Book

Prud'homme, Alex, author.

Dinner with the president : food, politics, and a history of breaking bread at the White House / Alex Prud'homme.

First edition.

New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2023.

xxviii, 478 pages, 16 pages of unnumbered plates : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 25 cm

"Perhaps the most significant meals in the world have been consumed at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue by the presumptive leaders of the free world. ... Alex Prud'homme takes us to the dining tables of the White House to look at what the presidents chose to eat, how the food was prepared and by whom, and the context in which the meals were served, making clear that every one of these details speaks volumes about both the individual president and the country he presided over. We see how these gustatory messages touch on not only sometimes curious personal tastes, but also local politics, national priorities, and global diplomacy--not to mention all those dinner table conversation taboos: race, gender, class, money, and religion"-- Provided by publisher.

White House (Washington, D.C.) -- Miscellanea.

Presidents -- United States -- Biography.

Food -- Political aspects -- United States.

Food habits -- United States.

Biographies.

"This is a Borzoi book"--Copyright page.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

At the president's table -- George Washington : the first kitchen -- John Adams : the first host -- Thomas Jefferson : America's founding epicure -- James Madison : his rotundity, her remorseless equanimity -- Abraham Lincoln : corn dodgers, gingerbread, and Thanksgiving -- Ulysses S. Grant : the drunken tanner, the military genius, and the first state dinner -- Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft : two bears -- From Wilson to Hoover : collywobbles and a hail of rotten tomatoes -- Franklin D. Roosevelt : the gourmet's lament -- Harry S. Truman : burbon, Berlin, and the comforts of fried chicken -- Dwight D. Eisenhower : the president who cooked -- John F. Kennedy : Camelot and clam chowder -- Lyndon B. Johnson : how barbecue led to diplomacy and chili led to civil rights -- Richard M. Nixon and Gerald Ford : the gastrodiplomat and the instant president -- Jimmy Carter : in search of grits and peace -- Ronald Reagan : jellybeans, weight-loss, and glasnost -- George HW Bush : the yin and yang of broccoli -- William J. Clinton : torn between renunciation and appetite -- George W. Bush : tee balls, freedom fries, and changing of the guard -- Barak Obama : the president with the global palate -- Donald Trump : the food fighter -- Joseph R. Biden : we finish as family -- The importance of eating together.

2022018067

9781524732219

9780525433033

1334726083

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1004837

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973.099 Prudhomm