FROM THE FOUNDING TABLE TO YOUR KITCHEN
POTUSPLATETHE PRESIDENTIAL TABLEHISTORY IS SERVED.
Presidents/Across a growing nation

PRESIDENT 15 · 1857–1861

At the table with
James Buchanan.

The fifteenth president held office immediately before the Civil War.

Choose a dish ↓
Lemon chicken salad — a painted table

THE HISTORICAL TABLE

Chicken salad for an inauguration

Documented meal / preference

Buchanan’s 1857 inaugural celebration gives us a more solid starting point than a disputed favourite. Caterer Charles Gautier supplied a lavish supper that included oysters, meats, chicken salad and ice cream. Chicken salad was part of a public occasion on a scale few home cooks would want to reproduce.

The dish itself scales down beautifully. Poached or roasted chicken, a creamy dressing and a little celery become a cool lunch for four. What connects this bowl to Buchanan is its place on the inaugural table, not a claim about his private appetite.

Behind this story

Accounts of Buchanan’s 1857 inaugural supper and Charles Gautier.