Asian Heritage Chefs in White House History: Cooking to the President’s Taste (Adrian Miller, Deborah Chang)

The first ever history of the many Asian Heritage chefs who have prepared meals for the presidents at the White House, at State Dinners, on Presidential Yachts, and at Camp David. From navy stewards to Executive White House Chefs, the presidential service of these chefs extends back more than a century and continues to the present day, yet many of their names are largely unknown.

Two-time James Beard award winner Adrian Miller was inspired to uncover and share their stories after discovering the extraordinary but long out-of-print biography of Lee Ping Quan who served President Warren G. Harding and then President Calvin Coolidge aboard the presidential yacht USS Mayflower.

Miller was inspired not only to make Quan’s story available again, but to expand the story to include experiences of many Asian Heritage chefs who have served the presidency. He explains that he was able to identify presidential chefs with roots in China, Japan, the Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand.

With a representative, rather than a comprehensive, approach, Miller draws out the unique stories the Asian Heritage chefs whose culinary accomplishments and devotion to service combine to create a powerful chapter in America’s culinary history.

Miller opens the book with chapters on immigrants who entered the U.S. Navy and were assigned to the culinary operations on presidential yachts and continues on to an in-depth focus on Lee Ping Quan’s life story. He then explores the stories of Asian Heritage chefs who cooked at presidential retreats, the Vice President’s Residence, and the Navy Mess in the West Wing and concludes with profiles of Asian Heritage Executive, Guest and Staff White House Chefs who bring the story to the present day.

Miller’s research is enriched by the biographies, memoirs, cookbooks, and news coverage of the early chefs, and by his own interviews with former and current White House chefs. We learn that each chef has taken a unique path to the American dream, but they share remarkable talents, a devotion to excellence, and a pride in their service.

Through Deborah Chang, who selected and shaped sixty recipes that can be made in a twenty-first-century home kitchen, we see that featured chefs specialize not only in Asian dishes but also in creative approaches to fusion cuisine, healthy choices, and American classics such as fried chicken and chocolate cream pie.