May 11, 2010
MICHELLE OBAMA’S first meeting with the White House cooks was nerve-racking for the pastry chef, Bill Yosses.
“The most surprising day of my life,” said Mr. Yosses, who was hired by Laura Bush in 2007.
He said that Mrs. Obama stipulated that dessert would be a rarity, not routine, at family meals, and that portions should be scaled down.
“Maybe I should have been worried about my job,” he said. “But I was just exhilarated.”
In the intervening months, because of Mrs. Obama’s campaign for healthy eating, the first family’s day-to-day meals have taken on national significance. And as his responsibilities have broadened to include apprentice beekeeping, weeding and the pursuit of the perfect pie crust (it includes lard, not Crisco), Mr. Yosses has blossomed along with his role.
On a recent sunny morning, he picked clumps of mint and tended his rhubarb beds in the small garden on the South Lawn. An armed member of the Secret Service’s counter-assault team emerged from a stand of blooming dogwood trees, eyeing him protectively, just as Mr. Yosses eyed tiny sprouts destined for a state dinner on May 19.
Mr. Yosses’ 12-hour days are occupied with the slog familiar to any chef, baking pastries for morning meetings in the West Wing (“which no one ever eats,” he said), adjusting the day’s menu to incorporate ingredients from local farmers (whose identities are secret for security reasons); planning for events like Halloween (as a compromise between nutrition and tradition, last year the Obamas handed out trail mix, cookies and M&M’s).
Mr. Yosses’ most recent mission is changing the White House tradition of the bottomless cookie plate. (Among White House journalists, President Clinton was known for going straight from a grueling run into the pastry kitchen. Only part of it is visible through a window, but reporters outside recognized him by his sneakers.)
To edge out the cookies, Mr. Yosses decided to create a child-pleasing crunchy granola bar without nuts, chocolate or white sugar. “We went through many tastings on this one,” he said in his skinny galley kitchen, patting the final result, a mix of toasted oats, sesame seeds and chewy dried fruits into a sheet pan.
“This is Mrs. Obama’s house,” Mr. Yosses said, when pressed for details. “It’s not my place to say what dessert she might serve.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/12/dining/12yosses.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Guy sounds like a professional.
He was at odds with his employer, so he decided to move on. Good for him.
He was a blossoming "weeder?" You can't make this stuff up. Lard pie crusts? I wonder where that goes on Her Majesty's physiognomy?
Like Grandma used to make! That's something even openly heterosexual chefs can get behind!
That's strange - during previous administrations, the White House was described as "The People's House". How things have changed.