Book Review: The President's Kitchen Cabinet

 

The President's Kitchen Cabinet

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

By Adrian Miller

James Beard award-winning 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 nation's history. Daisy McAfee Bonner, for example, FDR's cook at his Warm Springs retreat, described the president's final day on earth in 1945, when he was struck down just as his lunchtime cheese souffle emerged from the oven. Sorrowfully, but with a cook's pride, she recalled, "He never ate that souffle, 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 Fraunces's "onions done in the Brazilian way" for George Washington to Zephyr Wright's popovers, beloved by LBJ's 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.

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My BookReview

                                    ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Immediately after reading Becoming by Michelle Obama, I wanted to listen to this book which I owned in audio. 

Former First Lady Michelle Obama planted the White House Kitchen Garden on the South Lawn in the spring of 2009 to initiate a national conversation around the health and wellbeing of our country. In time, that conversation led to Let's Move!, which Mrs. Obama launched in 2010 to help kids and families lead healthier lives. The garden has provided fresh, seasonal produce for the First Family, guests at White House events, and for those in need in the local community. Students from across the country helped Mrs. Obama plant and harvest the garden throughout President Obama’s Administration. 

Two African American cooks warned my attention for further information/research : 1) Hercules, one of Washington’s slaves, was the chief cook at Mount Vernon, and was given special privileges, and sold leftovers from the presidential kitchen and earned enough monies to buy expensive clothing and luxuries. Hercules escaped to his freedom. 2) Lizzie McDuffie, who’s weight went well beyond the White House, was a part-time cook for Franklin D. Roosevelt. McDuffie went on the campaign trail for Roosevelt to gin up votes among African American voters, and wrote some of his speeches. 

This book is full of history and information past and present. The audio was well done. I wish this book was required reading in schools. The recipes at the very end was a wealth of information being that I own a bed and breakfast and like serving traditional meals to my guests.