You know that old line, "Tell me what you eat and I'll tell you who you are"? If that's true, then Cristeta Comerford knows the last five presidents of the United States better than almost anyone.
Comerford just retired after nearly 30 years as White House chef. She cooked for presidents from Clinton to Biden, making everything from family snacks to state dinners.
Just days before she left D.C. and moved to Florida, she came to the NPR studios to look back on her career, and said she didn't think about the barriers that she broke when she became the first woman and the first person of color to hold the top job in the White House kitchen.
“I didn't even realize that, because I was just doing what I wanted to do. I love to cook. It just so happens that I'm a minority woman,” she said. “But when I broke the glass ceiling, I didn't realize that it was, like, news all over!”
That was in 2005 during the George W. Bush administration that she took the executive chef position.
Comerford sat down with All Things Considered host Ari Shapiro to talk about how she prepares to cook for the most powerful person in the world, how the food she sometimes chose connects to her youth, and what President Obama once said about her hamburgers.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Interview highlights
Ari Shapiro: You were born in the Philippines. You grew up one of 11 children in Manilla and you came to the U.S. at the age of 23. Did any of the presidents you worked for ask you to cook the food of your childhood, the food you grew up with?
Cristeta Comerford: President Obama, he lived in Hawaii for a while, so there's a lot of Filipino communities there, so he's very familiar with the Filipino food. So every now and then I’m, like, on the grill, and he's like, “Hey, is that smelling good right there.”
Shapiro: Give us an example.
Comerford: The skewered pork, you know, that's like a street food, but that's something that I love very much. And then whenever I did that — I do beef as well, and chicken — he loves it.
Shapiro: That must have been so nice to share the food of your roots, of your childhood, in your job at the White House with the president.
Comerford: Exactly.
Shapiro: I think the last time the White House hosted a state dinner for the Philippines, if I'm not mistaken, was 2003 during the George W. Bush administration. What was that day like for you?
Comerford: It was amazing. Because actually, chef Walter Scheib — the executive chef then — asked me to write the menu. I actually did the press preview for [Philippine President Gloria] Macapagal-Arroyo at the time. So I was so excited. They chose lamb. I clearly remember, because it was, like, kind of unusual, like, “Lamb? For Filipinos?” But I'm like, “OK, if that's what the guests want, we're gonna do lamb.”
Shapiro: What did cooking for presidents show you about those leaders that even their chiefs of staff or their closest advisors might not have understood?
Comerford: I think at the end of the day, those presidents, they have the weight of the world on their shoulders. So the only thing that they want when they come home after working the Oval Office, dealing with whatever world or domestic events, is just to come home to a nice, home cooked meal.
So on a daily basis, we just really take care of them: “Hey, what do you like to eat?” And a part of being a chef is just reading the room, but reading a big room, because you have to watch the news. You have to keep up with what's happening, because you almost kind of know what mood is your principal going to be in.
Shapiro: Oh interesting. You're watching the news to see if it was a stressful day for the person you’re cooking for. So it’s like, “Oh, he's gonna need grilled cheese and tomato soup” and the end of this day?
Comerford: Yeah exactly. And people don't teach us that. We just kind of know. I learned it from, actually, one of our butlers, because he was the one who explained to me, “Cris, he's gonna be feeling tired today and just worn out. So give him what you got.”
Shapiro: If I were to ask all five presidents what dish Cris is best known for, do you think more than one of them would give me the same answer?
Comerford: I think two of them would give you the same answer. Because President Clinton's favorite is enchiladas. And of course, so is President Bush's. So they'll give the same answer. I make a mean enchilada — homemade tortillas. It has to be homemade.
Shapiro: Did a president ever say to you, “Cris, you're an extraordinary cook. But you know what? I don't want the handmade tortilla. I want the American cheese wrapped in plastic that I grew up eating”?
Comerford: Actually, it was President Obama. I was making this fancy cheeseburger for him. I made my own brioche dough, and he looked at it and he said, like, “I'm OK with just the grocery bun that you get.”
Shapiro: One of your former colleagues, the pastry chef Bill Yosses, told me that your philosophy of American cuisine is that it's like jazz. What does that mean?
Comerford: It was a New York Times reporter who asked me the question of like, “Do you think French food is the best?” And we were in France. But what I said was true. I'm like, “Hey, look, all of the chefs, we're all classically trained. Like, you know, a pianist is classically trained in music. But in America, we play jazz.”
Shapiro: And what does that mean in terms of food?
Comerford: In terms of food, it's like, every community, every minority groups — we're a land of immigrants, so we share everything that we have. So by the time a food is made, it's a totally different one than it was intended to be. It's because it's a beautiful melting pot.
Shapiro: It's less about authenticity and more about improvisation, is that it?
Comerford: Exactly, yes.
Shapiro: Last I checked, the new White House chef, your successor, had not yet been announced. Do you have any words of advice for your successor?
Comerford: I think I'm gonna give him the same word of advice that Walter Scheib gives to every chef: Basically, you leave your politics at the door. Because at the end of the day, we're cooks, we're chefs. We just want to make them happy with our food.
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