Test . At what point . Andre usually three months, roughly three months prior to the function itself. Depends on their ski squle and our schedule but we always work it out. Chef andre, you have 23,000 square feet of kitchen, the largest kitchen in washington, d. C. Does it get crowded on the night of the Correspondents Dinner . Andre it is crowded. Who is in here . Andre we have a lot of celebrities who want to be back of the house but at the same time weve got so many cooks and people working that evening, whether it be from the management teaming all the team members, were looking at roughly 400 people that are here to assist on that evening. Does that include servers . Andre that includes servers. How many people are out on the floor . Andre about 200 servers on the loor, then mate reds maitre ds that oversee the front of the house. And about 200 people back here then . Andre about that. Where are you that snevpk andre running around. We were just talking about how many steps i do and the white house Correspondents Dinner is definitely the most. 24,000 steps that day. All over the place. Whether it be in the pastry shop, butcher shop, the preparation of cold food area, on the hot side, working on hors doeuvres, making sure the secret service is ok. Make sure that were ready for them to inspect our kitchen. Working backwards on a timeline to feed that many people. How much time do we need for the steaks to go in and actually cook . So theres a lot that goes into it. Theres a lot of high profile people that come to the hilton on a regular basis so youre probably used to that part, but where do you source your food . Is that a secret . Are the secret service involved in your preparation . Andre as far as the food goes, we have primarily two vendors we source most of the food through and that as soon as the tasting is over, i actually sit down and thats when the ordering of the food takes place. So it took place three months ago because we want to make sure theres the correct aging on the beef for the dinner that night. Produce comes from anywhere from california, meat usually from colorado or idaho, somewhere in that area. Vegetables, again, florida, california, the majority of it. Theres a lot that goes into it. What about the secret service . Are they participating or keeping an eye on everything going on that night . Andre they do. And the thing with secret service is, they kind of take our lead but at the same time we take their lead. Meaning that we know our employees, who should be here, who should not be here. So as far as, you know, working together, we work well together. As far as overseeing production of the food, they will walk around, inspect things, check on products, etc. When it comes time to actually serving the dinner, the president s dinner is usually picked out of the 2,700 we produce that night. So hes eating the same food as a random guest . Andre they randomly select from the starter, desserts, as well as the entree. How far are we from the actual ballroom right now . Andre youre probably about 40 yards from the ballroom. Are the servers taking the food from this area or from this kitchen, bringing it out to the ballroom . Andre the kitchen actually backs up to the ballroom. Its only about 10 yards from the entrance to the ballroom, which makes it convenient, but also efficient. Chef andre, your employees here, to work at the washington hilton because of the high profile events that go on here, do they have to be especially checked, background checked . Andre i honestly couldnt answer that question. However, i do know that everybody that walks in to the kitchen once we turn it over to the secret service, everybody is checked. Whats going through the secret service line. What about special orders . A lot of people have food llergies, etc. , gluten free. Andre in my 11 years, this is actually my 12th dinner, we have a lot of special requests. And its challenging that night because we try to take care of so many people and when somebody comes across and says, i, i only eat things that are dark shade, ok, well right now my brain is not working. Whats a dark shade . What do you mean by that . Ive got somebody else that needs their food pureed. Ive got special vee began diet. I would say theres probably 100 to 150 special requests that evening. And it presents a challenge because we but we do the best we can. What if you are one of the guests in the 1,000plus rooms here at the washington hilton and you want a grilled chicken and a bowl of soup, will you be able to get it that night . Andre they will. Well have the restaurant kitchen and room service appropriately staffed. Well have six cooks up there and three pantry persons up there. Working and room service will probably have, probably a staff of 15 that evening. Whether its room service or ala cart or the people that like to watch, you know, there in mccullens bar, theyll be able to order bar food, whatever they want. Thats all done in a separate kitchsnn andre yes, which is up ne floor, right off the lobby, theres a restaurant and bar. Chef an tray in the 12 years youve been doing this dinner has anything ever gone wrong or awry that you can tell us about . An tray weve actually had a lot go wrong. Part of my job and my assistants job is to look into the future, what possibilities are there for something to go wrong . We actually take the menu and we think backwards. What happens if we break 50 plates . What happens if we forget to light a hot box . We kind of backtrack through the whole menu to make sure we try minimize those. Now, we have had things like, all of a sudden an oven got tired. Then where we put a French Onion Soup in the oven and all of a sudden the oven wasnt working. Thats when you have to use the resources in the kitchens, all the kitchens, to be able to produce the food. So what we did was use the pastry ovens, we took some up to the restaurant kitchen. We were able to minimize any exposure. Having attended this dinner, its very crowded in that ballroom and it is tight spaces. Whats the advice that you give to servers to get through . Andre be patient. Thats the biggest thing. And you know, from my standpoint, i dont see what goes on once they enter the ballroom. Because im so busy back here. We keep working until 11 00 at night, 12 00 at night, whether it be up in the restaurant or room Service Orders or theres after parties that go on. So from a kitchen standpoint, were not closing down. Were going to ill be here by 5 00 in the morning that morning, only because the anxiety is setting in. I start going through my checklist and, you know, double checking everything that ive done up to that point to make sure im ready. Its a long day but at the same time its a lot of fun system of getting back to the original question with the servers, that day will be roughly 1,500 employees in our cafeteria employees in our cafeteria also. A lot of people only see the white house Correspondents Dinner, youve got all the people that have been here all day, housekeepers working hard to turn the rooms over, the bellmen, the doormen, all the people working in the restaurant, because the restaurant, theres probably 3,000 people that day. So if you take all of that, theres a lot more that goes into it than just the white house Correspondents Dinner. Its actually planning for the cafeteria, how can we expedite service . How can we make sure were able to feed all those employees that are working the dinner. 12 years that means george w. Bush and barack obama have been your two president s. Have you had the chance to meet either one of them . Andre no, unfortunately. I hope one day i get a picture one with with one of the president s. I think that would be nice. But no, i dont get to meet them. I have season mrs. Obama walk through the kitchen quickly a couple of times. On her way to this event or other events . To other events. But thats it. Whats your biggest worry . Andre failure. What kind of failure . Andre just anything that i didnt think of something that could go wrong and does go wrong. At it is a high profile group. But every group here, i would say half of them are high profile system of from a chefs standpoint youre concerned from, you know, last week, two weeks ago, to groups coming in, maybe get a little less sleep with white house Correspondents Dinner but you know, i dont stress over it. Ou didnt know i was 90. I just walk through the process, every process, every step that we do that day, i go over 20, 30 times in hi head prior to the unction even happening. Im re. In the creative process, when you say, ok for the taste test, lets try this, do you does this get to stretch your wings as a chef a little bit . Do you get to play a little bit coming up with the menu . Andre i think the first five years i did it it was kind of mechanical. So to speak. And as a chef i didnt, you know, push myself to be a little more creative. And i think this year, i think people will be very pleased, or more pleased, maybe, than they have been in the past with the creativity that we put forth. And im learning, im also learning as a chef. As im doing this for 40 years, every day i walk in here i learn something new. Not a lot of people can say that but as a chef you take what you learn every day and you push yourself to try something new every day. And then the next day, ok, youre going to try for 400. Were going to try Something Different for 1,200 people. Then you get up to 2,00 people. And youre trying to be unique and different. Thats what you know as a chef that youre doing your job right. This is president obamas last year in office, his last white house Correspondents Dinner. Anything to mark that odecision . Andre from my perspective, it is an honor. You know, im a military brat. And for me, you know, i was raised with respecting the position, no matter who it was, democrat or republican. For me its an honor to be here, to be part of the white house Correspondents Dinner. And be known as the chef that, you know, help prod deuce this meal. It truly is chef andre, your client is not the white house necessarily in this case. Your client is the white house correspondents association. Andre correct. And shame on me for referring to the president. But i guess i get a little excited that hes here. The white house Correspondents Dinner is, theyre the nice people on the committee they want to do the best for the group, the organization. And my job is to make their job a little bit easier. Even when i do the menu, what can i do, how can i do it . Make their Decision Making process a little bit easier. This dinner is being held on april 30, 2016. When will planning for 2017 begin . Andre rment the day after. Andre the day after. In all sincerity. What we do at the hotel is we get together, we discuss what went well. What didnt go well. What we need to do, whether it be from, you know, we didnt have somebody stationed in a certain area of the hotel to direct people. Peoplei not staff enough in the restaurant kitchen for the business we had for room service or the bar or the restaurant. So we go over everything the day after and then the day after that, were actually we actually start planning for 2017s dinner. So its nonstop. Andre cote the executive chef here at the washington hilton. Its known as one of washingtons premier events, bringing together government officials, member os they have press and hollywood stars. Cspan has live coverage of the 2016 white house Correspondents Dinner this saturday starting at 6 00 p. M. Eastern. Our live coverage from the Washington Hilton Hotel includes red carpet arrivals, background on the dinner and award presentations. 2,700 people are expected to attend this years sold out dinner. Larry willmore, host of the nightly show will headline. Watch beginning saturday at 6 00 p. M. Eastern live on cspan. Earlier today, president obama participated in White House College reporter day. Student journalists from universities around the country asked the president questions on college affordability, Student Loans and civic education. His is 40 minutes. President obama i hear theres some hot shot journalists here. Josh was speaking for me, i wanted to make sure he was getting it right. How is it going, everybody . Are you guys having an interesting time here . Was josh thorough in his briefing . I heard you guys were around today so i wanted to stop by and say hello. I also have a bit of breaking news for you and then i might take some questions. I heard overheard josh talking about Student Loans, i know thats a big priority for a lot of your listeners and readers and thats one of the reasons why my administration has spent a lot of time focused on college affordability. So we expanded pell grants, lets make sure that more young people could access it. We created the pay as you earn program that ensures that people can cap the amount that theyre repaying on their leans each month so young people who want to go into jobs that dont arent as lucrative are still able to pursue their passions and their dreams while managing their debt load. Today i want to announce that were aiming to enroll two million more people in pay as you earn by this Time Next Year and you can find out how at studentloans. Gov repay. Thats studentloans. Gov repay. Were also going to be making some additional announcements about how were going to get our agencies coordinating so that as young people are managing their student loan debt, theres one stop shopping they can figure out how to do it and they can make sure that their Consumer Protections in terms of how theyre being treated in the repayment process. While i have you here, i might as well mention a couple of other things. You may have heard theres a Supreme Court vacancy. For those of you who have been studying our system of government, we have three branches and one of the most important is the judiciary. And right now our Supreme Court is absent one sitting member, with the passing of justice scalia. I have nominated an individual named merrick garland, currently the chief judge on the d. C. Circuit court of appeals, the second most Important Court in the land. By all accounts hes extremely well qualified and traditionally whats happened is that the senate then exercising its constitutional duties to advise and consent will meet with the judge and then have a hearing for him and then having a and then have a vote. In part because of poll because politics have got son polarized lately, so far at least the republican leader on the senate side, mitch mcconnell, has refused to have the Republican Caucus meet with him and schedule an actual vote. Although to their credit, there have been a number of republicans who have broken ranks and gone ahead and met with judge garland. I mention this because i think its important for all of you, while youre in town, and many of you who are going to end up being journalists covering Important National policy, to recognize that our system only works when, even when we have big disagreements, even when there are big policy distributes, theres still a willingness to follow the rules and treat people fairly. Especially those who are on the other side of the debate. Thats something thats been lost a little bit in this town of late and as i said at my state of the Union Address, my hope is, is that despite some of the unusual rhetoric that weve been hearing during this president ial campaign, that its young people like you who are going to restore that sense of us being able to Work Together and make this democracy function effectively and journalists play a Critical Role in that. Sometimes both josh and i probably have our disagreements with the press corps. And feel picked on or misunderstood. But the truth of the matter is, and ive said this before, what separates us in part from a lot of other countries in the world weve got this incredible free press that pokes and prods and calls into account our leaders. And that is how we can make sure that leaders accountable to the people who elect them. And thats how we make sure that you dont see major abuses of power, and when you do, that in fact the American People know about it and are able to make changes. And so you guys are going to have a Critical Role, those of you who end up following journalism. I hope many of you do. I want to thank the White House Press corps because i understand they gave you a lot of time today and some of the best journalists in the country operate here. I normally dont say nice things about them in front of them but i figured since they took the time to work with you today i wanted to make sure to acknowledge the great work that they are doing. All right. So with that, im going to take a couple of questions. All right, lets see. Well start with that young man there in the black suit. Or right here in the red tie. But i may get to you too. Mr. President , its a pleasure to meet you. My name is dan, im editor in hief of the daily fargo, the second Oldest College newspaper in the United States. We recently ran a student referendum to keep our presence on campus. We passed and were allowed to continue publishing and were going to reach a historic 150 years of publication. President obama thank you very much. Congratulations. Thank you very much. Im a little nervous now. President obama never admit youre nervous. Youre doing great. I was wondering, would you be interested in being interviewed by our newspaper. President obama thats a good use of your time right there. You know, i have to say that normally i coordinate carefully with my press team before we rant interviews but i am favorably disposed toward giving you a little bit of time. It may not be a really long interview but i figure, give the College Newspaper a little bit of play. So, all right. Young lady right here. My question is, you announced the other day youll be visiting flint, michigan, based on a letter from young girls wha