Details Emerge On Rick Bayless' White House State Dinner Menu

[supernova]

AP via HuffPo

At the first family's request, Chicago chef Rick Bayless has been mum on his menu for the state dinner Wednesday to honor Mexican President Felipe Calderon, though he's dropped some hints:

_ He's preparing a black mole sauce that takes days to make from scratch and includes more than 20 ingredients. "It's a really laborious thing," Bayless said. "But for an event like this nothing is too difficult."

_ Herbs and lettuces from the White House garden will be used in at least one course. "We're not sure exactly what we'll get," he said, "but we'll play around with that ..."

_ For dessert, strawberries picked from a local farm will be involved.

More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/18/details-emerge-on-rick-ba_n_580694.html

Bayless also tweeted this am that all the food had arrived. :D

Sounds really good. Wish I was there! :9

[grasswire]

1. this tradition is backwards

Why do they feed a visiting dignitary food indigenous to his/her own country? Why do they not expose him/her to the best American cuisine?

When we go to another country, we certainly don't want to eat our own regional food. We want to experience the other culture.

I can just imagine the visitors yawning. Another mole dinner. Yes, the cachet of the White House, but.....

[supernova]

2. I'm not sure

You would think the guests would like something different (from their perspective.)

[grasswire]

4. for a few years we had a lot of guests from Eastern Europe...

...because a family member was doing humanitarian work in Transylvania and there would be a flow of visitors from Hungary, Romania etc. There would be dinners with them and Americans who supported the humanitarian work. For a time, we cooked food from their culture. Then I realized it was backwards. The next meal we fed them was corn on the cob, baked local white fish caught the day before (they get very little fresh fish), huge green salad (they crave salad greens when not precisely in season there), sliced tomatoes, apple pie....etc.

[Warpy]

3. I always asked the guest of honor what he or she would prefer

and planned accordingly.

I fed hot dogs, scratch baked beans and cornbread to some corporate muckey-mucks from the UK who pronounced them exotic and delicious. They'd requested a typical American meal, so I thought it appropriate to give them what mothers cook when the money runs out at the end of the week. And yes, I did tell them what they were eating.

The Obamas are classy people and I'd expect them to have inquired beforehand.

[Tesha]

6. I think it's mean as an honor...

... to say we value their society.

Remember that this isn't the only meal he'll be eating while in the US, I'll be he'll get plenty of chance to eat hot dogs if he wants.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. He is making an authentic mole

not what some people like to pass for one... I AM OFFICIALLY IMPRESSED.