>> David Ferriero: Good afternoon and welcometo the William G.
McGowan Theater at The National Archives.
I am David Ferriero, the Archivistof the United States, and I am pleased that you can join us today, whether you are herein person or watching us on our YouTube channel.
Before we get started with today's program,I would like to tell you about two other book discussions coming up here this week.
Tomorrowat noon we will host the national book launch of JFK: A Vision for America.
JFK's nephew,Stephen Kennedy Smith and historian, Doug Brinkely have brought together Kennedy's greatestspeeches, along with essays by America's leading historians, political thinkers and writersand artists.
The next day, Thursday, May 4, at 7 p.
M.
author David Dalin will speak aboutthe eight Jewish men and women, who served as justices of the Supreme Court, and whoare featured in his book: The Jewish Justices of the Supreme Court: From Brandeis to Kagan.
To learn about these and all of our public programs and exhibits, consult our monthlyCalendar of Events in print or online at archives.
Gov.
There are copies in the lobby as well as asign‑up sheet where you can receive it by regular mail or E‑mail.
Food is a basic human need, but its place in culture stretches far beyond fulfillingnutritional requirements.
The act of preparing and sharing a meal brings people togetherand cultivates bonds among them.
Several years ago in an exhibit "What is cooking, UncleSam?" The National Archives explored the federal government's historic involvement in the foodthat we eat.
Part of that exhibit pulled records from our presidential libraries provided aglimpse into the cuisine of the White House, both private and public.
For those of us wholove both history and good food, the exhibit was an eye opening treat.
And today's guesthas given us a further treat in his book on the African‑Americans who fed the presidentsand their families.
Since publication of the Presidents Kitchen Cabinet Adrian Miller hasshared his stories of African‑American cooks on NPR, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe,last night on Fox News, and other media outlets.
And now we are pleased that he will be sharingthose stories with us this afternoon.
I am especially pleased because Adrian used 12of our 14 presidential libraries in research for the book.
Adrian Miller is a food writer, attorney and certified BBQ judge who lives in Denver.
Heis currently the Executive Director of the Colorado Council of Churches and the firstAfrican‑American and the first layperson to hold that position.
Miller previously servedas a special assistant to President Bill Clinton and senior policy analyst for Colorado governorBill Reuter, Jr.
He has also been a board member of the Southern Foodways Alliance.
His previous books: Soul food: The surprising story of American Cuisine One Plate at a Time, won the James Beard award for scholarship and reference in 2014.
Ladies and gentlemen, pleasewelcome Adrian Miller.
(APPLAUSE)>> Adrian Miller: Good afternoon.
I am so happy there are more than two people, becauseas an author my threshold is two people.
If I have more than two, I am happy.
So it'sjust great to see this turnout here.
Thank you.
I want to say thank you to AOTUS Ferrierofor the wonderful introduction, and all the other staffers here.
The game plan for today,I am going to tell you about my journey, how I came to write this book.
And then I am goingto go through the sequence of the chapters of the book, and share some of my favoritestories, not all of them because I would love for to you buy the book.
We will take questionsafter that.
So, this is a picture of me in the White House kitchen, with the kitchenSteward a man named Adam Colic I took it July 2015.
Has anybody actually ever seen the WhiteHouse kitchen? One of the things ‑‑ oh, okay.
What is one of the most surprising thingsabout the White House kitchen? >> It's small.
>> It's small.
It's tiny.
It's only 30 by 26 feet.
So there are only a few privilegedpeople who had a privilege to serve in the kitchen because it doesn't have a lot of space.
But I love the picture.
It was my first time in the White House kitchen, even though Iworked in the White House.
And I will tell you about that.
So as I mentioned, I was bornand raised in Denver, Colorado, which immediately loses me all street cred on the subject ofsoul food.
The way I win people back is I tell them about my heritage.
I have two southernparents.
My mom is from Chattanooga Tennessee, and my dad is from Helena, Arkansas.
Thisis the food that I grew up eating.
So I went to Stanford undergrad, and then Georgetownfor law school.
I was practicing law for about four years, and I just really didn't enjoyit.
This is not to disparage any attorneys in the audience, or anybody who has an attorneyin their family, this just wasn't for me.
I was singing spirituals in my office, so ‑‑thank you for laughing at that joke.
I figured I needed to do something else.
So I was goingto open up a soul food restaurant in Denver, and then I got a call from a Georgetown lawschool classmate about the president's initiative for this new thing called One America.
Itwas in President Clinton's White House, and it was an outgrowth on the President's initiativeon race.
The crazy idea behind the President's initiative on race was this: If we just talkto one another and got to know each other, we might understand we have a lot more incommon than what divides us.
So she tells me about the initiative and she asked me ifI had friends back in Denver who ‑‑ or DC, excuse me, who might be interested inworking on this initiative.
So, I did the same thing that Dick Cheney did when GeorgeW.
Bush asked him to find a Vice‑President.
I went on the search committee, only my namewent on the list.
So I went to work in the White House, it was a great time.
After thechange of the administration, shockingly, George W.
Bush was not interested as me asa Clinton staffer working for him.
Job market was a little slow at that time and I was watchinga lot of daytime television.
So I thought, I need to read something.
So I went to thebook store and I got a book called Southern Food at Home on the Road in History.
If youare a fan of southern food history, I highly encourage this book.
It was written by JohnEdgerton.
In that book he said, the tribute to African‑American achievement in cookeryhas yet to be written.
I thought that was interesting.
I E‑mailed him to see if somebodyhad written that history, because the book was about ten years old by the time I readit.
Excuse me.
He said, you know, no one has really taken on the full story.
So, with noqualifications at all, except for eating a lot of soul food and cooking it some, I wrotethe book on the history of soul food.
And it was really during that research that Istarted to learn about the African‑Americans who cooked for our presidents.
And they justjumped off the page at me.
So in terms of the research, what I did, I did go to mostof the presidential libraries and looked for any information that the library may havehad on food.
And it was really hit or miss.
Some libraries were great about the food reportsrecords.
I would say my favorite was Jimmy Carter Presidential Library because for whateverreason they kept the private menus of what Jimmy Carter ate in the residence.
If youpick a day, and Jimmy Carter was there, you are likely to find out what he had for breakfast,lunch and dinner.
And often there are marginal notes from Rosalynn, like, "Jimmy doesn'tlike green peas," and things like that.
And the Reagan library was good also in termsof records.
Unless the staff preserving records or the photographers thought what was happeningin the kitchen was interesting, there is not a lot of information about these cooks.
Soafter I finished the soul food book in 2013, I said, if I could just find enough storiesabout these cooks, I would like that to be my next book.
It was really a combinationof the presidential research library research, also looking and reading presidential memoirs,and also the memoirs of staffers that started to rounded out the information.
But the realgold mine was is the old historic newspapers being digitized by the Library of Congressand private companies because those records are ‑‑ those newspapers are word searchable.
Once you figure out certain names and how they describe cooks in past eras, it justopened up a whole world to me.
And that really rounded out the research.
Let's talk aboutthe White House domestic staff and what it was like for African‑Americans in the presidentialkitchen.
So this picture was taken in spring of 1877.
Does anybody know who was presidentin springs of 1877? You can't answer this.
Anybody know who was president in the springof 1877? >> (inaudible).
>> Adrian Miller: Yes.
Who answered that question? Okay.
I should have discounted you as well.
Rutherford B.
Hayes.
Here we have ‑‑ this is the earliest picture we have on thepresidential staff, at least the resident staff.
This woman is Winnie Monroe.
She wasthe Hayes' private cook who comes to the White House after Hayes gets elected.
And that prettymuch the journey for most of the presidential cooks that I found.
They are pretty much accidental.
They are enslaved or working for somebody who becomes president.
Very few examples ofsomeone who starts a career saying, I want to be a White House chef.
Even today.
Although,it may change with the chef celebrity culture.
If I were to ascribe a nice metaphor forthe Presidents and food, I would call it the presidential pickle.
Because we want our Presidentsto be extraordinary people, but we also want them to be a lot like us, and food is a greatmetaphor for how we feel about our President.
Presidents who love childhood foods or nostalgicfoods, we think they are more relatable.
If they like fancy food or foreign food, we kindof think they are out of touch.
So, that's plays out with the presidency.
We have hadsome Presidents who have had a real keen understanding of how to use the other symbols to enhancetheir presidential personality and power, and we have others that don't seem to do itso well.
All right.
Here is the first person I will talk about.
A man named Samuel Fraunces.
I know what you are thinking as soon as this picture came up, he looks a lot like a whitedude.
Well, his race has been contested by a lot of historians.
But his descendants allbelieve him to be a biracial man from the West Indies, he may have been from Jamaicaor Haiti but he really affected more British custom, so it's more probable that he is fromJamaica.
He is the first chapter of my boo ‑‑ or second chapter.
The first chapter of thebook I show the different elements that go into presidential food ways and food culture.
I take a Maison plat approach.
There are two kinds of cooks.
You probably know cooks thatwalk into any kitchen, look into the pantry or the fridge and they can just create a greatmeal.
That's not me.
I need to have everything measured out ahead of time and all of my ingredients.
If you go to culinary school, that's called Maison plat.
So I take that approach whentalking about presidential food ways.
But the second chapter, I talk about all the peoplewho are in charge of running the domestic operations for the presidential residence.
In the earliest days of the presidency they were called stewards.
Today they are calledthe chief usher.
The first steward in the United States history is this man, SamuelFraunces.
He comes from the West Indies, arrives in New York City in the 1750s.
He was a veryastute businessman, and started running a pickling and preserving business.
Then heopens up a tavern called Fraunces Tavern.
If you go to New York City you will actuallysee a replica of that tavern on 54 Pearl Street in Lower Manhattan not too far from Wall Street.
So he runs this tavern and has a very famous patron, General George Washington, who frequentlyate at his tavern and loved his food.
When Washington becomes president, he actuallytaps Fraunces to run his household and be the first presidential steward.
They had alot of adventures together, and a lot of respect.
When George Washington says farewell to histroops, he has that farewell party at Fraunces' tavern.
The first thing I wanted to sharewith you is called the poison pea plot of 1776.
Now I don't know if you learned aboutthis in grade school or even in college, but this is actually a mint green pea soup thatis served at the George W.
Bush Presidential Library restaurant.
It is excellent.
I havethe recipe for this in my book.
It was a favorite of Laura Bush.
So, George Washington lovedgreen peas, in fact so much his contemporaries called him pea ditty.
Okay, I just had totry it, I had to go for it.
(LAUGHTER)>> Adrian Miller: Here is the story.
The story is, Fraunces daughter, a woman named Phoebeis preparing a meal for the general, and it includes his favorite green peas.
There wasa guy named Thomas Hickey who was kind of hanging around the kitchen.
He was not sympatheticto all this revolutionary talk.
And he was trying to figure out a way to basically poisonthe general.
So, he is in the kitchen, he distracts Phoebe and puts extra seasoningon the peas, and they get sent out to the table.
Phoebe senses something is going on,she tells her father Samuel Fraunces, and Fraunces immediately understands what is happening.
He bursts from the kitchen, and just as the general is about to eat the peas, he grabsthe plate and the fork and throws the peas out the window.
Now at that very same momentthere was a chicken walking by who pecked at the peas and dies.
So thanks to that animaltesting they know the peas were poisoned.
It's a fabulous story but probably not truefor a lot of reasons.
One, there was ‑‑ Fraunces did have daughters but we don't havea record of someone named Phoebe.
It could have been a family nickname.
And two, therewas a guy Thomas Hickey, and he was charged with treason but his crime was really forcounterfeiting not for an assassination attempt.
He was actually hanged in the New York Harborin July of 1776 and about 20,000 people showed up for the execution.
But his crime was counterfeitingand creating passes that may have allowed other unsavory people to be in the general'spresence and kill him.
So it's a great story, probably not true, but if it is true, ladiesand gentlemen, I submit to you this is the first act of culinary Homeland Security inour great nation.
Here is another cook, this is Hercules.
Now Hercules was the enslavedcook for George ‑‑ President George Washington.
And my second chapter talks about the variousenslaved cooks that have worked in the White House.
Because we have had a lot of slaveholding presidents.
So Hercules is an interesting character.
I want you to notice a few thing,I want you to notice his outfit here (indicating).
This is an actual painting that is hangingin a museum in Spain.
The name of the painting is: A cook for George Washington.
It is believedto be painted by Gilbert Stewart, the same artist who painted that iconic portrait ofGeorge Washington that so many of us know.
Hercules gets basically purchased by GeorgeWashington when he was a teenager.
He was a ferryman at the time, but for whatever reasonGeorge Washington moves him to the kitchen in Mount Vernon and has him train under anotherenslaved chef, Old Doll.
So he cooks for her for years.
When the president moves from New Yorkto Philadelphia he actually brings Hercules to Philadelphia and installs him as his cook.
The reason why he did this, is that his first cook, a white woman named Mrs.
Reed, I guessthe food was nasty.
He just was not feeling it.
So he fires Mrs.
Reed and asks Herculesto come up and be his cook.
There was one slight problem.
Pennsylvania at that timehad something called the Gradual Abolition Act of 1780, which meant if you were enslavedperson and you were on Pennsylvania soil for six months or longer, you were automaticallyfree.
So the way that George Washington got around this, right about the time of the six‑monthdeadline, he would pack up all of the enslaved people, leave them at Mount Vernon, leavethem there a few weeks ‑‑ I know, messed up, right? He would bring them back and hedid this throughout his presidency.
While in Philadelphia Hercules was given a lot ofliberties.
He was allowed to go to the circus.
After work he would get dressed up in a fancysuit and walk around town with a golden cane.
Also George Washington let him sell leftoversout of the kitchen.
And he made a couple thousand dollars a year, back then, selling his leftovers,that was how good the brother's cooking was.
At the end of President Washington's secondterm, he suspected Hercules is going to escape.
And so, to punish him, he sends him back toMount Vernon, but not to the kitchen.
He puts him in the fields having him make bricks andother hard labor.
So this well renown chef is now in the field doing hard labor.
So onWashington's 65th birthday, he actually runs away successfully.
And Washington was nothappy about it.
If you read accounts from Washington he could have a volcanic temper.
He was upset.
You can tell through the letters that he wrote to his associates that he wasgoing through the five stages of grief at this time.
He spared no expense to get Herculesbut never finds him.
The question is, where does Hercules go? Going back to this outfit.
This is the outfit of somebody who would have been a chef in Europe at that time period,not in the United States.
So it's believed he may have gone to Europe to sit for thepainting, but we are all speculating, no one really knows.
The last we hear of Herculesis after Washington dies, he is was spotted in New York City by the mayor of New YorkCity, Mayor Barrack, who was actually a personal secretary of President Washington at one point.
He writes to Martha Washington asking if she wants him to make an effort to actually recaptureHercules and brings him back, but Martha never responds.
There was a person who was doingtraveling through the United States who writes about going to Mount Vernon in the early 1800s,he encountered one of Hercules' daughters and he asks her if she misses him or is sad,and she says no, she is happy because he is free.
The next person I want to tell you about, we don't have a visual representation of him,is James Hemings.
James Hemings was never a presidential chef, but he was an enslavedcook for Thomas Jefferson.
This is actually a list of utensils at Monticello written inhis own hand.
When Jefferson becomes minister to France in the last 1780s, he actually bringsJames Hemings with him, the 19‑year‑old James Hemings with him to France.
James Hemingswas one of two older brothers of Sally Hemings, who you may have heard of.
While in France,Jefferson spares no expense to actually have him trained as a chef, spends a lot of money,spends three years doing this.
And installs him as his resident chef while he is inParis.
When they come back from Paris through the United States after a few years in themid 1790s Hemings approaches Thomas Jefferson and says, I want to be free.
He agrees tofree him on two conditions: One, you have to teach the other enslaved cooks back atMonticello all of the things that you learned.
And two, you have to leave behind your recipes.
Jefferson agrees to do this.
After a couple of ‑‑ a year and a half of apprenticeship with the other cooks, he is freed in 1796.
After that, Hemings goes to other places, may have gone overseas.
Hedoes return to Monticello to cook for a short period of time, but he never becomes presidentialchef because at age of 31 he drank himself to death in the City of Baltimore.
So a tragicend for James Hemings.
He did shape presidential food in the early ‑‑ early in the presidentialhistory.
And one of the things that Thomas Jefferson loved was macaroni and cheese.
Heis a macaroni and cheese Jones.
Okay? Here we have a drawing of a macaroni maker.
AndJefferson encounters macaroni while he is in France and loves the dish.
He actuallyhas one of his aides smuggle a macaroni maker back to the United States.
And smuggle isan apt description, because Italians had macaroni making on lockdown.
And the earliest macaroniand cheese recipes was really the pasta with Parmesan and maybe butter.
We know that Jeffersonloved macaroni and cheese because he serves it in the White House on February 6, 1802.
A man named Manasa Cutler, who was a republican representative from Massachusetts was at thedinner.
He was an avid diarist, so he actually describes the meal, and he didn't know whatto make of macaroni and cheese.
He thought the pasta was giant onions.
And so he askedthe guy next to him to explain what the dish was.
And that guy was Meriwether Lewis fromthe Lewis and Clark expedition.
And he explained what macaroni and cheese was.
After this dinner ‑‑the verdict from Manasa Cutler, after he tasted it, he said it was strong with a disagreeabletaste.
So he wasn't a big fan.
After the mac and cheese meal, Jefferson would take peopleinto the east room and have them look at a giant wedge of cheese that he got from somefarmers as an inauguration gift.
That was his idea of fun, you know, look at this literalton of cheese.
Let's fast forward to talk about the free cooks that have been in WhiteHouse history.
So this is after emancipation, this is Laura Dollie Johnson.
That is herin the middle.
This is the big coal‑fired stove that was installed in the 1850 during the Millard Fillmore administration.
The story behind the stove is that the African‑American cook really did not want to cook on the stovewhen Millard Fillmore wanted it installed.
The cook at that time was used to doing hearthcooking, that was cooking in a fireplace with elevated pots and other things, and just thoughtthat this was the devil's contraption.
I think that was the term that was used.
And supposedMillard Fillmore went to the patent office, got instructions for the stove, brought itback and somehow convinced the cook to actually start cooking that way with this stove.
It'sbeen in use ever since.
Dollie Johnson is a fascinating character, because she doesnot come to the White House as a servant, or as someone who is directly connected tothe president.
She actually has to get talked into the job.
And the way this happened isa young Politico named Theodore Roosevelt was traveling through Kentucky, and he wentto a Kentucky colonel's house for dinner, and Dollie Johnson made the meal.
And he wasso impressed by the meal that when Benjamin Harrison becomes president, he recommendsDollie Johnson to be his cook.
So, there are a lot of negotiations.
Dollie Johnson actuallywanted to start a catering business, not work at the White House.
But they talk her intocoming to the White House.
There was only one small problem.
There was already a cookthere.
A woman named madam (inaudible), a French woman, cooking for the British embassyand then came to work at the White House.
And she did not like the national headlinesannouncing Dollie Johnson's hire.
So this very French cook had a very American response.
She went to the press and badmouthed the Harrison's eating habits.
One of the main charges, theyate a lot of pie all day, and the second thing she does is filed a lawsuit.
So this was earliestknown case of a White House staffer suing the President.
And I don't know how it gotresolved but It ultimately got resolved.
It never got to litigation, but I just thoughtthat was pretty fascinating.
Dollie Johnson was celebrated in her time.
She was knownfor her cooking.
She got the Harrisons hooked on southern food classics.
And then the interestingthing about her is ‑‑ well, a couple of things.
First of all, there is tragedyin her family.
So she only cooks for Harrison maybe eight months, and then she goes backto Kentucky to care for her sick daughter.
But then when Grover Cleveland beats Harrisonin the election, Grover Cleveland brings Dollie Johnson back to the White House.
So she staysand cooks for Grover Cleveland.
After that ‑‑ this is kind of unusual for African‑Americancooks at the time ‑‑ she parlays her fame as a White House cook into a business.
So this is an ad from a newspaper in Lexington, Kentucky where she was from that talks abouther restaurant.
And I think this is just really remarkable.
A lot of the other White Housecooks in general, but particularly the African‑Americans, faded to obscurity once they have done theircooking stint in the White House.
The last we hear of Dollie Johnson in the public limelightat least is when that when Alice Longworth ‑‑ Alice Roosevelt was getting married to NicholasLongworth, Dollie bakes a pecan cake and sends it to the White House.
And evidently it wasmagnificent because the press wrote about this cake.
And Alice Longworth certainly likedthis cake.
And that's what we hear of Dollie Johnson.
In my book I have ‑‑ there are only a few recipes we can say are attributed to DollieJohnson.
This one is actually Carolyn Harrison's recipe for deviled almonds, one of the mostpopular recipes.
You simply get some almonds and coat them with butter, and then you puton some Cayenne pepper, salt, awesome.
It's just addictive.
I have that recipe in thebook.
There is one thing Dollie Johnson made during her time cooking for the Harrisons.
All right.
Now we are going to fast forward to what happens when the President travels.
I am going to tell you about a woman named Daisy Bonner.
Remarkable woman.
She cookedfor Franklin Roosevelt.
Because of his polio Franklin Roosevelt would go to Warm Springs,Georgia to get treatment.
He would stay there for weeks at a time.
FDR looked forward toWarm Springs, Georgia, not only for the treatment but just to get better food.
I don't knowif you know this, but the food reputation of the Roosevelt White House was horrible.
If you got invited ‑‑ I got a knowing nod here.
If you got invited to a state dinnerduring Roosevelt's time, you would actually eat ahead of time before you went, that'show bad the food was.
And I tried to figure out why was the food so bad? I knew that theyhad a predominantly African‑American staff.
It was because of woman named Henrietta Nesbit.
Is anybody related? Okay.
Nope? Okay.
So she would stand behind the cooks and adjust theirseasonings, and she didn't know how to cook.
So that's why the food was horrible.
EleanorRoosevelt was fine with all of this because she was fundamentally uninterested in food,and seceded all the food responsibility to Henrietta Nesbit.
Some speculate that thismay have been a way to get back at FDR for a lot of things.
But, moving on, he spenttime in Warm Springs, Georgia at something they called the "Little White House.
" Andsome family loaned their African‑American cook to Roosevelt while he was there, andshe got him hooked on a lot of things.
I want to tell you first about this cheese souffle.
Now I was talking to AOTUS about souffle, so I am going to ask you, what is the biggestconcern about making a souffle? Having it fall.
Right? Ladies and gentlemen, I am goingto tell you a story, that's a miracle.
It's going to rattle your soul and also your belly.
Here is goes: On April 12, 1945, Daisy Bonner had a cheese souffle, timed to come out at1:15 for FDR.
He was there in Warm Springs, sitting for a portrait.
And as you know, hehad a fatal cerebral hemorrhage at 1:12.
So this souffle never got served.
According toDaisy Bonner, that souffle did not fall two hours until FDR was officially pronounceddead.
That's the story.
All right? A miracle.
I have the souffle recipe in my book, I haveto stay it does fall.
It didn't stay up two hours for me.
But it's a good recipe.
Theinteresting thing, Daisy Bonner is the one who calls the White House switchboard to letthem know about what happened to FDR, and she was so moved by FDR's death that she actuallywrote on the wall in the kitchen of ‑‑ the cottage's kitchen, "Daisy Bonner cookedfirst and last meal for President Roosevelt.
" And that is encased in plastic.
If you gothere, you can see the exact spot where she wrote this on the wall.
The other thing thatwas interesting, she got FDR hooked on pig's feet.
FDR actually served pigs feet to WinstonChurchill in the White House.
We know this because Alonzo Fields, a long time butlerand maitre d' at the White House saw them eating these pigs feet.
So it was a sweetand sour pigs feet from the recipe from the princess of Norway.
So FDR and Winston Churchillare eating these pigs feet, and FDR who is eating them with gusto, asks Churchill, howdo you like them? Churchill says, well, they have an interesting texture.
That's all hecould say to compliment them.
So FDR says, well fine, next time we will have them fried.
The look on Churchill's face was priceless.
He said, I don't think I want them fried.
They both started laughing.
But if you are unconvinced how much FDR love pigs feet, ifyou go to Warm Springs, Georgia, they actually have preserved the shopping list for the lastweek of his life and on the list is four hog's feet.
So that's how much he loved that dish.
Another example is a long time servants of presidents who are not cooking related necessarilyfrom the start, but eventually come into that role.
So, now I want to tell you about JohnMoaney who was President Eisenhower's valet in World War II, during World War II.
Theybecame really good friends.
Eisenhower calls him indispensable.
He comes to basically servethe president, be a valet, but he helps out with cooking duties.
Eisenhower was probablythe President who loved to cook the most.
In fact, he would go up to the rooftop ofthe White House and grill steaks.
Imagine you are walking down Pennsylvania Avenue andyou see smoke coming out of the White House, you may think there's a fire, but it's actuallyjust the President grilling steaks.
But he was also known for making a very beef‑ladenvegetable stew.
Now, this stew was very famous because the White House released the recipe.
And actually during 1956 election, they encouraged housewives to have stew suppers around thecountry.
The idea was to make this stew and invite your neighbors over to hear more aboutEisenhower.
But inside the White House it was called Moaney's stew.
This woman is ZephyrWright, the long‑time cook for President Johnson.
Lyndon Johnson.
And of all of thepeople I discovered in my book, she is the one I really wanted to meet.
She starts tocook for the Johnsons in the 1940s before Johnson becomes congressman.
And the familybrings her to Washington when they get to Washington.
And in many ways she was a reluctantbut ‑‑ reluctant civil rights advocate.
During the drives back and forth through Texas,they were driving through the segregated south, and Zephyr Wright suffered a lot of indignities.
She couldn't go to the bathroom and couldn't eat with the family.
It got so bad that sheultimately refused to go with the family on these drives.
So she just stayed in Washington,DC year round.
So fast forward when Johnson becomes president.
He actually uses her anecdotesto lobby for the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
And he would tell congressmen, it's a shame thatthe President's cook has to go through this.
When he signs that landmark legislation, heactually presents her with one of the pens, and says, you deserve this as much as anyone.
So I thought she was really interesting.
The other task she had was just keeping LBJ inline.
So you have probably seen stories about how forceful LBJ could be.
Well, there weretwo things he would do to really annoy the staff.
He often would show up late and demanda meal.
He is showing up at 10 o'clock at night and demanding a meal, and sometimeshe brought guests with him.
Zephyr just gave it right back to him.
One time he showed upat the White House and demanded a meal and she said, you just go sit down in the kitchenand you wait until I make something.
And he would do it.
I just thought that was amazing.
And he would show up with unexpected guests, her strategy was to just start sending outa lot of liquor.
Once the guests were liquored up, it didn't really matter how long it tookto cook the food.
So I just thought she was an ingenious person, and a very forceful personality.
Now, she did actually get the White House in hot water one time.
It was related to arecipe that was released by the White House.
Do I have any Texans in the audience? Anyonewho will admit it? Okay.
Sir, what is distinctive about Texas chile?>> (inaudible) >> Adrian Miller: Okay, hot, but somethingelse.
There is something maybe most people outside of Texas wouldn't understand.
No beans,right? So, the White House released this beanless chile recipe and America freaked out.
Therecipe was called (inaudible), named from the river that runs alongside the LBJ ranchin Texas.
True to form, it was hot, spicy and also beanless.
And so a lot of peoplewanted to just know if the President loved beans or not.
So, you will listen to a conversationI found in the presidential library, LBJ's presidential library, and the first voiceyou are going to hear is that of Juanita Roberts, who was the Social Secretary for LBJ, fieldingall these calls.
The second voice is going to be the Zephyr Wright.
They are basicallytalking about all of the beans that the President loves.
All right? (Sound track is played.
)>> We have correspondents asking us if the President and his family like beans.
>> Well, I know enough to say yes.
>> Uh‑huh.
>> But I wanted to check with you.
>> Um‑hmm.
>> What ‑‑ what would you say if you were asked that question by a responsibleperson? >> Oh, I would say yes.
And they didn't askwhat kind, did they? >> No.
>> I know he particularly likes pork and beans.
He likes pork and beans, he likes pinto beans.
He like lima beans, green beans, and that's green limas not dried, green limas green.
>> Um‑hmm.
>> And the green ‑‑ fresh green beans.
>> Um‑hmm.
>> Uh‑huh.
And he like the Blue Lake can green beans,you know, marinated and used it as a salad.
Marinated in French dressing.
>> Uh‑huh.
>> So ‑‑>> Yeah.
>> He like ‑‑ well, that's not a bean,it's a pea.
I was going to say green peas.
He just like beans.
>> Now, the green limas.
>> Green baby limas.
>> Um‑hmm.
How do you prepare those for him?>> Just in salted water, cook them, and add a little Oleo margarine and pepper and cookthem for a good long while until the juice in them is kind of thick.
>> Um‑hmm.
Okay.
>> He used to use Velveeta, but you don'tdo that anymore.
>> Well, I do it for parties.
>> Parties? >> Uh‑huh, I use it Velveeta.
And also mushrooms.
You know, you call it lima beans with cheese and mushroom sauce.
>> And the pintos I guess you cook like I do with pork ham bones.
>> That's right.
>> And pork and beans, do you doctor themup? >> Not for him.
He like them plain.
He doctorsthem himself with some kind of pepper sauce, or something like that.
>> Uh‑huh, all right.
Zephyr, do you know where any of the chile cards are? Chile recipecards.
>> Hmm‑um, I sure don't.
I may have oneor two here.
>> Well, somebody's got some and I will findthem because I need that one also.
>> Okay.
>> Nice talking to you.
>> Okey‑doke.
>> Thank you a lot.
>> Bye.
>> Bye.
(End of sound track.
) >> Okay.
How many ofyou use Velveeta for special occasions, just tell me.
All right.
So I just love that clip.
The recipe card that they mention at the very end in Lady Bird Johnson's memoir, she saidthat was the second most requested document from the federal government in 1964, nextto the information on the newly formed women and children nutrition program.
It was a lotof interest in that.
I then talk about kind of spaces within theWhite House.
I am going to go through this quickly so we can wrap up.
This is the WhiteHouse Mess, it's not a metaphor for the political situation it's, you know, a military termfor eating space.
It was created when the White House was renovated in 1952 under theTruman administration.
And the renovation created the need for more staff in the residence,because for the first time ever, the White House was air conditioned.
Before people wouldstay until maybe middle of May, early June, not come back until October.
There was noway congress was going to give Truman more staff, especially after he called them a donothing congress.
That kind of hurts their feelings.
So the idea was to bring over thepeople who were cooking on the White House ‑‑ or the presidential yacht, and bring themover to the White House.
So that's why the White House Mess and a lot of food operationsare operated by the Navy, because the Navy cooks were staffing the White House.
I dowrite about Charlie Redden an African‑American who was executive chef of the White HouseMess.
He is the first certified executive chef of the White House Mess.
He is temptingPresident Clinton with a lobster salad sandwich right there.
When President Clinton and GeorgeW.
Bush, first term, would travel, he would often ‑‑ overseas ‑‑ he would gooverseas and make sure that the food system was secured and everything was in order beforethe President arrives.
An awesome responsibility.
In my book include his Jerk chicken pita pizza.
I have served this at several events I have done around the country.
And then also onAir Force One, I profiled Wanda Joell, she is the first African‑American woman to serveon Air Force One.
She serves from George Herbert Walker Bush all the way to Barack Obama.
WhiteHouse ‑‑ at least on Air Force One, the food operations are this, there are essentiallythree staffers that rotate duties.
One person is there to cook the food and cook, reallythey are warming it up, because on an airplane there are certain you can't do, fry food andother things, it's not safe.
Then you have somebody who takes the orders.
Then thereis one person dedicated to making drinks.
And they rotate that.
Yeah, she is fascinating.
She was on the plane on 9/11 and recounts her experiences on the plane.
Then also wehave a culinary team of guest chefs.
Lately, more in the Obama administration, but throughoutthe years there have been guest chefs at the White House.
The last person to actually be ‑‑African‑American to be offered the White House executive chef job was a man named PatrickClark here (indicating).
He was a well‑known chef in New York.
And just to show you howrespected he was, Anthony Bordain, who does not suffer fools, speaks highly of him inhis book: Kitchen Confidential.
So, unbeknownst to Patrick Clark he was in New York Citycomes to DC, he's cooking at the Hay‑Adams Hotel across from the White House, Clintonand other staffers started auditioning him for the job, going to the hotel.
He gets offeredthe job, but he turns it down, because it was too much of a pay cut.
At that time theWhite House executive chef salary was about $58,000.
He was making well into six figuresas a hotel chef.
With four kids, he decided not to do it.
But the Clintons circled backto him and gave him the opportunity to cook the state dinner for Nelson Mandela.
Thathappened the fall of 1994.
And, you know, if you are an ambitious cook, the main partof that meal are actually in my book, the recipes for that.
The main entre was a sesame‑crustedhalibut with lemon curry and lemon grass vegetables and red curry to spice that up.
And then themost recent example is Marcus Samuelson, he hosted the first state dinner for the Obamas,which was infamous for a reason.
Anybody remember the reason?>> (inaudible) >> Adrian Miller: Yes, the crashing.
Somebodywho has been in the White House, the series of things that had to happen for the coupleto get in was astounding.
There are some former White House chefs who are not enthusiasticabout guest chefs, because they believe it's the White House chef's job to handle thosemeals.
Quickly, to tell you the roles, depending on the President usually in the White Housekitchen there is the executive chef and then the pastry chef.
The pastry chef may havean assistant.
And then three or four assistant chefs.
Some of them may be Navy cooks whoare working there, but usually they are lateral hires from the hotel industry and other folks.
If a president wants a private cook in the second floor kitchen created by JaquelineKennedy in 1961 they can do that.
Obama had Samuel Cass, Sam Cass in that role.
But beforeObama did that, the last president to have a private cook was Lyndon Johnson, ZephyrWright.
So, in the interim, the President chose to have the White House chief executivechef just handle all the meal preparation.
What they do, they work in shifts.
So usuallythe assistant chefs are working breakfast, lunch.
When the executive chef comes in alittle bit before lunch and prepares other meals, and also for dinner.
And then I endmy book by talking about the future of White House chefs, can there be an African‑Americanchef in the future? The answer is a resounding yes, it's just really up to the president.
I just wondered how much the White House kitchen does inspire.
You probably remember formerfirst lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move initiative.
Well, it started in 2012, she would have thingscalled kids state dinners.
She would have a recipe contest, so every state had a winnerthat was represented in this contest, they would come to DC, and then the kids wouldenjoy some ‑‑ a select group of the recipes and eat those recipes.
And so Kiana actuallyrepresented Colorado.
So her dish was a grilled salmon with warm Fero salad, and that's 8years old.
I was impressed, because I was just making Malto Meal at her age.
But sheis on fire for food justice.
She is actually thinking about becoming a White House chef.
And she is so talented she could actually become President of the United States ifshe wanted to.
I have to admit she is probably the most challenging interview to get formy book, because I used to date her mom, and it did not end well.
You relate with me onthat one? All right.
So, in closing I just want to say that theseAfrican‑American presidential chefs were culinary artists.
In many cases they are familyconfidants.
And Zephyr sat in the family box during the inauguration of Lyndon Johnson.
And in many ways they were civil rights advocates.
When civil rights leaders could not get theear of the president, they would go to the cook and ask them to say a word or two tothe president.
They gave our Presidents a window on African‑American life that theymay not otherwise have had.
And many presidents chose not to open that window, let's justbe frank, but for those who did, I think our nation is better for it.
So I am glad to discoverthese culinary artists and share their stories with you.
There will be a book signing afterthis, if you would like to purchase the book, I will be happy to sign it.
But this is howyou find me online.
I have a website just keep updating stories, because there are alot of people I couldn't reach as I wrote this book.
And now people are reaching outto me and telling me about their ancestors who used to cook in the White House kitchen.
And have given me some great stories and I want to keep that research ‑‑ compilingthat research.
I am known as soul food scholar on a lot of platforms.
So let's take any questions.
Thank you very much, you have been a great audience.
(APPLAUSE) >> Adrian Miller: There are microphones onthe side if you want to ask a question, so please make your way to a microphone.
>> Thank you so much, great to hear and very informing, the information you were able totrack down.
I am curious, Michelle brought a garden back, and there were bees that werebeing harvested.
Anything you found with regards to the proximity to the White House? Did folksgo and shop at Central Market, or where did they go to kind of get things for the Presidents?>> Adrian Miller: Yes.
There was ‑‑ there used to be a Central Market not too far fromthis location actually.
For much of the presidential history until the late 1800s when that marketwas ‑‑ >> (inaudible) >> On this side.
I thought it was close tohere.
Yes, that's where they primarily provisioned.
There was a White House garden during the1800s, though, and it's where the Treasury building is now.
There have been a mix ofthings over time.
And usually it was the White House steward who did the shopping.
So, they would actually get into a market wagon and go to the market and discreetlyshop.
It was understood by the people trading with the White House not to try to capitalizeon that trade.
Yes.
I am not sure actually when there is a switch to the provisioningthrough contractors and other things.
I am not sure when that happened.
I wasn't ableto figure that out.
Thank you for the question.
Yes?>> Adrian, I was wondering, when they do the state dinners since the White House kitchenis so small, do they prepare the food off site and then bring it in?>> Adrian Miller: Actually, they do prepare it on site.
So what they will do, they willexpand the cooking operations, depending what they are making, right outside the White Housekitchen there is an open area.
So sometimes they will do it there.
There are times whenthey will outsource it and bring it in, as long as it's secure.
For the most part theydo try to cook it on site.
They have to hire additional staff, so they hire cooks and morewait staff in order to meet the need.
For the longest time state dinners were just 36people, and then is grows to 110 by the late 1800s.
Then by the time of Eisenhower it's150.
But the Kennedys had an innovation where they started using circular tables, that greatlyexpanded the number of people you could bring.
So, now they regularly get plus ‑‑ over200 people at these state dinners.
Yes.
>> Thank you for a great talk.
Has the WhiteHouse kitchen been in the same location during that entire time?>> Adrian Miller: No.
>> Also, did you say the stove that MillardFillmore put in the White House is still in use? I mean adapted for modern use‑‑>> Adrian Miller: Oh, I'm sorry.
No, that stove is long gone.
>> Okay.
>> Adrian Miller: But it was there duringthe late 1800s, it was still in use.
The White House kitchen gets modernized by FDR actually,using the federal works progress administration.
So the White House gets a renovation and getselectrified, so that's when they transition from the old uses.
In terms of where the WhiteHouse kitchen was, it moved a couple of times.
It used to be really kind of in the centerof the White House ‑‑ I wish I had a map to show you this.
But it was kind of inthe center of the basement where the furnace room was for a very long time.
It moves toanother location.
And then when Mary Lincoln comes in the White House, she actually movesit to its present location because there was no light.
When the White House kitchen wasactually in the center location if you were coming to the White House you could actuallylook in and see what they were making for dinner.
So, in order to, I think, get moreprivacy and more light they moved it to the northwest corner where it is now.
>> One other question.
Is there a wine cellar in the White House?>> Adrian Miller: I forgot to talk about that.
Yes, there is a wine cellar in the White House.
That has been disputed over time.
One of the longest running cat and mouse games in theWhite House history is whether or not the President drinks or whether or not there isa wine cellar.
But there is one.
There is actually a wine steward who actually selectsthe wines and pairs them for state dinners.
He has been there since the late '90s I wantto say.
Before that, and I write a chapter about this in my book, it was ‑‑ aboutpresidential beverages and drinks, African‑American men were in charge of maintaining the winecellar and actually selecting wines.
A long‑time butler John Ficklan did it from the '60s untilthe Reagan administration when Michael ‑‑ I want to say Michael ‑‑ I can't rememberhis name.
One of the Reagan staffers actually took over the wine steward duties at thattime.
So, yes.
>> Thank you.
>> Adrian Miller: Thank you.
>> I presume that the White House staff that ‑‑the cooking staff is part of the regular costs of maintaining the White House.
Is there aline item for this? And how much does it vary by administration?>> Adrian Miller: There is a line item for resident staff and residence operations, butin terms of the cooks it gets tricky because, how do I say this delicately? Administrationsdon't want to be fully transparent you know, so you often have cooks that are assignedfrom other agencies and other places.
So you never know exactly how much.
There is an appropriationfor running the residence.
So in terms of the food operations, there is actually a billcreated every time some food is cooked, created, whatever it is.
If you go on Air Force Oneand you order a meal there is a bill, and it's marked against the appropriation.
Somebodykeeps track of all of this.
I was surprised by that because I thought once you get intothe White House you can have whatever you want, whatever you wanted, but that's notthe case.
Yes.
Yes? >> Yes, can I have a clarification on that?I went to the White House when they were celebrating the bicentennial of the laying of the cornerstonein 1991, and they said that George Herbert Walker Bush paid for the reception.
And Ididn't know how that worked.
>> Adrian Miller: Okay.
So that's an interestingthing.
I don't know the details of that.
So, if the White House is bumping against thatappropriation, or if they are doing something that is kind of political or other thingsthey actually have to go to outside to private sources to pay for that.
So, that does happen.
So, yeah, they are just mindful of how much money they are spending.
That may have beenthe situation the cost was exorbitant, and so being paid for by George Herbert WalkerBush supporters and others helped to fundraise for that.
I don't know if that necessarilymeans it was from the public treasury.
I am not sure.
That's interesting, I will haveto look into that.
>> Okay.
Thank you.
>> Adrian Miller: Most of the stories that I hear of are when third parties pay for eventsat the White House.
>> Okay.
Well, I thought it was out of hispocket so ‑‑ >> Adrian Miller: That's an interesting point.
Before Truman, believe it or not, congress did not really appropriate a lot of moneyto our presidents to cover residence expenses.
So before that, most of our presidents didpay for things out of their own pocket.
Now, if you had a president who wasn't wealthyUlysses S.
Grant or Abraham Lincoln, the way that they would get around the food costsis they would get their groceries out of the U.
S.
commissary and have that provision theWhite House, just to save money.
That's another reason why you probably get a lot of personalservants and enslaved cooks cooking in the White House because it's another way for thePresident to save money on household expenses rather than negotiating for somebody on thefree market, on the labor market.
>> Thank you.
>> Adrian Miller: Yes, thank you.
Any other questions? Oh, okay.
Are you going for a questionor you have to go.
Okay, cool.
>> (inaudible).
>> Adrian Miller: No, no, no.
>> The wine cellar question is interestingbecause I watched scandal last week and, you know, I ‑‑ Cyrus took Papa Pope down andsaid, this is the wine cellar Fitz added, but apparently it hasn't been there a longtime.
And also about Hercules, there was a children's book last year, pretty controversial.
So it's interesting for you to say that he ran away on George Washington's birthday,because the whole controversy of the book was that, why is this book showing GeorgeWashington in the kitchen helping to make his own birthday cake.
And they are celebratingit, it didn't seem historically accurate.
>> Adrian Miller: Yeah.
I don't know that ‑‑I know about that book.
I don't know if that birthday scene was actually that final one.
It just wouldn't make sense, because he was in the field.
It may have been an earlierbirthday that they were depicting.
But I know there was a lot of questions about just thehappy slave kind of stereotype, yeah.
But I ‑‑ it definitely was not that lastbirthday.
Okay.
>> But my question is about food security.
Because one of our opening stories is about the peas, that was a long time ago.
Now, Idon't think they employ tasters, but where do they get supplies to make sure they aresecure.
I don't know if that is a modern worry of leaders today but it just seems like theycan't ‑‑ Michelle Obama would say, I really want to go to Target but I can't go.
She can't for security reasons.
So where do they get their food from or do they have privatesuppliers? >> Adrian Miller: So first of all, they havepresidential tasters.
It's usually the opposition leader in congress.
(LAUGHTER) >> Adrian Miller: Kidding.
So the presidentialtaster is actually the chef.
I spoke to the late Walter Shive who consulted with me onthe book, he died while I was in the early stages of the book, but I asked him the question.
He said, yes, the chef is the taster, we are the last one to taste whatever goes out.
Somefood is gotten from third parties, so there is a secure commodity chain created, there'sbackground checks and everything.
But believe it or not, sometimes the most secure thingfor them to do is just go to the store and shop at the last moment.
Sometimes they dothat as well.
But, so, it's a variety of things.
Now that we have a White House garden, thathas been providing food for some meals, for some dinners.
They make a point to use foodfrom the garden for those state meals.
Again, it's a variety of sources.
Again, discretionis highly valued.
People that are providing, sourcing the White House, are encouraged notto tell people about it.
So If you find somebody bragging about that, I don't know if you shouldtrust that person.
Yeah.
Any other questions? Yep, okay.
Well, thank you so much.
And Iwould be happy to talk to folks afterwards.
Thank you for being here on a lunch.
And Ijust ‑‑ it was great to share these stories with you, so thank you so much.
(APPLAUSE).
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