“In the White House they eat the best hamburgers”: Cristeta Comerford, the Filipino chef who cooked for decades for the most powerful people in the world
Image source, Getty Images
- Author, BBC World Service
- Author’s title, “Witness History” series
Hosting a dinner party at your home is exciting, although it can also be a little overwhelming: what to cook, how to cook it, will guests like it?
But if that house is the White House and the guest is a head of state, the food has to be much more than delicious.
Doing it well is important. A good meal can set the tone for an entire visit.
To avoid embarrassing situations, the planning process is intense.
The State Department’s protocol office takes the first step: it sends the First Lady a list of the guest’s culinary tastes and cultural sensitivities to take into account.
All this for ensure there is “nothing offensive” on the menu.
Then select the event’s menu and decide how it will be presented, with the help of the White House social secretary and executive chef.
The plan is reviewed and tested several times before final approval.
It is a process that Cristeta Comerford knows very well, who for almost three decades was the White House chef and cooked for five presidents, from Bill Clinton to Joe Biden.
For 10 years he was assistant to executive chef Walter Scheib III, and in August 2005 he replaced him, and She made history by becoming the first woman and person of color to be appointed to that position..
¿Le Cordon Bleu?
Comerford’s journey to the White House began on the other side of the world, in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, where he grew up.
As a child, she helped her mother cook for dozens of friends and family.
“Filipinos love to entertain guests. They are very hospitable people. And I remember when someone came, my mom would say, ‘Hey, you have to eat. Have you eaten yet?'”
However, I didn’t know that cooking for people could be a real job.
Image source, Getty Images
“There were no famous chefs back then.
“I thought taking a Bachelor’s Degree in Food Science and Technology would be good since I love food and I love science.
“But my father advised me to become a chef. Le Cordon Bleu. I didn’t even know what it was “Le Cordon Bleu!”
Comerford took a different path.
He moved to the United States at age 23, and honed his culinary skills in prestigious hotels and restaurants.
“That’s when I met my first executive chef.
“He went into the kitchen. He was big, tall, with a white hat, impeccable apron and white clogs.. I thought, ‘I guess this is what Dad’s been talking about.’
“From then on, I wanted to be a chef.”
Cooking for Mandela
Cristeta Comerford came to the White House in 1994, “because there was a state dinner for Nelson Mandela.”
“They needed experienced chefs to help prepare the meals and called our hotel.”
He immediately said he was available, and soon found himself in one of the most famous places in the world, cooking for one of the most respected leaders on the planet.
“When I walked into the White House, it was a different feeling because of its history. I was walking down the same hallway that presidents have walked down since the time of John Adams. It was inspiring.”
Although not everything was as he imagined, He confessed in an interview with the BBC.
“The first time I walked into the White House kitchen I was surprised because it was so small.
Image source, Getty Images
“At a typical state dinner there are two or three dozen kitchen helpers, practically shoulder to shoulder with each other, so you have to know your place.”
And that place was given to you by the then executive chef, Walter Scheib.
“Even if you were an executive chef somewhere else, he gave you very simple tasks, like making sure the sauces were at the right temperature.”
Comerford clearly left a good impression because the following year she was hired as an assistant chef in the Clinton White Housea job that involves serving meals for many different occasions.
“It can be a congressional picnic for about 2,000 people on the lawn, or a state dinner upstairs,” one of the highest honors a president can bestow on a dignitary.
It’s a delicious feast that showcases the best of American hospitality and, for a White House chef, the ultimate test of skill.
Without telling his mother
Comerford has cooked for dozens of world leaders, from Queen Elizabeth II to Chinese President Xi Jinping.
But his most memorable state dinner was in 2003.when she was not yet the executive chef.
“It was for the president of the Philippines, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
“The chef asked me, ‘Hey, Chris, do you want to do this dinner?’ I was really honored because it was my home country, but I had never done a state dinner before.
“She loved lamb, even though Filipinos don’t normally prepare it, so I decided to make her the best lamb she had ever had and paired it with a dish very similar to a bean stew we make in the Philippines.”
Occasions like that earned him the reputation of being one of the best chefs at the Casa Blanca, so no one was surprised when in 2005 the then first lady Laura Bush chose her to succeed Scheib.
Image source, Getty Images
They broke the news to him a few days before the official announcement, but told him he couldn’t tell anyone.
“I was shocked, excited… all kinds of feelings were spinning in my stomach and I couldn’t even tell my mother because I knew she would tell everyone in Chicago.
“On Sunday night it all happened before my very eyes. I saw it at the bottom of CNN: I was being proclaimed the first executive chef of the White House.”
The best burgers
One of the executive chef’s main responsibilities is to cook for the president and his family.
“Before a new president arrives at the White House, we have a meeting with a transition team and they inform us of all their preferences. It’s like having a menu playlist. If you know what the favorites are, you will repeat them more” .
And what were some of the preferences of the presidents you cooked for?
“President Biden has a great love for Italian food. He loves his chicken parmesan.
“President Obama was very eclectic. “He grew up in Hawaii and Chicago, a city of immigrants, so he’s open to a lot of dishes.”
And is it true that Donald Trump has a preference for fast food?
“I wouldn’t say that because we don’t serve fast food when he’s in the White House. Maybe he’ll eat that on trips or wherever he’s been.”
In any case, he says, “at the White House we make the best cheeseburger ever and the best fries.”
This year, Comeford retired from her position as White House executive chef.
For his successor, he has this advice:
“Leave politics at the door when you walk into the kitchen. It’s about diplomacy and food is a tool that brings people together.”
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