Dinner with the president Food, politics, and a history of breaking bread at the White House

Nodding to Lin-Manuel Miranda, Prud'homme (The French Chef in America, 2016) characterizes sharing a meal with the president as being "in the dining room where it happens." Prud'homme starts with Thomas Jefferson's pre-presidential dinner with Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, a sumptuous repast of French cooking and wines that softened rivalries, yielding a compromise to restructure the nation's debt and determine its capital city. Across the centuries, other presidents used the White House dining room to similarly cajole other leaders to reach goals consistent with the president's wishes. George Washington never resided in the White House, but his enslaved chef, Hercules, produced renowned foods for the Washingtons' constant stream of visitors. Abraham Lincoln often failed to eat, immersed in wartime duties. U. S. Grant hosted the first reigning monarch to visit the White House: Kalakaua, King of the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii). Dwight Eisenhower liked to do his own cooking, particularly breakfast and barbecue. The Kennedys favored haute cuisine, and Lyndon Johnson brought Texas chili. By the twenty-first century, food became a mainstream national obsession, and presidents had to acknowledge it. With much insight into human behavior, Prud'homme has confected an appealing, panoramic history of power dining for both foodies and students of politics and statecraft.

A journalist shows us what our presidents liked to eat. Prud'homme, author of several books about Julia Child, brings his interest in cuisine to a lively consideration of the culinary preferences of 25 presidents, from George Washington to Joe Biden. In the White House, he notes, food is both "sustenance and metaphor," reflecting the tastes of the nation's top leader as well as the economic, agricultural, political, and social conditions of the country. The author reveals each president's attitude about food, which ranges from abstemious (Woodrow Wilson, who suffered from chronic indigestion) to disinterested (Nixon) to adventurous. Obama, both praised and criticized for being a "foodie," had, in the author's estimation, "the most globally informed palate." Some men preferred food they grew up eating: Lincoln loved "raw honey and corn bread," James Garfield and Eisenhower were partial to squirrel stew, and Jimmy Carter loved grits, with a few eggs dropped in. Eisenhower was an accomplished cook of hearty American cuisine, such as grilled steak, boiled potatoes, and apple pie. Truman, like Ike, was a meat-and-potatoes man, and Lyndon Johnson served guests traditional Texas barbecue. Whatever they ate in private (jelly beans, Mexican food, and sweet desserts for Reagan; cottage cheese for Nixon), they realized the significance of the menu at state dinners: occasions for the president to assert his power, showcase "the best of American ingredients," and display the prowess of the White House cooks. The Kennedys, comfortable with an international palate, were, to their guests' delight, masters of the art. Prud'homme appends the history with 10 recipes--all of which he tried and some of which he updated--including George Washington's grilled striped bass; Martha Washington's preserved cherries; Thomas Jefferson's Tarragon Vinegar salad dressing; Wilson's breakfast of two raw eggs dropped in grape juice; Franklin Roosevelt's reverse martini, heavy on the vermouth; and Carter's grits. An entertaining, well-researched, politically tinged gastronomic history. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.