Please note that the following is a digitized version of a selected article from White House History Quarterly, Issue 64, originally released in print form in 2022. Single print copies of the full issue can be purchased online at Shop.WhiteHouseHistory.org No part of this book may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. All photographs contained in this journal unless otherwise noted are copyrighted by the White House Historical Association and may not be reproduced without permission. Requests for reprint permissions should be directed to rights@whha.org. Contact books@whha.org for more information. © 2022 White House Historical Association. All rights reserved under international copyright conventions.
72
white house history quarterly
JULIA CHILD Goes Behind the Scenes at the White House As Dinner Is Prepared for Queen Elizabeth II S C H L E S I N G E R L I B R A R Y, R A D C L I F F E I N S T I T U T E F O R A D VA N C E D S T U D Y, H A RVA R D U N I V E R S I T Y
alex prud’ h o m m e
when america celebrated its 200th birthday in 1976, President and Mrs. Gerald R. Ford invited Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip to attend as the guests of honor at a white-tie gala at the White House. It was a momentous occasion, and the president wanted to celebrate it in style. The Republican incumbent was mindful that the highly anticipated event could burnish his image ahead of the November election, in which he was hoping to be elected president in his own right. As the Bicentennial approached, Washington, D.C., was in a state of nervous excitement. With dozens of official functions scheduled, First Lady Betty Ford worried the President’s House would be closed to the public for a month.1 Then she and the president upped the ante by inviting Julia Child, Public Television’s “French Chef ” and America’s first celebrity TV cook, to cover portions of the evening live.
white house history quarterly
73
74
1967: BEHIND THE SCENES FOR PBS In 1967 “Julia,” as everyone called her, had filmed a similar program for National Educational Television (NET). Back then, she and her husband Paul Child had pitched a novel idea: to document a behind-the-scenes look at a State Dinner. As former diplomats and celebrity gastronomes, the Childs were uniquely suited to the task of showing “a side of the People’s House that most of the People have never seen,” they said. They aimed to educate the American public about “diplomatic life . . . [and] the tremendous importance that [a State Dinner] plays in our international affairs.”4 Paul explained that a State Dinner “isn’t about spending the tax payers’ money on striped pants and pink champagne. It’s a function of diplomacy, and only the culminating . . . part of a complex series of discussions . . . and agreements involving many parts of government.”5 Their pitch was a long shot. No one had made such a film before, and President Lyndon B. Johnson, bedeviled by the grinding conflict in Vietnam, the Cold War with the Soviet Union, racial strife at
white house history quarterly
previous spread and above
Scenes from Julia Child’s 1967 visit behind the scenes at the White House to document State Dinner preparations. The visit was filmed for the PBS special White House Red Carpet. Julia is seen here observing Chef Henry Haller at work in the Kitchen, reviewing place settings in the State Dining Room with Butler John Ficklin, watching as the White House calligrapher inks the guests’ names on place cards, and visiting with florist Rusty Young in the White House Flower Shop.
S C H L E S I N G E R L I B R A R Y, R A D C L I F F E I N S T I T U T E F O R A D VA N C E D S T U D Y, H A RVA R D U N I V E R S I T Y
Opulent dinners at the Executive Mansion have a long and hallowed history, but the Bicentennial was an extra-special occasion. “Even at the White House, where visits from heads of state have been countless, the presence of Queen Elizabeth aroused a special, almost magical feeling,” recalled Executive Chef Henry Haller.2 A spry, sharp-featured, 53-year-old Swiss, Haller was hired by President Lyndon Johnson in 1966 and would ultimately serve five administrations, the longest tenure of any White House chef. Of all the special occasions he cooked for, the Bicentennial was one of “the most memorable,” Haller recalled. He felt “fortunate” to serve Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip and was “honored to prepare a fine dinner” to celebrate the nation’s 200th birthday.3 The day before the State Dinner the White House lawn was clipped, and the mansion’s doorways were given a fresh coat of paint. In the meantime, Julia Child and a Public Television crew huddled in the Kitchen, a small but efficient space on the Ground Floor, recording a behind-the-scenes look at the enormous effort to create a meal fit for a queen.
S C H L E S I N G E R L I B R A R Y, R A D C L I F F E I N S T I T U T E F O R A D VA N C E D S T U D Y, H A RVA R D U N I V E R S I T Y
home, protesting feminists, angry environmentalists, and untamable rock-’n’-rollers, had largely retreated from public view. But if anyone could sweet-talk the mercurial LBJ, it was Julia. “She could charm a Polecat,” Paul quipped.6 Sensing a chance for positive media attention, the Johnsons agreed to the Childs’s request. On the night of November 14, 1967, the guests of honor, Japanese Prime Minister Eisaku Sat and his wife, along with 190 guests, including businessmen, socialites, diplomats, the St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Bob Gibson, and the actors Kirk Douglas and Ida Lupino, sat down to Chef Haller’s splendid meal: seafood in puff pastry, filet of lamb, and salad with cheese and grapes. “This is an absolutely delicious dinner,” Julia narrated the black-and-white film. (This was before Public Television used video or digital recording in color.) “One of the best dinners I’ve eaten anywhere. . . . If I could do it for six people, I’d be proud indeed.”7 And Paul reported in the Economist: “Many Americans who dislike President Johnson half-believe that dinner at the White House is limited to such gustatory curiosities as Pedernales Chili and enchiladas. Alas for prejudice!
The truth is that official food at the White House is delectable.”8 When Julia’s documentary, White House Red Carpet, aired as a TV special in April 1968, it was hailed as a groundbreaking event. The telecast drew a large audience, provided an intimate glimpse of the White House Kitchen, humanized diplomacy, and demonstrated the public’s hunger for presidential entertaining.
1976: AN ENCORE VISIT BEHIND THE SCENES Hoping to emulate the Johnsons’ success, the Fords invited Julia to make a similar telecast of Queen Elizabeth II’s Bicentennial visit in 1976. This time it would be shot on video in color and was produced by WETA, Washington, D.C.’s Public Television station. Julia was joined by a multicultural cast: Robert (“Robin”) MacNeil, a Canadian newsman who worked for American Public Television would anchor; Jean Marsh, a British actress best known for her role as a maid in Upstairs, Downstairs, would comment on fashion and etiquette; and Frank Gillard, a BBC war correspondent who
white house history quarterly
75
76
and scrolling pink ribbons. The eclectic guest list included Vice President and Mrs. Nelson Rockefeller, Secretary of State and Mrs. Henry Kissinger, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Presidential Assistant Dick Cheney, the British foreign secretary, Lady Bird Johnson, Alistair Cooke, Yehudi Menuhin, Barbara Walters, Willie Mays, Ella Fitzgerald, Dorothy Hamill, and Bill Blass, among others. At the queen’s request, the comedian Bob Hope (born in London as Leslie Townes Hope) and the actor Telly Savalas (who played “Kojak,” a police detective in a hit TV show) were included. The Bicentennial marked the first time Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip had visited America in nineteen years. Wanting the evening to run like clockwork, the White House had choreographed nearly every step of the ninety minute program down to the second: at 8:02 p.m., the queen and Prince Philip would board a limousine at Blair House, The President’s Guest House, where they were staying; at 8:06, they would arrive at the Rose Garden; at 8:10 they would visit the first family in their Private Quarters on the Second Floor of the White House, where they would have a quick
white house history quarterly
With preparations for the July 7, 1976, State Dinner under way, First Lady Betty Ford welcomes Julia Child to the tent in the Rose Garden where dinner would be served. Julia, who would participate in the WETA coverage of the event, is joined by her fellow cast members actress Jean Marsh ( far right), and BBC Correspondent Frank Gillard (seen between Betty Ford and Julia Child). As evidenced by the vacuum cleaner, the outdoor tent was carpeted.
GERALD R. FORD PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY
helped launch Masterpiece Theater, would add historical notes. Most White House dinners include 90–120 guests for dinner, but for the Bicentennial the Fords welcomed 224 guests. That was far too many for the State Dining Room, but Mrs. Ford hit on an inventive solution. Inspired by a dinner the Nixons hosted for returned Vietnam prisoners-of-war under a tent on the South Lawn, and a soiree at the French embassy held in a tent decorated with paintings and crystal chandeliers, she had a large white canvas structure erected over the Rose Garden. To access the tent, guests would pass beneath a 100-foot-long canopy covered with pink Queen Elizabeth roses. Inside, a floor with rugs had been laid on the grass, air-conditioning was installed to ward off humidity, and Japanese paper lanterns were hung from the ceiling to provide a soft, alluring light. Following a pattern established by First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, the Fords seated guests in groups of eight or ten at round tables, each decorated with a centerpiece of summer flowers set on mist-gray tablecloths printed with yellow daisies
C O U R T E S Y H E N R Y A N D C A R O L E H A L L E R A N D FA M I LY
Chef Henry Haller joins First Lady Betty Ford in the Rose Garden tent ahead of the press preview of the set-up for the State Dinner.
cocktail and exchange gifts; at 8:18, they would descend the stairs and proceed into the Rose Garden tent for dinner. But the best-laid plans do go awry. At 5:00 p.m. a heavy wind gusted off the Potomac, thunder rumbled, lightning crackled, and a heavy rain pounded the capital. The violent storm knocked out TV cameras, soaked the tent, swamped the lawn, and reduced the precisely calibrated schedule to soggy shambles. As the White House staff regrouped, Julia and her colleagues redid their hair and dressed in dry clothes, and the show went on. According to protocol, neither the queen nor the president is to be shown eating. Julia decided not to mention that on air, as it would “only disappoint the audience.”9 Instead, the White House Press office allowed two cameras to show a live feed of guests arriving inside the tent, but once the first course was served the producers cut away. To fill time during dinner, Julia and her colleagues used pretaped segments, such as a profile of Queen Elizabeth II, an interview with Prince Philip, and scenes of the royal couple arriving at the White House. In her segment, Julia toured viewers through the tight
White House Kitchen and observed Chef Haller preparing a spectacular banquet. Her Majesty had only one dietary restriction, Haller said: no raw fish. But, he added, “Prince Philip . . . [is] an old Navy man and eats everything.”10 They laughed, but Julia sensed the pressure building. “I’m not at all nervous about this,” Haller said, only half-convincingly, as the sous chefs ribbed each other edgily and girded for dinner as if for battle.11 The meal began with a battalion of waiters sweeping into the tent bearing oval platters of New England Lobster en Bellevue (“a beautiful sight”) accompanied by a sauce rémoulade (a green mayonnaise, made with lemon, mustard, gherkins, capers, tarragon, and chervil). Each platter held enough 4-pound lobsters to serve twenty-five guests. The crustaceans had been boiled in bouillon, and their tail meat sliced into thick medallions that were laid on top of the shells and decorated with red pimiento and black truffles, then glazed with jelly. This presentation was surrounded by a mix of apples, celery, peas, and carrots and topped with lobster claw meat. “Delicious and elegant,” Haller recalled. Lobster en Bellevue is “the perfect dish to serve to a queen.”12 The entrée was boned saddle of New Hampshire veal stuffed with a mixture of ground veal, breadcrumbs, garlic, herbs, cognac, egg, cream, and Worcestershire sauce. The meat was roasted to a perfect light pink color, Julia noticed, and cut on the bias: “just lovely,” she cooed.13 It was served with Arkansas rice croquettes nestled in woven pastry baskets made by sous chef Hans Raffert and blanched broccoli in a sauce Mornay (a hollandaise enhanced with cheese velouté and whipped cream) sprinkled with broiled Parmesan cheese. This was followed by macédoine de legumes, a salad of fresh Maryland vegetables, and a selection of Trappist cheeses. American wines accompanied the meal: a Sterling Chenin Blanc 1972 with the first course; a Beaulieu Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 1968 with the entrée; and a Schramsberg Blanc de Blancs 1973 (a sparkling white that President Richard Nixon took to China) with the dessert course. For dessert, pastry chef Heinz Bender created a Georgia peach custard spiked with brandy and served in fluted vanilla bombes. The bombes were surrounded by fresh raspberries, rosettes of whipped cream, and green marzipan “leaves.” Julia’s pretaped segment showed Haller bustling around the Kitchen, as she narrated in a voice-over:
white house history quarterly
77
78
white house history quarterly
L E F T : S C H L E S I N G E R L I B R A R Y, R A D C L I F F E I N S T I T U T E F O R A D VA N C E D S T U D Y, H A RVA R D U N I V E R S I T Y R I G H T : W H I T E H O U S E H I S T O R I C A L A S S O C I AT I O N
A barefoot Julia Child (left) observes Chef Henry Haller at work preparing Lobster en Bellevue, the first course on the State Dinner menu (above). This scene was one of several pretaped segments shown during WETA’s live broadcast of the State Dinner on July 7, 1976. Haller described the lobster surrounded by apples, celery, peas, and carrots as “delicious and elegant . . . the perfect dish to serve to a queen.”
white house history quarterly
79
80
that the music, and its sexual subtext, was “not suitable for the Queen.”18 Julia was among the skeptics. “I don’t know why they picked something like that,” she griped later. The music didn’t seem to [rise to] the glamorous occasion of the Queen of England having dinner at the White House. I would like to have seen a marvelous musical comedy, or a bit of ballet, or Beverly Sills. . . . [Maybe] because it is an election year, the president decided that he had to show that he wasn’t highbrow—not that anyone has ever accused him of being highbrow. But I just do not care for that very jarring sort of cheap note in the otherwise quite elegant evening.19 As the celebration wound down, the Marine Band struck up a lively Rodgers and Hart medley and the tall, handsome Prince Philip danced with a smiling Betty Ford, dressed in pale green. President Ford danced with Queen Elizabeth II, who wore a sparkling diamond tiara and a yellow dress with a blue sash. Belatedly, the band realized they had played “That’s Why the Lady Is a Tramp” while the queen danced with the president.20 The next day, the press lambasted the “Quaint Spectacle” of the ham-handed broadcast.21 While some viewers complemented the “wonderful
white house history quarterly
In the years following the 1976 Bicentennial State Dinner, Julia Child was a champion of White House culinary quality. She returned to the White House Kitchen on October 21, 1999, during the William J. Clinton presidency. She is seen to the right of Executive Chef Walter Scheib, who served from 1994 to 2005. The position is now held by Cristeta Comerford ( front row, second from left), who succeeded Scheib in 2005. Comerford prepared the State Dinner for Queen Elizabeth II in 2007.
P H O T O B Y R A C H E L L E A R S O N, C O U R T E S Y J O H N M O E L L E R
“It’s a delicious menu, and a sensible one, too.” The chef, she added, “doesn’t have a large staff at the White House, but he’s a master at planning out in advance. . . . They’re lucky to have him.”14 While the Fords and their guests ate in the tent, Julia and her colleagues were sequestered in the East Reception Room, where they huddled over a small black-and-white monitor. They squinted to make out Cary Grant and Lady Bird Johnson arriving, English nationals curtseying before the queen, and the dim interior of the tent. Viewers at home saw more on their large color TV sets than the presenters did from a few feet away, and they ate better, too. Not allowed to taste Haller’s magnificent banquet, Julia and her colleagues slumped before the monitor from 7:45 p.m. until 11:00 p.m., trying to sound enthusiastic while their stomachs grumbled. They pined for a sandwich or a handful of peanuts, but nothing was provided. Nor were they allowed to sample the special wines, which Julia hoped would “bring a note of gaiety and relaxation” to the night. All they were given was warm Coca-Cola. The administration worried it would be criticized for “wasting the taxpayers’ money” by giving the presenters food and drink, Julia fumed in private. “That was a silly and spineless point of view. . . . Bureaucrats are terribly afraid of any kind of criticism at all,” she said. “We were treated like trained animals.”15 Denied a taste of Haller’s lobster and veal, Julia spoke to a guest who left the dinner early and reported that the dinner was “absolutely superb . . . absolutely scrumptious.” Hearing that, Julia sighed, “She seemed like a very intelligent woman, so I believe that they did have a marvelous meal.”16 The event was running forty minutes late when the toasts began. Julia found them “dull” and “full of platitudes,” and the queen gave a “rather stilted and careful” speech.17 Bob Hope’s jokes were forgettable. And then there was the musical entertainment. At the Johnsons’ State Dinner for Prime Minister Sat in 1967, the jazz crooner Tony Bennett prowled the stage like a panther, belted-out hits, and ripped off his jacket in the East Room as the guests cheered enthusiastically. At the Bicentennial dinner, by contrast, music was provided by the Captain and Tennille, a pop duo who played their saccharine hits “Love Will Keep Us Together” and “Muskrat Love.” Prince Philip tapped his toes, but some guests nodded off while others complained
coverage,” far more compared the event to Monty Python’s Flying Circus. One complained that “Your coverage of the State Dinner for Queen Elizabeth has raised the presentation of Starsky and Hutch to the level of creative programming.” Julia was lauded as “the one bright spot in an otherwise dreadful telecast.”22 Stung, the White House Press Office lamented a camera angle obscured by a tree limb, the TV presenters misidentifying important guests, the cheesy music, and the general disorder. “I simply cannot understand why we went to the effort to arrange this live coverage and then have it turn out in such a way that the President could be described as ‘lumbering through a clumsy toast’ and other similar observations,” a senior White House official wrote. “It appeared the White House didn’t know what was going on.”23 (The administration pressured its media adviser, Robert Mead, to resign the next day.) But it was not all bad news. Betty Ford sighed in relief: the tent worked like a charm, and Haller’s meal satisfied everyone. “The Queen was easy to deal with,” the first lady said. “If I hadn’t kept mixing up Your Highness and Your Majesty (he’s His Highness, she’s Her Majesty), I’d give myself four stars for the way that visit went off.”24 And in spite of the rain, bureaucrats, and “Muskrat” music, Julia declared the occasion “a great deal of fun.” Taking the public behind-the-scenes at the Bicentennial was “the kind of thing that I love to do,” she said. “I feel extremely lucky to have had a part in something that is a real event.” Queen Elizabeth II was one of the few celebrities that impressed Julia, and she and her producer Ruthie Lockwood “just felt that we were two lucky girls to join in a dinner for the Queen of England at the White House.”25 Inspired, Julia became a vocal champion and sometime defender of White House food. She recognized the practical and symbolic importance of presidential dining and felt it was her patriotic duty to help publicize it. Declaring that first families are “responsible for the nation’s gastronomic image,” she urged them to spotlight American regional cookery the way French leaders do. “We most certainly must act to preserve our culinary heritages, and what better way to encourage them,” she wrote. “The good news about good food at the White House should be trumpeted far and wide.”26
NOTES This article is based on the author’s The French Chef in America and his forthcoming narrative history of presidential food. 1.
Betty Ford, with Chris Chase, The Times of My Life (New York: Harper & Row, 1978), 224.
2. Henry Haller, with Virginia Aronson, The White House Family Cookbook (New York: Random House, 1987), 208–09 3. Ibid., 208, 210. 4. Ruth J. Lockwood, WGBH producer, to Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson, October 18, 1967, Julia Child Papers, Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. 5. Paul Child to Herb Caen, “Historique of White House Red Carpet,” January 20, 1968, Julia Child Papers, quoted in Alex Prud’homme, The French Chef in America: Julia Child’s Second Act (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2016), 15. 6. Paul Child to Charles Child, quoted in Prud’homme, French Chef in America, 57. 7. Julia Child voice-over, White House Red Carpet, aired April 14, 1968, WGBH, Boston, available at GBH and the Library of Congress as NET Festival; B; White House Red Carpet with Julia Child, American Archive of Public Broadcasting website, www. americanarchive.org. 8. Paul Child, “Cordon Bleu White House: From a Guest Who Went Behind the Scenes,” Economist, April 13, 1968, quoted in Prud’homme, French Chef in America, 17–18. 9. Julia Child, audiotaped report on the Bicentennial, transcript for McCall’s magazine, July 1976, Julia Child Papers, quoted in Prud’homme, French Chef in America, 171. 10. Quoted in Mimi Sheraton, “State Dinner for Queen Elizabeth: 224 Guests—and a Time Clock,” New York Times, July 7, 1976, also quoted in Prud’homme, French Chef in America, 168. 11. Quoted in Prud’homme, French Chef in America, 168, 171. 12. Haller, with Aronson, White House Family Cookbook, 210. 13. Quoted in Prud’homme, French Chef in America, 170. 14. Quoted in Haller, with Aronson, White House Family Cookbook, 210. 15. Julia Child, transcript for McCall’s, quoted in Prud’homme, French Chef in America, 174. 16. Julia Child, transcript for McCall’s, quoted in ibid. 17. Julia Child, transcript for McCall’s, quoted in ibid. 18. Quoted in “Daryl Dragon Obituary,” London Times, January 18, 2019. Daryl Dragon was “the Captain” in the musical duo known as the Captain and Tennille. 19. Julia Child, transcript for McCall’s, quoted in Prud’homme, French Chef in America, 174. 20. Col. John R. Bourgeois, “‘The President’s Own’: A History of the United States Marine Band,” online at http://jrbourgeois.com. See also Prud’homme, French Chef in America, 175–76. 21. Tom Shales, “Quaint Spectacle of a State Dinner,” Washington Post, July 8, 1976. 22. Comments sent to Channel 2 from April Oray, Archibald Murphy, and Mrs. Eugene Klein, courtesy of WGBH, quoted in Prud’homme, French Chef in America, 176–77. 23. Ron Nessen, memorandum to Bob Mead, re. “TV coverage at dinner for the queen,” July 8, 1976, box 300, folder “Television Advisor Resignation,” Ron Nessen Papers, Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum, Ann Arbor, Mich., quoted in Prud’homme, French Chef in America, 177. 24. Ford, with Chase, Times of My Life, 225. 25. Julia Child, transcript for McCall’s, quoted in Prud’homme, French Chef in America, 176. 26. Julia Child, “A White House Menu,” New York Times Magazine, January 16, 1977, 220.
white house history quarterly
81