Last month we looked at the White House State Dinners that honored French presidents and prime ministers Executive White House pastry chef Roland Mesnier played a role in many of them. He also spilled the beans on his former bosses.
Rosalynn Carter, who hired Mesnier in 1980, had a family cheese ring recipe she wanted to serve at White House buffets, which was not to his taste. Consisting of cheeses and onions, capers, and strawberry jam, he described it as a family recipe that no one tried to steal. And surprisingly, Jimmy Carter did not care for peanuts at all.
Nancy Reagan had a reputation for being a perfectionist. If she did not complain, Mesnier felt that was a compliment. For one September dinner, she ordered hundreds of fresh roses to be wired onto the bare branches of the roses in the Rose Garden. She also gave strict orders that her husband was not to have chocolate, so when Nancy was out of town, the president feasted on his favorite meal: steak, macaroni and cheese and a big bowl of chocolate mousse.
Barbara Bush insisted on dry, overcooked fish, and Bill Clinton, pre-vegan, could polish off five pork chops at a time.
Mesnier relates that all food gifts were to be destroyed for security reasons, but when a package arrived from Mikhail Gorbachev containing two massive tins of caviar, he and another chef risked all to take the tins home. Mesnier said he was willing to die for what was inside. Chef Mesnier spent 25 years working for five different administrations, departing the White House in 2005.
Source: The Washington Post
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