FROM THE FOUNDING TABLE TO YOUR KITCHEN
POTUSPLATETHE PRESIDENTIAL TABLEHISTORY IS SERVED.
Presidents/The modern table

PRESIDENT 44 · 2009–2017

At the table with
Barack Obama.

The forty-fourth president grew up in Hawaii and built his political career in Chicago.

Choose a dish ↓
Weeknight beef & bean chili — the modern table

THE HISTORICAL TABLE

The chili Obama said he could cook

Documented meal / preference

At the 2012 Kids’ State Dinner, Obama said he could make a good omelet and a very good chili; Michelle backed up the chili claim. This is a personal cooking connection, not simply a dish served by a presidential chef.

The beef-and-bean chili is the centre of our menu. The burger and peach pie are separate reconstructions of a contemporary American family table, chosen to make the menu work outdoors or for a shared weekend meal. The chili carries the direct presidential testimony.

Behind this story

White House remarks at the Kids’ State Dinner, 2012; modern family-table reconstruction for the other two recipes.