http://tinyurl.com/mtypjn

He walks the garden and cooks with Sam Kass.
--

modom

On Sep 13, 10:26 am, "modom (palindrome guy)" >
wrote:
> http://tinyurl.com/mtypjn
>
> He walks the garden and cooks with Sam Kass.
>
A story out of Washington that is completely sensible. How
bizarre. -aem

"aem" > wrote in message
...
> On Sep 13, 10:26 am, "modom (palindrome guy)" >
> wrote:
>> http://tinyurl.com/mtypjn
>>
>> He walks the garden and cooks with Sam Kass.
>>
> A story out of Washington that is completely sensible. How
> bizarre. -aem
>
Someone out there is sure to see it as the White House/Government
interfering in our lives. There are bound to be picket signs tomorrow
telling Obama to stay out of our kitchen.
Janet

On Sep 13, 2:24 pm, "Janet Bostwick" > wrote:
> "aem" > wrote in message
>
> ...> On Sep 13, 10:26 am, "modom (palindrome guy)" >
> > wrote:
> >>http://tinyurl.com/mtypjn
>
> >> He walks the garden and cooks with Sam Kass.
>
> > A story out of Washington that is completely sensible. How
> > bizarre. -aem
>
> Someone out there is sure to see it as the White House/Government
> interfering in our lives. There are bound to be picket signs tomorrow
> telling Obama to stay out of our kitchen.
> Janet

The story is sensible, that doesn't mean all the readers will
be. :-) -aem

modom (palindrome guy) > wrote:

> http://tinyurl.com/mtypjn
>
> He walks the garden and cooks with Sam Kass.

I wonder how much the Obamas are interested in the actual food to be put
on the table vs. nutrition policy. On their Paris visit some months
ago, they went out to eat at La Fontaine de Mars, apparently recommended
by the American ambassador. The place, one of my favourites, is a
bistro specialising in southwestern dishes and wines. So, what did they
both order? The most boring - by far - dish on the menu: fillet of beef
with béarnaise sauce and French fries. Why they bothered to go out at
all is a mystery to me. They could have had that filet at the embassy,
in Washington, or anywhere else in the world. The kitchen staff is said
to have been annoyed by the Obama's food taster hanging around in the
kitchen.

There are varying accounts of what they ordered, some saying that Barack
Obama had lamb (all say that Michelle had the fillet), but I have taken
some pains to dig through all of them, since I really like that bistro
and did not want to believe it was the boring beef fillet. It was
apparently the fillet in both cases.

Here is the _carte_ of the bistro:
http://www.fontainedemars.com/download/carte-25.pdf>

Victor

On Sun, 13 Sep 2009 14:04:51 -0700 (PDT), aem >
wrote:

>On Sep 13, 10:26 am, "modom (palindrome guy)" >
>wrote:
>> http://tinyurl.com/mtypjn
>>
>> He walks the garden and cooks with Sam Kass.
>>
>A story out of Washington that is completely sensible. How
>bizarre. -aem

I liked this bit:

"The responsibility of all chefs, of all people who cook, is the care
and well-being of the people they're feeding," says Kass as we mosey
around the garden planning a late-afternoon meal that we'll share with
a couple of White House staffers. "Whether it's in a restaurant, at
home, or here, it's the same: You have to nourish and sustain.
Whenever we put food on plates, we have to take that into account."
--

modom

modom (palindrome guy) wrote:

>
> Of course, the waiter does say everybody had beef except the Prez. AND
> he seems to be the source for your food taster story! So you are
> right, according to him, except for the gigot d'agneau.
>
> Not sure where that leaves us.
>


Why should it matter one bit? It was one meal, one day.
Does it reflect on his foreign policy or sumthin?

:-(
gloria p

On Sun, 13 Sep 2009 23:30:24 GMT, Wayne Boatwright
> wrote:

>I can't see why anyone would be that interested or, FTM, critical. It was
>only a meal in a restaurant, not a state dinner.

And even if it were a state dinner, the food would likely be of much
less importance than the seating arrangements, I'd hazard. Unless
there were a dietary law kerfuffle with some of the guests.

Still Victor raised a significant point to the extent that a number of
people determined to eat a healthy (and/or sustainably raised and/or
locally sourced) diet appear to care rather less about culinary
excellence than about those other factors. In these Alice
Waters-flavored times that may be less so than earlier, but I have
known plenty of people who loved their unsalted steamed cauliflower
with yogurt and sesame seeds more than I'd thought proper. (Salt was
too yin or yang or schlong or dong or yoni or lingam or something, I
forget.) There can emerge a kind of Puritanism which is all to
satisfied with moral rigor and deeply suspicious of pleasure.

One thing I noticed in Bittman's article was that he praised the
flavors of what he and Kass cooked up in the White House kitchen.
Healthy and tasty -- these would seem to be two very good qualities in
a meal. I believe it was Bittman's point, in part, to suggest that one
use of the President's (and First Lady's) bully pulpit should be to
encourage such eating habits for other Americans. This would be a nice
change from a dour command to "Eat it; it's good for you" to a more
tempting entreaty: "This food is flavorful, local and good for you."

At least it seems to make sense to me tonight.
--

modom

On 2009-09-13, modom (palindrome guy) > wrote:

> Not sure where that leaves us.

With the usual dish of red herring.

nb