Kelley Library

Dinner with the president, food, politics, and a history of breaking bread at the White House, Alex Prud'homme

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 451-454) and index

collective biography

illustrationsplates

index present

non fiction

Dinner with the president

bibliography

Alex Prud'homme

food, politics, and a history of breaking bread at the White House

"Perhaps the most significant meals in the world have been consumed at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue by the presumptive leaders of the free world. Thomas Jefferson had an affinity for eggplant and FDR for terrapin stew. Nixon ate a lump of cottage cheese topped with barbecue sauce every day and Obama regularly had arugula. Now, Alex Prud'homme takes us to the dining tables of the White House to look at what the presidents chose to eat, how the food was prepared and by whom, and the context in which the meals were served, making clear that every one of these details speaks volumes about both the individual president and the country he presided over. We see how these gustatory messages touch on not only sometimes curious personal tastes, but also local politics, national priorities, and global diplomacy-not to mention all those dinner-table-conversation-taboos: race, gender, class, money, and religion. The individual stories are fascinating in themselves, but taken together-under the keen and knowledgeable eye of Prud'homme-they reveal that food is not just food when it is desired, ordered, and consumed by the President of the United States"--, Provided by publisher

Introduction: At the president's table -- George Washington : the first kitchen -- John Adams : the first host -- Thomas Jefferson : America's founding epicure -- James Madison : to Jemmy's health, and Dolley's remorseless equanimity -- Abraham Lincoln : corn, gingerbread, and Thanksgiving -- Ulysses S. Grant : the drunken tanner, the military genius, and the first state dinner -- Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft : two bears -- From Wilson to Coolidge and Hoover : heartburn, hard cheese, and a hail of rotten tomatoes -- Franklin D. Roosevelt : the gourmet's lament -- Harry S. Truman : bourbon, Berlin, and the comforts of fried chicken -- Dwight D. Eisenhower : the president who cooked -- John F. Kennedy : Camelot and clam chowder -- Lyndon B. Johnson : how barbecue led to diplomacy and chili led to civil rights -- Richard M. Nixon and Gerald Ford : the unlikelist gastro-diplomat and the instant president -- Jimmy Carter : in search of grits and peace -- Ronald Reagan : jelly beans, weight-loss, and glasnost -- George H. W. Bush : the yin and yang of broccoli -- William J. Clinton : torn between renunciation and appetite -- George W. Bush : tee ball, freedom fries, and changing of the guard -- Barack Obama : the president with the global palate -- Donald Trump : the food fighter -- Joseph R. Biden : we finish as family -- Conclusion: Eating together

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