So far, former White House Executive Chef Walter Scheib and I have covered the traditional White House Christmas, New Year’s resolutions to buy and eat fresh, ripe and local and last month, cooking, both sweet and savory, and wine-pairing with chocolate.
Chef Scheib has a lot more to tell about his years at the White House besides being there for 11 Christmases, through most of the Clinton years and half of Dubya’s. Here’s just a sample:
Fran: You’ve written about Hillary Clinton’s interest in good and healthy food, salad lunches, lots of seafood, cuisine based on American products. You also gave credit to Laura Bush’s less-publicized healthy diet, but also wrote about George W. Bush’s fondness for more simple fare, like grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch –not that there is anything wrong with that. There was one time when the Clintons provided something less than gourmet ….what about that?
Wally: Bill Clinton loved reunions. One time 1200 Arkansas students descended on the White House for a picnic. A woman who had been with the Clintons in that state told me there was a dish I just had to make: Bologna Tra La La. Mine not to reason why, I made it: hockey puck slices of bologna, a hole made in the middle, an egg dropped in and the whole thing fried on both sides. The kids said, “Hey, they got the Tra La La,” and ate every bit. To top it off, we got a Guinness world record for the most slices of Bologna Tra La La in one day.
Fran: Of course, there is one day of truly historic proportions – September 11, 2001. Were you at the White House that day?
Wally: I can only give a brief account for this column, but yes, I was at the White House, overseeing final preparations for the annual Congressional picnic on the South Lawn. I came to work in one world that morning and drove home in another. The first I knew was when I passed by the ushers’ office and saw the Twin Towers on their small TV. Couldn’t believe it, but soon I sensed tension in the air and saw many of the Emergency Response Team taking up position along the perimeter of the drive with their machine guns in bags on their backs.
We could pick out the words, “unidentified incoming” from the ERT’s radios. From then on, it was a matter of evacuating the White House and moving across to Lafayette Park – I felt especially responsible for the kitchen staff –hearing sounds of a plane closer than anything I had ever heard and seeing a column of gray smoke that turned out to be dust from the pulverized Pentagon. The rest of the day was a mad trek, trying to find a phone to call home, and then cooking meals for all the civilian and military people from the area including the food slated for the Congressional Picnic.
When I think now of September 11, or on beautiful fall mornings when the sky is that perfect blue, or on Thanksgiving Day, I think of those passengers on Flight 93, who overtook the hijackers and put the plane down in a field in Pennsylvania – and undoubtedly saved the White House or the Capitol Building and many lives, including mine. That’s what I think of.
Fran: Since we just had proof that hell can indeed freeze over, was there ever a time when a winter storm caused trouble with getting supplies or producing meals at the White House?
Wally: I don’t remember anything approaching the bad weather we have had this year. When a snow storm was predicted, we stocked up, so we were never caught that way. And we were expected to stay put in the White House. As Chief Usher Gary Walters told the staff, “You don’t work for the government, you work for the White House, and you are expected to be here.” We had lots of rollaway cots, which were put in every possible space. I shared a room on the third floor with the pastry chef.
You can learn more White House stories, by reading Chef’s book, especially more about the staff’s experience on September 11, “White House Chef; Eleven Years, Two Presidents, One Kitchen.” Check out his web site, The American Chef.com for his current career that includes international travel for consultations and demonstrations.
Question for the Chef
Fran: Do you have any tricks of the trade to reveal about cooking for large dinner events? For the home cook, it seems like magic to think you can get huge amounts of food ready and kept at the right temperature for such events.
Wally: Even for large events, we always cooked in small batches, plating the food as soon as we were through and taking it out. It’s all a matter of organization and it takes practice. That holds true for the home cook. After you have organized your menu with items that can be done first and so on, check what you can do to keep food warm. A simple thing like creating warming space in an oven can make the difference.
(For questions for the chef, please email
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Recipe
Chelsea’s Chocolate Chip Cookies were a favorite on snowy days and at slumber parties. Wally would send up instructions and ingredients to the family quarters kitchen.
½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened, plus more to greasing cookie sheets.
½ cup packed light brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 t. pure vanilla extract
1 ½ cups cake flour
½ t. salt
½ t. baking soda
1 ¼ cups semisweet chocolate chips
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two cookie sheets.
2. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar together for 2 or 3 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and mix well.
3. Sift the flour, salt and baking powder together, add to the mixture, and blend well, then stir in the chips.
4. Place the dough in 2-tablespoon portions onto the cookie sheets, leaving two inches between the cookies.
5. Bake until lightly golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from the oven, let cook briefly in the sheets, and serve warm or at room temperature. (The cookies are soft and chewy, right out of the oven, then firm up a bit, but don’t turn brittle.) Makes two dozen.
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