What would you do if you had immense wealth and power? For many people, their ultimate dream job would be to have an army of personal chefs on command. After all, why eat out at all when you have the option to have some of the best culinary artists in the world whip up something tasty from the comfort of your own home?
While not every President has been rich, all of them have been powerful. And one of the perks of the gig is that presidents have their own highly-trained White House chefs. This is basically one of the top gigs that chefs can ever work, but it’s also secretive…the kind of job very few people know anything about.
We decided to change that. Want to know what it’s like to make food for the most powerful person in the world? Keep reading to discover the strangest rules that White House personal chefs have to follow!
White House chefs have the highest security clearances
If you’re in the military or know anyone who is, you probably know a bit about national security clearances. Basically, the more sensitive your job, the more important it is that you have been properly vetted by trained professionals. That way, no shady character can use their increased access to hurt anyone. While these clearances mostly apply to government and military personnel, you might be surprised to learn that White House chefs require the highest possible security clearances.
Former White House chef Walter Schieb dished about this in an interview with Vice. “The clearance that you have when you’re working in the White House is called Top Secret Presidential Proximity,” he said. “Obviously, this is one of the most security-cleared posts you can get.”
It makes sense, really…when you have to constantly be around the most powerful person in the world, you need major clearance. The closer you are, the more clearance you need. And as Schieb put it, these chefs aren’t just “around outside and next to the President; we’re physically inside of him. You really couldn’t get any more close to that.”
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Screening the president’s food
There have long been rumors that the president has personal taste testers. While such a thing would make sense, it also feels a little odd because the tradition of taste testers goes back to the earliest days of Kings and Queens. America was formed explicitly to escape monarchy, so it’s a tad amusing to imagine that the President is kept alive by the same practice that kept kings alive hundreds of years ago.
Well, former White House chef Walter Schieb told the Washingtonian that “There is no presidential food taster.” That is, there’s not somebody there who personally takes a bite out of everything that goes in the President’s mouth. Nonetheless, there are many official protocols in place to fully screen all of the food before it is eaten. According to Schieb, even the little snacks the President might reach out and grab (like a pretzel) were previously screened in the name of safety.
The pastry specialist makes an elaborate gingerbread house each year
The White House has chefs with specialized functions. For example, there is a pastry chef who is charged with making sweet treats throughout the year. However, there’s one major event each year that occupies much of this chef’s attention. What’s the event? Simple: making an insanely elaborate gingerbread house!
White House pastry chef Susana Morrison revealed more about this in an interview with O, the Oprah Magazine in 2016. “I spend all year thinking about the White House gingerbread house, but we don’t begin baking until November,” dhr dsif said. “Then, for about four days after Thanksgiving, we work tirelessly to build the house before moving it to the State Dining Room, where more than 60,000 guests will cycle through.”
This is intense, but it’s a tradition that stretches back for many years. Even Nixon’s White House had a killer gingerbread house, so any pastry chef who wants to work in the White House must be ready to give their A-game every year!
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Making 14,000 hard-boiled eggs for a single event
There are plenty of odd jobs that White House chefs may be asked to perform. This includes whipping up the strangest dishes (Richard Nixon reportedly enjoyed cottage cheese and ketchup) and brewing beer (Barack Obama had his chefs try it out back when the homebrewing craze was sweeping America). But perhaps the craziest task that presidents must tackle each year is making a whopping 14,000 hard-boiled eggs for the annual Egg Roll and egg hunting events.
Yes, that means they don’t just have to hard-boil all these eggs…they also have to dye most of them, too. And much of the preparation for this annual Easter event takes place in the same kitchen where the staff prepares meals for the president and other personnel each day. Sure, nobody’s going to eat those eggs, but that won’t keep the chefs from making them and keeping local children entertained each and every year!