Eisenhower’s chief usher, Howell Crim struggled once with a request because he didn’t “know what yoghurt was.” When his wife was away, Abraham Lincoln’s staff had to remind the president to eat. Franklin Roosevelt’s cooks were tasked with a special diet for his dog, Fala. William T. Crump, who served as steward in the Garfield White House became the de facto press secretary when the President was shot. And Teddy Roosevelt avoided a sticky situation with help from his steward, Henry Pinckney…
They, of course, weren’t the only African Americans to work in the White House kitchen. Though author Adrian Miller found 150 people by name, he says there were many who toiled unnamed. In “The President’s Kitchen Cabinet,” he explains.
While this may seem like a dry subject, Miller makes it lively through quick, interesting, and sometimes humorous vignettes that dash back and forth through history.
(“The President’s Kitchen Cabinet” by Adrian Miller, c.2017, The University of North Carolina Press, $30/261 pages.)
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