The dinner begins with a first course of grilled halibut served with tiny, sweet Cape Cod Bay scallops, lightly caramelized and folded into a risotto. The main course, roasted rack of lamb with wild mushrooms, is served with carrots, beets, asparagus and string beans plus a sweet potato flan. For the flan, pureed sweet potatoes were combined with eggs and creams, baked and then topped with light brown sugar crust.
The desert, titled "The Best of Kenya," features coffee ice cream, assorted pastries and 15 giraffes — one for each table — that are made of sugar, but look like glossy one-foot-tall porcelain figurines. It took White House pastry chef Roland Mesnier about 45 minutes to make each of the tan giraffes with brown spot "It's hand-blown — the same way you blow glass — and shaped at the same time," Mesnier said. "They're all very different because they're all handmade. There's no mold or anything like this involved." link
