Food carries powerful symbolism, and nowhere is this more clearly seen than at the White House dinner table, which marries American culinary culture and politics. Even humble chocolate chip cookies are analyzed when they involve the presidency: the 1992 campaign produced dueling recipes between Barbara Bush and Hillary Clinton to credential them as “First Mom.”
From the Founding Fathers’ continental tables, through the gargantuan meals of the larger-than-life Ulysses S. Grant and William H. Taft, to Dwight Eisenhower’s “common man” TV tray dinners and Richard Nixon’s spartan cottage-cheese and ketchup, the First Table reflects both presidential personality and political exigencies. All occupants of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue grapple with setting a table appropriate to the office. Some of our presidents, most notably Thomas Jefferson, were avid gastronomes, sparing no expense in the pursuit of epicurean delights that also needed to impress visitors to the new country. Others, like Calvin Coolidge and Jimmy Carter, elected in uncertain economic times, were frugal by nature and merely ate to live. Coolidge scrutinized White House food bills and claimed that the greatest disappointment of his presidency was the White House hams: after carving slices from a large joint to serve the President and Mrs. Coolidge, the butler whisked the ham away. Coolidge could never learn what happened to the leftovers.
