In today’s Washington Post, the Reliable Source recounts Roland Mesnier’s tales from the White House kitchen. (His memoir, All the Presidents’ Pastries, came out in 2007.) Last Friday, the longtime White House chef brought up Barbara Bush’s insistence on overcooked fish, the gargantuan appetite of Hugh Rodham (I’m shocked), and his love for Nancy Reagan. But one disturbing anecdote involved a recipe from Rosalynn Carter for a molded cheese ring.
Reports the Post,
“That thing was so nasty,” Mesnier told the crowd. “It was a mixture of Muenster, cheddar, all the stickiest cheese you could find, mixed with onions, capers, and strawberry jam in the middle . . . It was a secret family recipe that no one tried to steal.”
It’s important to keep in mind it was the ’70s. (To get a better sense of those times, I recommend James Lileks’s The Gallery of Regrettable Food.)