Dear Readers, I’ll be discussing my new book, DINNER WITH THE PRESIDENT: Food, Politics, and a History of Breaking Bread at the White House, at two special events next week. I hope you’ll join me at one or both of them:On Weds 3/22, starting at 6:30 (doors open 6:15), I’ll be talking about the food of politics and the politics of food with Rebecca Federman — NYPL Assistant Director of Research, menu expert, and co-curator of Lunch Hour NYC — at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library, 455 Fifth Ave (40th St, catty-corner to the Library’s main branch), 7th Floor. It’s…

On Weds 3/22/23, I’ll be at the Stavros Niarchos branch of the NY Public Library, 455 Fifth Ave, 7th Fl, 6:30-8PM, in conversation with Assistant Director Rebecca Federman. https://www.nypl.org/events/programs/2023/03/22/alex-prudhomme-author-dinner-president-food-politics-and-history-breaking. On Fri 3/24, I’ll discuss my book with the ebullient PBS chef Sara Moulton at the National Arts Club, at 6PM. Please register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dinner-with-the-president-an-evening-with-alex-prudhomme-tickets-539648863277 If you can’t make those events in person, join me on Zoom — with Marion Nestle, Chloe Sorvinio, Tanya Holland, and moderator Clark Wolf — on Thurs 3/23, 5-6PM, which you can register for here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-politics-of-food-then-and-now-tickets-570801772467

Alex Prud’homme’s new book covers everything from Eisenhower’s love for squirrel stew to Obama’s penchant for arugula, and dishes on state dinners, diplomacy and the White House kitchen During the Civil War, Abe Lincoln would snack on apples, cornbread, raw honey on the comb and other favorites from growing up on the Kentucky frontier, while at the onset of the Korean War, Harry S. Truman chose a comfort food meal of fried chicken and mashed potatoes for a key meeting with military leaders. Beyond their love of dishes like squirrel stew (Dwight D. Eisenhower), grits (Jimmy Carter) and arugula (Barack…

Jackie Kennedy took her breakfast in bed. Every morning, a White House butler brought a tray of toast with honey, orange juice, and coffee with skim milk. For lunch, the first lady had a cup of broth and a slim sandwich (which, on occasion, was grilled cheese.) Her dinner of choice? Cold poached salmon, followed by lamb with potatoes, string beans, and ice cream. John also ate toast—but with marmalade, accompanied by boiled or poached eggs. It’s a breakfast habit he continued quite literally until the day he died: It was his final meal on the morning of November 22,…

You can’t get past the first page of author Alex Prud’homme’s new Dinner with the President without stumbling across a glass of white Hermitage, in this case served at an elaborate secret dinner in 1790 hosted by then-future President Thomas Jefferson, prepared by Jefferson’s half-brother-in-law and Paris-trained slave chef James Hemings, and attended by rivals Alexander Hamilton and then-future President James Madison … https://www.winespectator.com/articles/dinner-with-the-president-spills-new-and-old-tales-of-white-house-wines

A state dinner at the White House is never simply a meal for the president and his hungry VIP guests. Rather, it’s a “forum for politics and entertainment at the highest level,” writes author Alex Prud’homme in “Dinner with the President: Food, Politics and a History of Breaking Bread at the White House,” (Knopf.) “The president is both a symbol of the nation and a flesh-and-blood human being and his food choices bridge those disparate roles.” The first big White House dinner was served in 1874 when President Ulysses Grant — then the youngest commander in chief at 46 —…

What books are on your night stand? I have a colorful pile of books that is slowly accreting by my bed, and occasionally sets off a landslide. At the moment the stratum includes: George Saunders’s “A Swim in a Pond in the Rain,” Geoff Dyer’s “The Last Days of Roger Federer,” Toni Tipton-Martin’s “Jubilee” cookbook, Patti Smith’s “M Train,” Mark Strand’s “Hopper,” Mark Rozzo’s “Everybody Thought We Were Crazy,” Ian Fleming’s “Thrilling Cities” (a 1963 travelogue picked up for 10 cents), Sally Mann’s “Hold Still” and a substrate of magazines and catalogs. I dip in and out of these books…

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/alex-prudhomme/dinner-with-the-president-prudhomme/