: Author’s notes and audiovisual recording from the night of Feb. 17, 2020. For John Moeller’s recipes, see Moeller, Dining at the White House.
COVID had infected President and Mrs. Trump: Tamara Keith, “Trump Takes ‘Precautionary’ Treatment After He and First Lady Test Positive for Virus,” NPR, Oct. 2, 2020.
killed an estimated 15 million people globally: “Pandemic Death Toll at End of 2021 May Have Hit 15 Million People, WHO Estimates,” Associated Press, May 5, 2022.
778,000 of whom were Americans: Jonathan S. Jones, “Covid-19 Has Killed More Americans Than the Civil War. How Do We Remember Them?,” WP, Dec. 2, 2021.
“loneliness epidemic”: Colleen Walsh, “Young Adults Hardest Hit by Loneliness During Pandemic,” Harvard Gazette, Feb. 17, 2021.
only 30 percent of families: Jill Anderson, “Harvard EdCast: The Benefit of Family Mealtime,” Harvard Graduate School of Education, April 1, 2020, www.gse.harvard.edu.
80 percent of them say that is the time: Anderson, “Harvard EdCast: The Benefit of Family Mealtime.”
The Bureau of Labor Statistics found: Karen Hamrick, “Americans Spend an Average of 37 Minutes a Day Preparing and Serving Food and Cleaning Up,” Economic Research Service, USDA, Nov. 7, 2016.
studies found that students who: Cody C. Delistraty, “The Importance of Eating Together,” Atlantic, July 18, 2014.
“there is a correlation between [increased]”: Fishbach, interview with the author, Dec. 17, 2021.
Affluent families have been eating together: Anderson, “Harvard EdCast: The Benefit of Family Mealtime.”
Americans were spending almost as much on fast food: Delistraty, “The Importance of Eating Together.”
in the House and Senate dining rooms: Ashley Parker, “On Senate Menu, Bean Soup and a Serving of ‘Hyperpartisanship,’ ” NYT, Aug. 19, 2014.
Even the District’s legendary cocktail parties: Roxanne Roberts, “Buffy Cafritz and Her Lifelong Quest to Bring Washington Together,” WP, May 7, 2021.
a Census report found: Yeris Mayol-Garcia, “Pandemic Brought Parents and Children Closer: More Family Dinners, More Reading to Young Children,” Census.gov, Jan. 3, 2022.
American Family Survey: Karlyn Bowman, “The Family Dinner Hour: Alive and Well,” Forbes, Jan. 13, 2020.
“The family meal”: Francine du Plessix Gray, “Starving Children,” New Yorker, Oct. 8, 1995.
“People prefer to eat together”: Fishbach, interview with the author, Dec. 17, 2021.
“How we produce and consume food”: Mark Bittman, Michael Pollan, Ricardo Salvador, and Olivier De Schutter, “How a National Food Policy Could Save Millions of American Lives,” WP, Nov. 7, 2014.
food czar: Paula Crossfield, “Michael Pollan on Bill Moyers Journal,” Civil Eats, Nov. 29, 2008.
as Brazil and Mexico have: Bittman and Pollan, “How a National Food Policy Could Save Millions of American Lives.”
they should raise the nation’s “gastronomic image”: Child, “A White House Menu.”
“a showcase of American art and history”: National Museum of American History, “Jacqueline Kennedy: Glamour Comes to the White House,” https://americanhistory.si.edu.
an elephant and a donkey: Michael Pollan, “Abolish the White house Lawn.”