How do Whitehouse kids learn to cook? I know they’re in a bubble and all, but that seems quite the life skill to bypass.
And the follow-up question - if they cook for themselves, who cleans up after them? Do they have to load and unload the dishwasher themselves?
We always marveled at the mess Julia Child made on her shows - “I’d hate to have to clean up after her…”
I remember seeing a documentary on the Clinton family back when the Clinton Administration was winding down, and they showed the private quarters of the White House. I remember them being tastefully decorated* (by 1990’s standards). They had a sun room that was decorated in tropical colors that apparently Bill & Chelsea considered a special place where just the two of them would hang out.
*Except the back yard. Hillary had hired some sculptor to put in some abstract “art” that was ghastly. I’m going to assume that Laura Bush had someone plant some lovely tulips or something in their spot once Hillary was out of town.
By contrast, his predecessor famously never used the kitchen in the residence, repeatly declaring with vehemence, “I am not a cook!”
President makes $400,000 a year and gets an allowance of $50,000 that is not taxed to defray the costs in the performance of his duties. His retirement will be $199,700 per year.
I took it to mean that if, say, Mrs. Obama asks for three bunches of kale, the Secret Service would get it for her, but they might buy it at 10:30 AM from Joe’s Corner Grocery or at 1:45 PM from Whole Foods.
I suspect he had little faith that he could get it the way he wanted it any other way.
It just means that the shopping is not done on a predictable schedule. Let’s say I have someone do my grocery shopping every Thursday at the most convenient Whole Foods around 6pm and I’m known to be a fan of kale. Want to poison me? Go to that Whole Foods on Thursday at around 5:45ish and poison the kale on display. It’s a little harder if my grocery shopping might be done any day , any time and at any supermarket, convenience store or wholesale club within 20 miles of my house.
And moreover, what do they charge him?
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Do they charge him the cost of the groceries used to make the food?
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Do they charge him some arbitrary synthetic number that has nothing to do with the real costs? (say, they charge him the price per meal that an officer mess in the military charges per meal)
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Do they charge him the cost of the ingredients + the labor of the cooks but nothing else?
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Or, do they charge him the true costs - the costs of the chefs, the secret service escorts during the grocery runs, everything. They add up all the costs of running the kitchen and divide by the number of meals.
I don’t think the taxpayers pay the President nearly enough for #3 or #4. I would suspect it’s just #2, where it’s an arbitrary $6 a meal or something.
Wasn’t there something during the Nixon administration about an opened can of strawberries going missing?
Supposedly, Clinton would go jogging and stop at a McDonalds. I always wondered how they secured that. I mean, sheesh, McDonalds food is already poison even before the minimum wage burger flipper in the back who voted for Bush gets his hands on it…
He did have a heart attack a few years later and was forced to lose serious weight.
Heh. “that’s odd. The president seems to only eat 1 meal a day, charged to his account. Also, on an unrelated note, food keeps going missing from the kitchens…”
I think the WH main kitchen also serves the East and West Wings, which is not a dozen people, so the president’s family meal charges would probably be in line with what staff get charged. Probably enough to cover parts, labor and a tad bit of management. Probably not Chez Arsenique prices, but probably more than mickey-d’s.
Did that involve measuring it out with spoonfuls of sand to figure out how much was unaccounted for?
Good point. I’m also wondering why they couldn’t source most food through the already existing and extensive system of federal contractors. Some foods are presumably already “in the pipeline” for military, etc. use and one could easily order a little more. For other things, the government could put out an RFP for e.g. two pounds of Canadian bacon and get bids from Lockheed and SAIC.
I kid you not.
“One important thing to note is that the President has to pay for almost all of his own food. The First Family will decide what groceries they need and the Secret Service will shop for the groceries. To ensure the President’s safety, the Secret Service randomly shops at various grocery stores when stocking the President’s kitchens or purchasing the food for Air Force One.”
The whole article is good and covers this question very well.
I understand Jack Ford had himself a sort of apartment set up on the 3rd floor. I suspect he and Jimmy Carter’s sons might have come down with a case of the spontaneous munchies while staying in the White House. I guess it might have been easier if they sent someone out to pick up some pizza for them before it, um, became necessary.
And I bet there’s a rooftop porch or deck or whatever you’d call it where you could go if you wanted, um, a breath of fresh air. Yeah, that’s the ticket! If you wanted to step outside for a breath of fresh air!
Really. Toast that sat around for the five minutes between the downstairs kitchen and the president’s quarters would be nearly inedible.
I hate you. 
And you.