Soul food has storied place in White House kitchen
“National Soul Food Month,” sometimes called “June,” deserves a presidential proclamation.
Why? Because this cuisine, which combines the food traditions of West Africa, Western Europe and the Americas, has long been the foundation for home cooking in the White House.
As former White House executive chef Henry Haller wrote in “The White House Family Cookbook”: “In the White House kitchen, soul food — like all food — was specially prepared to provide the first family with the dishes they liked most, cooked in the manner that best suited their own personal tastes.” Thanks to enslaved and free African-American presidential cooks, many Southern-born presidents and executive residence staffers could always get “a taste of home” that they craved.
In recognition of this special month, here is a sampling of great soul-food moments in presidential history.
Black-eyed peas: Soulfood aficionados know the importance of eating black-
eyed peas on Jan. 1 to have good luck the rest of the year. The Chicago Defender, an African-American newspaper, gleefully reported that President Lyndon B. Johnson indulged in this edible superstition on New Year’s Day in 1964 while at his family’s ranch in Central Texas. Had he skipped this tradition, might he have lost the presidential election later that year?
Chitterlings: Every year since 1965, the town of Salley, S.C., has hosted the world’s largest “Chitlin Strut,” where thousands gather to eat boiled or fried chitterlings, aka chitlins, made from pig intestines. Supposedly, one can smell the event from 25 miles away. In 1975, a U.S. Department of Agriculture representative who had been dispatched to the strut returned to the White House with a gallon of frozen chitterlings specially prepared for President Gerald Ford. History is silent as to whether the president chowed down on it.
Corn bread: It comes in many forms, and our presidents have tended to like it in the morning. President George Washington started the trend by savoring hoe cakes (a simple corn bread fried in shallow grease) “swimming in honey and butter” for a typical breakfast. President Abraham Lincoln loved corn cakes and supposedly ate them “as fast as two women could make them.” Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge loved to start their day with corn muffins, and President Jimmy Carter enjoyed corn fritters at big weekend breakfasts for the family. Don’t think for a moment that corn bread wasn’t served in some of the White House’s more elegant settings. President Franklin D. Roosevelt served it at a 1939 state dinner for King George VI.
Fried chicken: This Southern classic enjoys broad bipartisan support. President Ronald Reagan and NASCAR legend Richard Petty munched on fried chicken after Petty won the Firecracker 400 race in 1984. Fried chicken’s biggest White House moment, though, came in September 1979, when Carter served it at a gospel-music picnic he hosted for 1,000 people on the South Lawn. Inquiring minds from the White House press corps wanted to know whether all of that chicken had been fried in the executive kitchen. White House social secretary Gretchen Poston revealed that the president had received a very large carry-out order from Gino’s, a popular fried chicken place in northeast D.C.
Fried chicken and waffles: Despite what you’ve heard about its “Jazz Era in Harlem” origin story, chicken and waffles has been a part of the American culinary scene since the late 1700s. In fact, President William McKinley met his wife, Ida Saxton, at a chickenand-waffle supper held at a hotel in the suburbs of Canton, Ohio, in the early 1870s. President Barack Obama showed his love for this culinary combination when in 2011 he ate at Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles in Los Angeles. Yet, the high point for chicken and waffles came on May 13, 2016, when White House executive chef Cristeta Comerford created a canape version that was served at a state dinner for several Nordic countries. “In reading, I realized that waffles are such a big thing in the Nordic countries,” she said. “So we’re doing chicken and waffles, which is an American thing.”
Greens: The most popular soul-food greens are cabbage, collards, kale, mustard and turnip. Legend has it that President John Tyler used the promise of serving hog jowl and turnip greens to persuade a reluctant friend to stay a few more days with him at the White House. Speaking of turnip greens, first lady Mamie Eisenhower showed the nation her strong belief in their recuperative powers. While President Dwight D. Eisenhower convalesced at Fitzsimons Army Hospital in Colorado after a mild heart attack in 1955, Mamie made sure that he had a regular helping of turnip greens — even if it meant flying some in from the White House kitchen. Since first lady Michelle Obama planted the White House kitchen garden, soul-food greens were made available throughout much of the year.
Macaroni and cheese: Yes, it’s clearly Italian in origin, but mac ’n’ cheese has a special place in the soul-food repertoire. While he served as the U.S. minister to France, future president Thomas Jefferson fell so in love with the dish that he brought a pasta machine from Italy and recipes back to Virginia. As president, he served mac ’n’ cheese at the White House on Feb. 6, 1802, at a dinner party that included guests Rep. Manasseh Cutler of Massachusetts and future explorer Meriweather Lewis. Jefferson was very fond of the dish, but Cutler later wrote in his diary that it was “strong and had a disagreeable taste.” Reagan also loved mac ’n’ cheese, and he requested it while in the hospital after the assassination attempt by John Hinckley Jr. in 1981. Reagan reportedly quipped, “The food is starting to taste a lot better. Since that macaroni and cheese, it’s been all uphill.”
Peach cobbler: It’s not unusual for presidents to entertain royalty, and in June 1946, President Harry S. Truman greeted 18-year-old “peach queen” Annabel Cribb of Spartansburg, S.C., at the White House. Cribb presented a basket of “golden jubilee” peaches to a grateful president. After the meeting, Cribb’s mother told the press: “The president was as gracious as he could be. He told us that he was going to have a peach cobbler made, like his mother used to make for him down in Missouri. His mother, he said, was a great hand at making peach cobbler.”
Pig’s feet: Our pig’s feet-loving president was, surprisingly, Franklin Roosevelt. When he was governor of New York, Roosevelt spent long periods in Warm Springs, Ga., to get relief for his polio. During his sojourns there, a local, wealthy white family sent their African-American cook, Daisy Bonner, to his kitchen. Bonner quickly got him hooked on many Southern delicacies, including broiled pig’s feet served split and buttered. Roosevelt proudly served sweet-and-sour pig’s feet to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill during a White House visit. Though Roosevelt relished the dish, Churchill was unenthusiastic and declined the offer of a second helping.
Possum ’n’ taters: At the turn of the 20th century, African Americans held a dish of opossum and roasted sweet potatoes in high esteem. So did President Theodore Roosevelt, as he frequently dined on it during his presidency. In 1909, possum ’n’ taters made its biggest splash in the press when Presidentelect William Howard Taft specifically requested the dish at a dinner for him hosted in Atlanta by the city’s chamber of commerce. He never lived that down outside the South, but he didn’t care. He loved the dish.
Whether it’s legendary musician Duke Ellington joking about chitterlings with President Richard Nixon, or President Bill Clinton sitting down for a “down home” meal with April D. Ryan and other African-American journalists, soul food has the power to connect. Even at the White House, all it takes is an invitation, good food and a willingness to set a welcome table.