how are you doing this evening? thank you. good evening and welcome. i managed to public programs here. thank you for joining us tonight featuring the most recent book the president's kitchen cabinet the story of the african-americans who were fed from the washingtons to be obama's. as you saw in the video since there is a one-of-a-kind research institution and is dedicated to the collection, dedication and interpretation of the experience. also you may have heard in january, the center was named a national historic landmark by the park service so they all know what you know. [applause] >> the landmark status recognizes the collection of materials that represent the history and culture of people of african descent in the global transnational perspective and through public programs and exhibitions, film screenings, engaging in positions like the one we are sure to have today we explore the narrative and the world and also the programs you are able to explore are in the archival collection with over 10 million items but then go and visit one of the divisions where you can find books, photographs, other kinds of collections and other resources. i will tell you about the rest of the program for february but since it is black history month everagreement hearing going to l you about black history month in march. we are featuring the women's jazz festival and the centennial festival. we will feature an evening discussing the legacy of some of the most well-known and emerging women today. these can be found on the website. also you can find it in the winter program for sure. i want to say thank you to any of the members we have. your support -- [applause] your support makes it possible to deliver consistent high-caliber programming for the low-cost and free to the public only your account. before we turn to tonight's program i will ask everyone to silence your cell phone and also, no flash photography or video. before we get started and i introduce you to the panelists and going to bring up the director of this center. [applause] we are excited to have you here. she told you all the good news we have come a national landmark status which we are delighted by, we have the black powers show up right now and renovations that have been going on for over a year we are excited for the new spaces. there was a moment ago i was going to come out and say i am tanya hopkins and conduct some of the interview with adrian whom i've known for a while who is a food writer that i'm going to turn the stage over to adrian and tania and welcome again, thank you. [applause] adrienne miller is a recovering voyeur dad worked as a special assistant to president bill clinton. we all know some of those. today he's a culinary historian whose lecture out of the country. adrian's first book is a surprising story of an american cuisine one play at a time published in august of 2013. one to 2014 foundations of the word for reference to scholarship. the second book featured tonight of the president's kitchen cabinet -- a certified society judge and former alliance board member. guiding us through tonight's conversation began as a qualitative researcher and brand strategists including food, wine and premium spirits. these experiences fueled her perspective on ethnic and mainstream american food cultures and led her to count the consulting and commentary on all things culinary and cultural. more recently the multimedia platform through which she also provides historic and contemporary consulting content now at historical dinners and events. as the cofounder of the nonprofit foundation serves as a wine specialist for inspired vendors including the june 2016 event based on the historically famous 1790 reconciliation dinner prepared by thomas jefferson's and slaved chef james flemings who holds up the table for america's future please welcome adrian miller and hopkins. [applause] long time no see. the first time i met him was a southern conference in mississippi. >> i don't recall. he gets up and tells a story i'm all excited i think that it wasy first one like 15 years ago and i'm like what is he going to talk about and he gets up and tells a story about the long-lost delicacy of possum and i'm like what is he talking about. but it turns out that was great and i actually refer to that and give you props. 100 years ago that was the dish. >> guest: apparently it was. people looking for long-lost recipes, don't go for that. so tonight we are here t we're k about the latest book that i have in my security badge, the president's cabinet, untold stories of african-americans who fit our families from washington to be obama's. i thought that it was interesting you worked in the white house and you said you never even went to the kitchen? >> guest: the white house isn't a place that you should wander around if you don't need to be there but i worked on something called the president's initiative you've probably never heard of it as an outgrowth of the initiative on race and here's the wild and crazy idea. if we actually talked to one another and listened, we might find out we have more in common than what divides us, so that went on for about a year and a half and after that, the board that brand that recommended that there be an ongoing office in the white house to deal with racial reconciliation and other issues so that was the initiative for one america. >> so when you got the idea to do this book and started the research, how many years? >> guest: this book was eight years in the making and really what inspired me to d do it wasn employment. [laughter] is always on employment. >> at the change of the administration what happens if you are an appointee and by the way the way i got the job of the old-fashioned way. a friend of mine was at the georgetown law school and called me up while i was practicing. this isn't to disparage any attorneys practicing law just wasn't for me. i was seeking spirituals in my office so i figured i could use something else so i was thinking of opening up a restaurant in denver and she describes to me the initiative for one america so i did the same thing dick cheney did when george w. bush asked him to find a vice president. i only said that my name and that's how i got it. [laughter] so we get to the end of the administration and you write out your letter of resignation so shockingly george bush accepted my resignation so the job market was soft at that point and i was watching a lot of daytime television. i thought to myself i should read something so i got a book on the history of southern food and it was at home on the road in history and in that book he said the tribute to the african-american achievement is to be returned so i e-mailed him to see if somebody had written that worked because it was about 10-years-old when i got it and he said no one has really taken on the project and so that led to the first book and while i was reading the sources for that book, i discovered those that cut for the presidents including something written in the 1920s he was going to write a history of african-american cooking and he talks about some of these. one of the earliest sources i i got taken to the library and i found a photo copy of something that he typed up. >> host: a lot of them did have work related to food and i know there was an extensive study where there was a pathway for new money into status and class but still trickles through today. he said no one had done a piece about the african-american accomplishments. was it one piece and was their connection? >> is packed full of stories and people get all the different people involved. so it could be like another 50 bucks. >> guest: a lot of it is fragments because in the centuries even into the 20th, the african-americans were looked down upon and servitude positions is something that african-americans were born to do so but historical sources you only get references and he didn't even take time to print out the person's full name so it is remarkable that we see a person's full name and then we get the 20th century and its better but it wasn't a glamorous thing that it is today. it was one of the few professions that they could pursue and xls without a lot of white backlash. so a lot of it is in the society. >> it's also clear that they are stealing our food and so there was the skill and talent elements to this whole war. they have the improvisational approach. then there are cooks what is the french term? >> guest: that is putting everything in its place so if someone in your family is like that when you try to get a recipe. i'm one of those books i have to have everything set out so i know i have all of my ingredients properly measured so that's how you approach this book in terms of all the information. >> i have all the key ingredients to the study of the food culture so what involves people around the president and what are the things beyond the presidents control the congress or the public perception to show how they all kind of interact. >> that yielded a fact detailed base which is phenomenal. any others i want to get a feel for. [inaudible] what you are seeing are some snippets from the interesting personality that i collected in the book. real quickly samuel was the steward for presidents washington and you probably saw this story there was a lot of debate among the scholars in his race but quite a few believed that he was biracial and have a heritage. i showed the cook for george washingtogeorgewashington but ad successfully at the birthday. >> host: he escaped before him and i was curious if this was inspired by the other. she escapes a few years before and what is interesting is that as a portrait hanginit's a porta museum in madrid spain. it is the same that did the iconic portrait of washington and what is interesting about the portrait is the outfit that hercules has is one that would be worn by eight european chef, not an american chef at the time. knowinhow vindictive george washington was coming u read the letters of the reaction at the extent they try to get hercules after he escaped and you think that song from frozen, let it go it makes sense that he goes overseas because that is probably the safest thing for him to do. >> he actually made money selling scraps. there are stories and facts and history that are a concern. but he was such a great cook this piece about the scraps, what was that about? >> sometimes they would give them some liberties to so the scraps and use them to make candles or repurpose those things. but his cooking was so good he made about $5,000 a year and in terms of what he was selling he would buy fancy clothes and he had a gold cane and he would put on that blue suit and walk around philadelphia. he was allowed to go to the opera. he had quite a few. >> that says a whole lot about this whole mythology that you also touch on about the propaganda around that society to make people believe that it wasn't so bad. with all of these perks, he passed the same? >> they don't know where he ends up, but it is a clue. the interesting thing is towards the end, well, first of all when washington brings hercules to philadelphia to be his cook, he does this for after six months he had a white woman named mrs. reid and he wasn't feeling her cooking at all so he brings them from the mount vernon kitchen to come to philadelphia. but the tricky thing is that philadelphia, something called the gradual abolition act of 1780 so if you were an enslaved person at that time there for six months, you were automatically free. so right about this time he would attack us all the people and send them back to mount vernon and keep them there for a few weeks and then bring them back and start the clock over again. and he did this throughout his two terms. but for some reason, towards the end of the second term, he sends hercules back not to the mount vernon kitchen, but into the fields to do other hard labor, and that is what spurred him to make the -- for freedom [inaudible] >> if you read the letters in sequence he's going through the five stages of grief. [laughter] >> and then the letters from martha washington is something like you would see, laugh at the joke. i worked hard on that one. [laughter] >> i wondered if he knew it was a punishment like i am out of here. >> guest: washington suspected hercules was going to escape with some of the family members and one of his sons was caught stealing money out of a kind of backpack and they believe that the finance and escape attempt. >> i thought it was interesting this character that was luckily for you and us for the sake of this research documented in detail about the artistry and talent and all that. what was that about, it sounded like an early romance or something going on and on. >> he admires washington and in the diary that he kept and observations he made against the personalities and what he had going on in the kitchen, wanting to know is he had enslaved africans from mount vernon and then his boss that i talked about so they were all in the kitchen together but evidently come hercules was quite temperamental as a chef so she would feel a kinship with gordon ramsay. he talks about if they messed up how he would kind of go off on them. >> another interesting person that has shown up here -- >> we have to talk about james first. [laughter] >> he isn't a presidential chef but his name is james hemmings. >> but he does cook for jefferson in the summer of 1801 in monticello. >> it was one of sally hemmings brothers and james was 19 and jefferson gets appointed to become the minister to franc mie takes hemmings over to france with him and have him trained as a classical chef and spends a lot of money to do this. he installs him as a chef after he finishes his training he starts paying him and insults him as a cuisine chef at the residence in paris and brings him back. but then as you know i we know e mid-1790s, hemmings says i want to be free and he agrees to do this on two conditions, you have to teach other enslaved people at monticello how to cook because i spent all this time training you and you have to leave behind your recipes and he does this then he is freed in 1796. what you see is a list of all of the utensils and that is returned by his own hand at the library of congress if you ever want to read that. >> as mentioned earlier one of the cofounders of a foundation n that you can learn more about online and one of our other cofounders is here. we also talk about the trenchcoafrenchcooks and researy be the only one that teaches in france for this status. i think that he sets the tone. would have been since the end slave women in monticello ended up being the assistant chef and the reason why he doesn't become the chef is that he actually drinkdrank himself to death ando one so the story goes. >> he will be on-site in a fellowship starting next week and you either did to this about the existing documentation with the information surfacing that we believe will provide more dimension. >> after jefferson's presidency, they are the cooks at monticel monticello. anybody that has been in washington, d.c. in july and august, they had a skeleton crew because it is built in a swamp and people would actually get tropical diseases before reason, jefferson wouldn't let him go back to their families when he would leave the white house during summer break so they actually had to stay. we see examples of the husbands ba at monticello trying to reunite with their wives and catching them and returning them. but their life was pretty much in the basement and there were orders right off the kitchen. it's not others you can preheat and turn off a. >> there was a fireplace with a range on top and according to some of the sources is the second-leading cause in the 1817 reads so that shows you how dangerous. >> we can only imagine. i love how you learn history along the way which is great for a those of us that prefer to learn through the lens of not just food i love how you have actual quotes from the people that have worked and cooked and served. if you want to talk about some of the personalities of the dynamics between presidents and some of the people that served them? >> one is to show how they were compounds in the situations and unwittingly or sometimes consciously they were civil rights advocates. when the african-american civil rights advocates could not get activists to lay out their agenda, they would often go to the cooks and ask the cook to whisper in his ear while they were serving food hoping something would register and the president would move on it. he was the longtime cook for lyndon johnson. when johnson was lobbying the bill with members of congress he would use her experiences. back then the family would drive from texas to washington, d.c. and in many instances she wasn't allowed to go to the bathroom or eat with the family and she suffered so many indignities that at some point she refused to go on the trip so she lived in washington year round. he presents her with one of them and says you deserve this as much as anyone. one of the things we know about the personality, he would often show up late for dinner and demand food right away and he would do it. he would also often show up late and want dinner made so she would start making the food & drinks and nobody complained but one thing to show how she plays a role in the perception the president has in terms of food is something i call the controversy of 1964. there was a recipe and this was a river that runs along the ranch in centralex. it has no beans because it is chili con carne. when the recipe comes out, americans freak out and want to be assured of that their president loves beans. he used the recording system pretty extensively so it starts with kennedy in terms of the recording system and johnson really ramps up and recommends it to nixon and we know how that turns out. if you will indulge me for a moment, i have a clip from the library talking about the preferences. so if we can play that clip the first you are going to hear is funny that roberts getting this flak from the public. >> what i did is actually transcribed this recipe in the bof this conversation in the book so buck so i will go aheadd it. the first you are going to hear is one juanita roberts. it says we have corresponded asking the president and his family. what would you see if you were asked that question, the answer is i would say yes and roberts added they didn't ask what kind, did they come and know that i know that he likes pork and beans, pinto beans, lima beans, green beans. and marinated and used in a salad with ranch dressing. how do you prepare those for him? add a little pepper and cook them while unti a while until ts kind of thick. we use adelphia and mushrooms. the pinto beans cook like i do with salt, pork and ammo. you doctor them up. somebody has one and i need that also. i believe if you get the audio you can get the tape. another story involves franklin roosevelt. the white house food reputation during the administration was horrible. >> the problem was eleanor roosevelt was not interested in food and for much of the presidential history, the first lady usually had inactive hand in the operations because she knew what her husband liked and made sure what her husband wanted and needed us what happened. she's also the one that would save the president from the themselves. she meets a woman in new york while fdr as governor and they basically couldn't cook. one thing that bothered to keep the bothered me is you have a of cooks and they had to put something good out that what we find is that she would stand behind them and correct the seasonings and it was so bad that when people came for a dinner at a steakhouse they stay would often eat before they we went. one was a made up of help with the food sometimes and then there was another who cooked for roosevelt and david go to they o georgia for treatment for the polio. they load their cook to them. if t fst lady in the position were with them, they knew the food wasn't going to be great because it was something that would adhere to a diet. so they would with the president and decide whether he was looking pale, not healthy. what they would do is bring the food out at the doctor prescribed and they would whisper in his ear don't eat fat. [laughter] he would act like he wasn't hungry, play around with his food and they were taken back in the kitchen and hook him up with what he really wanted. [laughter] >> then there is another story there where she prepares what would be his last meal. >> today that you guys come he's sitting there for a portrait and had a cheese soufflé to be served at one time for 15. what happens if you want to soufflé sit around for a while? atolleight goals. i'm going to tell you about a miracle. that didn't fall until three hours later when the president was pronounced dead. she is on the wall in pencil cooked first and last meal for president roosevelt and if you go to the cottage to this day it is actually preserved. that's another one. >> she would've wailed amanda potter -- glial and butter them. they serve pigs feet and the white house. [laughter] >> not just to anybody but the british minister. it's interesting and it has a slimy texture. >> social service that i don't think i would like them fried. i was going to say something of this kind of nasty. >> how are we doing on time? >> you are the moderator. [laughter] >> is my metaphor because we want our presidents to be extraordinary people but also like us and it gives us the sense whether they have the touch or not. sometimes a pickle is just a pickle. does anyone know about kool-aid pickles acts fax you get a jar of already made pickles, take them out, make kool-aid with the juice, stick with me, then you poke holes or slice them, put them back in the jar, leave them for two weeks, take them out and eat them. if you like the taste of pickles and kool-aid it is a sweet and sour combination and if you don't like either one it is one of the nastiest things you will put in your mouth. i think that it's a good metaphor because it kind of weird, it may discussed us but it gets to how we feel about the presidency sometimes. >> it's presidents week, the book just came out and you did leave off at 44. >> i finished the book before the election. i know that in the early years in the first century and a half, a lot of these people are grand and integrate grandparents and descdents of slaves in the white house from the number one. you get the sense that there are any connected in any way to the different staff positions? >> most disappear in the 70s and 80s and 90s. for the most part, the head coach position becomes executive chef because jacqueline kennedy created that. they were first dominated by african-american women. they didn't have the expertise. >> some of the techniques passed down. >> the one i talked about was the last one to leave the kitchen and was an interim chef because they couldn't handle it anymore. johnson would ask them to make not chose. you have heard of chili case case of. in the transition while he was looking for another chef, she runs the kitchen and gets a raise while she is at it but the only other person offered a job with patrick clark, very well-known chef working at the hotel across from the white house but he was auditioning for the white house because the clintons would come over there and eat so he gets offered the job that turns it dow but turnee there was too much of a pay cut. at that time it was around 58,000 or something like that and he had four kids so it was easy math. >> the different administrations and presidencies that you write about try to present an image and the extent even early with washington then there are people like thomas jefferson like whatever that just go out extravagant. >> most people don't know this but before president truman, people had to pay for their staff entertaining out of their own pocket. they were often wealthy but the ones that were not, abraham lincoln and ulysses s. grant would do their shopping at the army commissary to make ends meet. >> the reason i ask about the staff and legacy, they fired the entire staff that had history there. >> i think that as alternative news. what is happening right now because they haven't actually hired anybody yet, you have holdovers from the administration in the kitchen and the three african-americans that are on staff are probably still in the kitchen and it's hard because we don't know what is going on. one got the job as the chef during the second term and cooked throughout the entire terms of president obama. before we wrap up to you want to talk about obama? >> it's interesting in the garden and the push for healthy eating. what is interesting about them if they were a couple that eight outside of the white house quite a bit and supported the restaurant thing. people ask what happens when the president goes to eat outside of the white house. >> if there was a picnic that would have been romantic. >> what they do is the secret service goes into a secure the kitchen and get everybody there. they have to make sure everybody can be there and no one else can come in after that and the other interesting thing is reportedly, there is a chef on the secret service preparing the food and they are armed while they are doing this. if you watch top chef and they talk about the elimination challenge -- [laughter] a lot of them are to make the president comfortable he was a longtime butler who became the maître d' and during the truman administration. if you know about the old-fashioned it is essentially bourbon and whiskey garnished with some kind of citrus. so they ask for these a lot of pride they make this old-fashioned, he takes one step and said we are not used to the old-fashioned beating this week so the next night he reconfigures the formula, makes the drink, serves it, this tastes like fruit punch. he was a little hurt so the next night he decides to serve straight bourbon. [laughter] >> he takes one slip and says that's how we like ours. [laughter] >> some of these recipes are slamming. i don't know about the presidential pickle -- [laughter] that recipe washe b tb. >> that is a war of bush hatredd and if you go to the website in dallas texas it is on the menu. it's really good. did you already have the chance i highly recommend it and that is a great read and a way to learn stuff that is documented. our involvement in the foundation we talked about the famous enslaved family history. he was literate, where are all of the pictures and things. >> my hope is as word gets out about the puck, but presidential chefs whthe presidentialchefs we their stories will realize they are a part of this legacy. i'm going to keep a website going to chronicle this information and have an active database of people because if you look in the book i write down the names we know of that have worked for a particular president and you will see some administrations have a couple of names and some have several and i hope to keep adding on to that list. at least that they are known. >> it's so important. that's why there is so much synergy between what you're doing because they are important and sacrifice a lot and contribute a lot. they give away a lot and gets no credit. then you talk about how some of the recipes are not documented but he also have to remember they are documented by authors that have to be a detective sometimes to find where the philosophies still live on. often americans would come back and talk about southern cooking so often they wear the face of american cooking and when they were bragging about the cooking that is who they brought forth so that's why this woman is very important. she is a free woman by a racial who had to be talked into working at the white house kitchen and benjamin harrison does so because his friends recommend dolly johnson and was traveling around having dinner with colonel mason's place. there is one big problem there was a french woman that had that job. she filed a lawsuit and went to the press, so this is the first time that a staffer sued the president. it gets resolved and they go to the press to talk about how they worked but dolly johnson gets the job and is celebrated in headlines all about the country they see her full name and he is one of the few samples of a cook that leaves the white house and trades on her own name. it sounds like they do not discourage her with this whole thing which i have a whole different perspective on that. we look forward to continuing the conversation, not tonight, not right now, but you ask questions and move othequestione rest of the program. thank you so much. 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