We live in an age of celebrity chefs. Former White House Chef Walter Scheib, now managing his own business, The American Chef, is certainly one of them.
Chef Scheib writes about his White House years in “White House Chef, Eleven years, Two Presidents, One Kitchen”, going into a third printing. Those eleven years began in 1994, early in the first Clinton term and ended in 2005 midway in the G.W. Bush years. Interspersed with recipes, the book is a fascinating read and a way of looking at the White House as a residence, a full time home for the First Family, and very much a home away from home for the large staff of people who keep it running.
For anyone panicked by a dinner party for eight, Scheib’s book furnishes a look at the logistics of preparing state dinners, receptions, picnics, private parties and the daily feeding of the two First Families he served.
“You are there to serve the First Family and carry out their wishes, and you leave your politics at the kitchen door,” Chef said, over a recent dinner at Geranio’s. (Foodie Alert: Chef ate duck confit salad, pasta with tuna and blackberry sorbet, drank Chardonnay). So don’t expect to read anything scandalous in this book, though a tabloid offered megabucks for him to do that. “I wonder if they have an office marked ‘Honor Purchases’”, he said.
Today The American Chef allows him to continue that career, giving speeches, cooking demonstrations and providing private or corporate catering with a White House twist. Although using his experience as a base, Chef Scheib said, “I wanted to do things I’ve never done, things that intrigue me.”
Walter Scheib was executive chef at the elegant Greenbriar resort in West Virginia when Hillary Rodham Clinton hired him. Hillary wanted to promote state of the art American cuisine, celebrating the glories of American regional and ethnic styles and using fresh ingredients. That was Scheib’s reputation. State dinners and receptions – the Clintons also increased the number of guests at these events – featured this approach and included dishes like lemon and thyme-scented lobster with roasted eggplant soup (France), vodka-marinated salmon with cucumber salad and kasha pilaf (Boris Yeltsin) or layered late-summer vegetables with lemongrass and red curry (Nelson Mandela) . Travels in France and Italy intensified Scheib’s appreciation of eating food at the peak of the season.
Hilary also wanted healthy menus for the First Family. A typical family lunch or dinner might be an egg white frittata with a lentil and celery orange ginger salad, grilled chicken and lemon pasta with herbs and vegetables, fresh artichoke salad with tomato pasta and bean soup, broiled Arctic char with orange tarragon sauce and multi-grain rice.
Chelsea was (probably still is) a vegetarian. Before she went to Stanford University, Chef Scheib ran the Chelsea Clinton Cooking School, teaching the First Daughter, who comes off as a gracious young woman, food she could prepare for herself.
The closest thing to a pantry revelation is Chef Scheib’s writing that when Hillary traveled, Bill ordered big steaks and onion rings the kitchen staff kept on hand.
He tells another story about Bill, who loved reunions. When 1200 young Arkansas students descended on the White House, a woman who had been with the Clintons in that state told Scheib there was a dish he just had to make, Bologna Tra La La. Ever the good soldier, he did it -- hockey puck slices of bologna with a hole in the middle, an egg dropped in and fried on both sides, served with mustard. The kids were thrilled – “They got the Tra La La” – ate every bit and Scheib had a Guinness world record for the most servings of Bologna Tra La La in a single day.
Here’s just a peek at the 55-year-old chef’s career path as a film montage might do it.
Chef Scheib grew up in Bethesda, been cooking since he was five, credits his mom with being instrumental in developing his love of food and cooking. Mother discovered good food and Julia Child when she moved to Boston from an isolated life in Newfoundland, Chef remembers eating gourmet dishes when other kids were chowing down on meat loaf and spaghetti. Teen years, Chef started working at various venues, Montgomery Mall, Woolworths, scrubbing pots and pans, flipping burgers, working up the line to management. In 1977 accepted at The Culinary Institute of America, graduated second in his class and elected most likely to succeed. Then work in hotels (he met his wife, Jean, at one, she too a CIA grad). On to executive chef at a five-star Boca Raton, Florida, resort and the next move, the fabulous Greenbriar.
While work at the White House was life at the top, Chef Scheib already knew about preparing banquets and receptions for a thousand people or more. A major difference was the ambiance.
“Basically I worked 11 years in a federal institution,” he said, “There are walls, people with guns. I had a top secret clearance so I couldn’t even tell my wife what I saw and heard.”
Again no secrets, but he did say the public persona one gets of First Ladies often isn’t what they are like in private, and he tried to provide them with comfort food when the bad times occurred.
When the Bushes arrived, things changed, though Laura Bush was always pleasant to work with, he said.
“Mrs. Bush wanted organics as much as possible, too,” he said. “She was much more progressive than she is given credit for, because she didn’t want to make an issue of it.”
But it’s hardly breaking news that Dubya is no foodie. Scheib said Bush wouldn’t eat anything green and preferred grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch over salmon salad – not that there’s anything wrong with that. Receptions retroed to platters of turkey and ham, gone were the varied canapés and small plates of the Clinton years. Still Scheib’s Bush era hardly relied on Pizza Hut and McDonalds. Some of the dishes he served were pepita crushed bison, poblano whipped potatoes, fava bean and chanterelle ragout (Mexico), pan-seared sea bass with saffron risotto and caponata sauce (baseball dinner), veal loin with Madeira sauce and potato-leek puree (Tony Blair at Camp David). Hungry now?
Scheib makes it clear that it is the First Lady’s right to serve whatever food she wants, even though Scheib may not have as much culinary excitement as before. Get the book, however, for a serious and frightening account of the White House on 9/11 for the people who worked there.
A major snag came in the second term when a wealthy Republican socialite replaced Laura Bush’s social secretary. Scheib said the new person blamed him for the “country club food” that Laura Bush herself was ordering.
(Spoiler Alert: It’s true, Scheib said, that the Bushes wanted to have some dinners reflecting corporate donors. But a blog that reports he brined turkey in Coca Cola and made a stuffing with Dunkin Donuts is totally false….and he is asked about it all the time.)
Soon Chef Scheib had little contact with Mrs. Bush, and he was asked to resign. In a temporary lapse of control after someone told a reporter Scheib had actually been fired, he snapped to the press, “Yes, I’ve been fired.” That was a definite no-no and Scheib was told to leave that day.
Chef Scheib is tall, good-looking, a loquacious talker with a fine wit and an excellent story teller with a wide-ranging palate. At dinner he went from talking about his love of good food and praising duck confit to a very funny discussion of the proper way to eat a Hostess Cupcake (break it open and eat the inside first) and that delicious film that forms on chocolate pudding.
He lives in Great Falls with Jean and his two sons. This year Walter begins his senior year at Virginia Tech. Jim will be a freshman at Catholic University. Scheib’s mom lived to see him executive chef at the Greenbriar, but sadly, died two months before he went to the White House. His book is dedicated to her, Jean and Hillary Clinton.
Life after the White House hasn’t meant an end to the spotlight. There have been numerous appearances on television and interviews in the national media. In 2006 Scheib defeated Chef Cat Cora on Iron Chef America, in a contest featuring Dungeness crabs. For that event, he cleverly commissioned custom plates and bowls from a Torpedo Factory artist.
At home he and Jean are happy with good bread and cheese and a glass of wine on the deck. They enjoy small - often Asian - restaurants, most likely found in a neighborhood shopping area. When he wants to “remember the classic French dishes he learned first”, one choice is La Bergerie in Old Town.
For R & R, he fishes, primarily in a variety of local waters and usually alone. He says this is a sanity booster. “I would fish in a glass of water if they’d let me,” he said.
Walter Scheib could be the poster child for creating a successful stepping stone career. He went to 70 events last year, and in the next four months will travel to the Napa Valley, Colorado Springs, Seattle, Denver, Minnesota, Memphis, Houston, Philadelphia, Knoxville and Harrisburg.
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