Posted on 04/27/2005 4:58:06 AM PDT by BigWaveBetty
Hail to the chef: Former White House pastry guru shares his sweet secrets
Imagine spending almost 25 years in the White House pastry kitchen as the executive pastry chef for five presidents and first families, doing your work surrounded by pounds of butter, chocolate, cream, fresh fruits and sugar. While the job may sound like a dessert lover's dream, it's not always as sweet as it seems.
Just ask French-born patissier Roland R. Mesnier, who retired last July. Lately he's been traveling throughout the country promoting his first cookbook, "Dessert University" (Simon & Schuster; $40), which took four years to write with help from Lauren Chattman. The 545 pages are filled with all kinds of show-stopping desserts, many from his White House years.
During his time in the White House (1980-2004) he designed and created some 3,000 different desserts with the help of one full-time assistant.
"It was a great challenge. I didn't have much of a personal life for 25 years," Mesnier says.
He was in charge of ordering all the pastry ingredients and arranging for pickup. "There was no delivery at the White House - and all vendors were checked by the Secret Service."
Starting with Nancy Reagan, Mesnier presented dessert tastings to the first ladies for approval, prior to state dinners. After a lot of research, he always tried to include something in his desserts that reflected the invited leader's country. For instance, blown-sugar giraffes for Kenya, flower leis made of sugar for the Philippines, tiny chocolate replicas of Big Ben for England, and a white tiger out of white chocolate and a lotus flower out of sorbets for India.
"Mesnier never repeated the same dessert in all the state dinners," notes Francois Dionot, owner/founder/president of the culinary school L'Academie de Cuisine in Bethesda, Md., who has known the pastry guru for 30 years. "To me, he is the king of sugar work - spun sugar, poured sugar, rock sugar, pulled sugar. Very few people know how to do this anymore. He makes roses that look real."
Mesnier was known for making cakes just so he could put them under a sugar piece. "He's very talented in everything in desserts," says Dionot.
Every first lady put her stamp on the White House - and Mesnier says he's enjoyed them all.
"Mrs. (Rosalynn) Carter spent less time worrying about what was served at a dinner party, but she loved desserts," he says. During Nancy Reagan's time, "the White House became a showcase of grand cuisine. She was determined to have new desserts for every dinner, and she was very demanding."
Mesnier recalled the time, two days before the arrival of the queen of the Netherlands for a state dinner for 150 people, that Nancy Reagan rejected four different desserts. She told him to make 14 sugar baskets decorated with half a dozen sugar tulips and filled with assorted sorbets and fresh fruit. She then said, " 'Don't forget you have two days and two nights,' " Mesnier remembers. The chef pulled it off without any help: "Mrs. Reagan made me a better pastry chef," he says.
With the witty and smart Barbara Bush, "the house took on a different dimension - with children laughing, dogs barking, etc. She didn't make waves with what was served.
"The Clintons, very charismatic people, were very casual - and the only family that ate in the kitchen. Mrs. (Hillary) Clinton was very political - it was like having a second president in the White House." During their eight years, the number of people invited to the White House increased dramatically, as did Mesnier's work load. Mrs. Clinton favored leaner cuisine and plated service for desserts.
"First lady Laura Bush is meticulous - and the house is sparkling," he says. "She has a great knowledge of food and how it should be prepared and (how it should) taste."
Over the years, Mesnier has focused on reducing calories in desserts but without sacrificing flavor. His strategies include reducing sugar, butter, cream and eggs, using low-fat or regular milk instead of cream and sometimes cornstarch to make a thicker base.
"There are at least 50 recipes (out of 300) in the book that would qualify as low-calorie desserts."
His penchant for desserts dates back to the summer fruit tarts of every color and flavor he enjoyed during his childhood. "My mother was a wonderful chef - an unbelievable home cook."
His five golden rules for making great desserts: "Learn the basics and then practice, practice, practice; respect the classics; value economy and simplicity; focus on flavor; and be an artist, develop your talent."
CHEF PROFILE ...
ROLAND R. MESNIER
Age: 60.
Profession: Pastry chef.
Hometown: Bonnay, France.
Food background: Mesnier began a three-year apprenticeship in a pastry shop near his home at age 14. He went on to stints as a pastry cook/assistant in pastry shops and hotels in Paris, Germany (Hannover and Hamburg) and London. Eventually, he became head pastry chef at the Princess Hotel in Bermuda.
After a stint at The Homestead, a resort in Hot Springs, Va., he landed the ultimate pastry job: In December 1979, Rosalynn Carter hired him to be the White House pastry chef - and for almost 25 years his desserts were on view to the world - until he retired in July 2004. Kitchen secret: Work with all of your ingredients at room temperature (including eggs).
Three favorite foods: A good steak, a good apple pie a la mode, honey ice cream.
Favorite junk foods: A good hamburger and a good doughnut.
Foods he hates: Cilantro, dill, onions.
Secret food passion: A good pate.
Favorite kitchen gadget: A homemade cherry pitter (made with a wine cork and a ladies' hairpin).
Pet peeve: Mediocrity in the hotel and pastry industry. Ideal vacation: Alaska.
Favorite restaurant: Jean Marc Raynud in Tain L'Hermitage (near Lyon), France.
Pastimes: Fishing, gardening, cultivating roses, working on recipes for upcoming cookbooks (a cake volume is in the works).
Family: Wife, Martha, and a 35-year-old son, George. If he couldn't be a pastry chef, what would he be?: An actor.
Worst White House kitchen disaster: The time the eggs for the hot raspberry souffles for a state dinner wouldn't whip (guests were in the dining room). "I was sweating bullets (and could visualize this as my last day at the White House)." But fortunately, he started with new egg whites, adding sugar to them instead of an Italian meringue, to gain time, and the souffles came out beautifully. Worst part of being the White House pastry chef: "The inside politicking among the White House staff."
Don't know if you read the Powerline blog, but they've caught the Minneapolis Star Tribune in a very funny contradiction!
It would be an understatement to say there is a long running feud between them...the Star Trib has made no secret of their contempt for blogs.
In this case, the Star Trib ran a Sunday editorial praising the filibuster and minority rights and denouncing the proposed "nuclear option". Powerline posted two editorials, from 1993 and 94, in which the very same editorial board denounced Republicans for using the filibuster and standing in the way of Clinton's agenda. The 1994 editorial specifically supported a proposal to get rid of the filibuster. The deputy editorial writer sent several emails to Powerline saying the paper had not flipped because "they had never supported a move to eliminate the filibuster" when Dems were in control.
Oops. The editor finally had to write back and admit they had flipped. Now he says the paper owes its readers an explanation for the contrary positions, depending on who's in the majority. Should be interesting to read if they ever publish it.
http://powerlineblog.com/archives/010296.php
http://powerlineblog.com/archives/010274.php
THIS, however, struck me as the oddest defense I've read in a long time:
In 1999, staff lawyers conducted an inquiry after two women got into a loud verbal altercation, allegedly over his attentions.
...
Mfume acknowledged yesterday that he dated one of the women in that altercation...for "three months" and later adopted her 4-year-old son. The boy is now 15, he said. The woman now works for the Maryland Department of Transportation.
Hadn't Kwazy already fathered several children out of wedlock, or am I thinking of another prominent black politician?
As for Lyon, if we do go to France again, I'm hoping to explore the south, Provence, etc. Dinner in Lyon could be one of those once-in-a-lifetime big splurge events!
This may be a form of poetic justice:
TYCO is auctioning off a fortune in antiques belonging to the company's disgraced CEO Dennis Kozlowski, but it turns out the costly clutter is only worth a fraction of what he paid. Several items formerly scattered about Kozlowski's $16.8 million Fifth Avenue apartment are included in Sotheby's French & Continental Furniture sale tonight at the auction house's York Avenue galleries, insiders say.
We're told Kozlowski purchased over $1 million worth of antiques at L'Antiquaire & the Connoisseur, Helen Fioratti's East 73rd Street gallery. But Kozlowski — or rather Tyco — wildly overpaid for what he apparently believed were incredibly rare items. Sotheby's experts have appraised the treasures at far below what Kozlowski paid.
"I'm very surprised to hear that," Kozlowski told The Post's Laura Italiano during a break in his retrial on fraud charges yesterday. "I just had a turnkey operation."
He was referring to his defense counsel's contention that Kozlowski was not directly responsible for buying any of the furnishings, but rather gave his decorators a budget and trusted them to look after things. ...(Page Six)
It is Kweisi Mfume ( pronounced Kweisi Mfume ) who has a boatload of illegitimate kiddies around the country.
I think his real name is Fizzle my Schnizzle or something like that.
We've already determined that our next trip will be Provence/Tuscany. Lyon could easily be tacked onto that itinerary!
Although....if we were all in Provence...would we really want to leave and head for Lyon?! I imagine we could find a few gastronomic delights right there in Provence.
Fo shizzle.
Hey! I have the same sunglasses as Katie Holmes ( who is a fetus, by the way)
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) greets tourists after a press conference at the Jefferson Memorial on April 28, 2005.
Good grief! It looks like Ellie Mae Clampett meets Ole' Crusty!
Meanwhile, Laura is looking super, visiting inner city schools in California...
In the news today:
DISGRACED former White House reporter/male escort Jeff Gannon can't believe no one has invited him to tomorrow's White House Correspondents Dinner. "It seems to me to be odd to exclude the one person who has brought more attention to the White House press corps than anyone else in years," Gannon tells PAGE SIX's Jared Paul Stern. "Probably many who would want to extend such an invitation already assume I will be in attendance." Gannon, whose real name is James Guckert, quit his job with the conservative Talon News earlier this year after his fake name, lack of journalistic qualifications and male escort connections came to light. The dinner usually features several stars and sensational guests such as Paula Jones to liven things up. The sub-par star lineup this year includes Robert Duvall, Burt Reynolds, Randy Quaid, Ron Silver, Patricia Heaton and Anne Hathaway. (Page Six)
This from Cindy Adams:
Les Moonves says CBS' post-Rather news that he absolutely guarantees will be "very different and innovative," will be in place "late this summer"
"Different and innovative"? Does that mean truthful? What a novel concept.
And then what? Does the child live with him or mom? WaPo doesn't say.
Our suspicions have been confirmed, Chrissy Matthews is a coward. Zell Miller has a new book out and Chrissy went to all the trouble to run the video of he and Zell's dust up at the Republican Convention but didn't book Zell for the show. Zell's publicist wrote Matthews a letter.
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