The Presidents Kitchen Cabinet: The Story of the African Americans Who Have Fed Our First Families, from the Washingtons to the Obamas

Synopsis

James Beard awardwinning author Adrian Miller vividly tells the stories of the African Americans who worked in the presidential food service as chefs, personal cooks, butlers, stewards, and servers for every First Family since George and Martha Washington. Miller brings together the names and words of more than 150 black men and women who played remarkable roles in unforgettable events in the nations history. Daisy McAfee Bonner, for example, FDRs cook at his Warm Springs retreat, described the presidents final day on earth in 1945, when he was struck down just as his lunchtime cheese souffl emerged from the oven. Sorrowfully, but with a cooks pride, she recalled, He never ate that souffl, but it never fell until the minute he died. A treasury of information about cooking techniques and equipment, the book includes twenty recipes for which black chefs were celebrated. From Samuel Frauncess onions done in the Brazilian way for George Washington to Zephyr Wrights popovers, beloved by LBJs family, Miller highlights African Americans contributions to our shared American foodways. Surveying the labor of enslaved people during the antebellum period and the gradual opening of employment after Emancipation, Miller highlights how food-related work slowly became professionalized and the important part African Americans played in that process. His chronicle of the daily table in the White House proclaims a fascinating new American story.