How to Float Like an Angel While Working Like a Demon

President Barak Obama and his elegant wife, First Lady Michelle Obama, celebrated their 19^th wedding anniversary this past weekend.  

It only takes a look at the photographs that captured their evening out at the Restaurant Eve in Alexandria, Virginia to see that this is a couple dedicated to each other.

That mutual commitment is mirrored by the restaurant's owner Chef Cathal Armstrong and his beautiful wife and professional partner Meshelle, both hailing from Ireland.  Their esteemed 50 seat restaurant is named after their first child, Eve.

Chef Armstrong trained in France but has always maintained his commitment to source and quality that reaches back to his Irish childhood.

With multiple stars awarded for excellent as well as a deep loyalty to sustainability, Chef Armstrong’s Restaurant Eve was a perfect choice for the First Couple who have provided to the nation an active role model for healthy eating.

Yet as every professional in our industry knows, style, elegance and stars-awarded don’t just happen, just as great marriages don’t just happen.

It takes work, commitment, dedication and skill. When it’s done well, it only looks easy – a lovely picture, a dinner served with grace and charm.

Perhaps there is no more perfect example of the ease of expert expression than the new Air France ad airing global. The dancers are subtle and graceful, gently hinting at a mystery only revealed at the end, yet always capturing the elegant essence of the Air France experience.   

But before the dance (or dinner) comes the endless and very necessary preparation. In an amazing double release, Air France has also documented the efforts involved in the “staging” of the magic.

And while many of the televised foods shows have opened a window for consumers to glimpse the working wonder of a professional kitchen, it is only a brief image of the steam and strain.

What is not captured are the years of training prior to mastery, the untiring eye seeking perfection, the effort to discover the ever new while never forgetting the richness of the past.  

Like any great marriage, it requires that one focus every day on the values expressed through medium of everyday life. It requires caring; it requires simply truly Loving what we do and deeply respecting all those we share our day with.

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2011

The Queen's Royal Menu for Barack and Michelle Obama's British State Dinner

The United States President and First Lady, Barack and Michelle Obama, were recently entertained at a rare royal state dinner by England’s Queen Elizabeth II.  At such historic events, no detail is overlooked. 

With 162 plus vip guests looking forward to being seated in the grand banquet hall, each place setting is always measured out with a ruler. (A missed inch here or there can result in a shortage of space at the end of the 168 foot table, meaning an entire lengthy table reset. Ouch!)

Treasured golden candelabras and engraved antique glasses are polished and shined under the direction of the Assistant Yeoman of the Royal Glass and China Pantry. Finally, at exactly 5PM the Queen herself traditionally enters the historic Hall to review the preparation (which is only proper as she is the host of the evening’s festivities).

Accompanied by the Master of the Queen’s Household and his supportive staff, Her Majesty always seems to find a missed detail – a candle slightly askew, a microphone waiting to squeal when turned on.  All are corrected by the palace’s highly trained staff, each with floor-saving dusters worn over their shoes.   

Down in the Great Kitchen, the Royal Chef directs a staff of 23 chefs and nine kitchen porters. Mobile hot food trolleys (carts) are used to transport all the food they have prepared for guests from the lower kitchen to the Great Hall above. Once transported to the upper floor, the prepared courses are laid out and garnished by the supportive chefs, who are waiting in the prep rooms that adjoin the Banquet Hall.  

Each group of nine guests along the formal banquet table is served by an under butler, a wine butler, a footman and a page – not a bad staffing level!

Service begins and pauses, quite literally, with staff signals from a discreetly placed series of red and green lights. Additionally, the floor staff is trained to respond to an array of subtle hand signals that relay each guest’s instant needs.

And the menu served? One truly worthy of such a memorable event!

THE CUISINE

Paupiette de Sole et Cresson Sauce Nantua (Roulade of Sole and Watercress Accented with a Nantua Seafood Sauce)

 Agneau de la Nouvelle Saison de Windsor au Basilic (New Season Lamb Herbed with Windsor Basil)

Courgettes et Radis Sautées (Sauteed Zucchinis and Radishes)

Panaché d'Haricots Verts (Panache Mix of Green Beans)

Pommes Boulangère (Baked Apples)

Salade (Fresh Greens Salad)

Charlotte à la Vanille et Cerises Griottes (Vanilla Charlotte Garnished with Sour Cherries)

Fruits de Dessert (Dessert Fruits)

THE WINES
Ridgeview Cuvée Merret Fitzrovia Rosé 2004
Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos 2004 (Domaine William Fèvre)
Echézeaux Grand Cru 1990 (Domaine de la Romanée-Conti)
Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin, Vintage Rich 2002
Royal Vintage Port 1963!

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2011

How Lemonade Lucy Saved the White House Easter Egg Roll

While staffers all over London are busy fine tuning the last details of the upcoming royal wedding, the chefs at the U.S. White House have just finished arranging the boiling and dyeing over 14,500 eggs (yes, 14,500 eggs!) for the annual White House Easter Egg Roll.

This delightful child-centered event is an annual pleasure that everyone in Washington DC looks forward to - yet few people know how the Easter Egg Roll almost didn’t happen.    

America’s beloved very first First Lady Dolley Madison (1808 – 1817) started the tradition of rolling Easter eggs, not at the White House, but on the grounds surrounding the U.S. Capitol Building.

At that time much of Washington DC was either under construction or still a swampy marsh so the elevated grassy area around the Capitol Building was simply the best spot available for a dry egg hunt on the Monday after Easter Sunday.

Indeed, these Easter events proved so popular that pre and post Civil War thousands upon thousands of children and adults marched across the Capitol lawns looking for colored eggs.

By 1876 Congress had had enough of all these laughing children messing up their congressional lawn, not to mention their legislative dignity.

So in one of the nation’s less than child-loving moods, Congress passed the Turf Protection Act, banning all Easter egg rolling, hunting or carrying on the velvet green lawns that surrounded the oh so sartorial Capitol Dome.

But take heart, First Lady Lucy Hayes (also known as “Lemonade Lucy” as she would not serve demon rum or the like at her White House events) had a kinder heart. She invited the local children (yes, one needed to be invited – no more free-for-all as before) to come and celebrate on the White House's even more meticulously manicured lawns. Well done, Lucy!

World Wars and sometimes weather have caused the event to be cancelled or delayed but on the whole it is one of the most delightful annual events any President and First Lady can look forward to.

Over the years a costumed ‘rabbit’ had been added, along with music and healthy treats (thanks the nation’s present first lady, Michelle Obama). Admission tickets are still required but no longer to a chosen special few.

Thanks again to Michele Obama, they are issued nationwide now through a far more democratic website lottery. And oh yes, no adult may enter WITHOUT a child.

Perhaps that will teach any congressman who longs for the dictatorial powers of the past not to be so hard-hearted about sharing a little of their 'green' with any nation's greatest treasure -the children, the children - always the children. 

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2011

Update on Monday, April 25, 2011 at 8:07PM by Ana Kinkaid

Chef Jacques Pepin cooks very healthy crepes at White House Easter Egg Roll!