The Guild 4-27-2005 Confections of a Beltway insider

u-dailynews.com ^ | Tuesday, April 26, 2005 | Natalie Haughton

[BigWaveBetty]

Hail to the chef: Former White House pastry guru shares his sweet secrets

Imagine spending almost 25 years in the White House pastry kitchen as the executive pastry chef for five presidents and first families, doing your work surrounded by pounds of butter, chocolate, cream, fresh fruits and sugar. While the job may sound like a dessert lover's dream, it's not always as sweet as it seems.

Just ask French-born patissier Roland R. Mesnier, who retired last July. Lately he's been traveling throughout the country promoting his first cookbook, "Dessert University" (Simon & Schuster; $40), which took four years to write with help from Lauren Chattman. The 545 pages are filled with all kinds of show-stopping desserts, many from his White House years.

During his time in the White House (1980-2004) he designed and created some 3,000 different desserts with the help of one full-time assistant.

"It was a great challenge. I didn't have much of a personal life for 25 years," Mesnier says.

He was in charge of ordering all the pastry ingredients and arranging for pickup. "There was no delivery at the White House - and all vendors were checked by the Secret Service."

Starting with Nancy Reagan, Mesnier presented dessert tastings to the first ladies for approval, prior to state dinners. After a lot of research, he always tried to include something in his desserts that reflected the invited leader's country. For instance, blown-sugar giraffes for Kenya, flower leis made of sugar for the Philippines, tiny chocolate replicas of Big Ben for England, and a white tiger out of white chocolate and a lotus flower out of sorbets for India.

"Mesnier never repeated the same dessert in all the state dinners," notes Francois Dionot, owner/founder/president of the culinary school L'Academie de Cuisine in Bethesda, Md., who has known the pastry guru for 30 years. "To me, he is the king of sugar work - spun sugar, poured sugar, rock sugar, pulled sugar. Very few people know how to do this anymore. He makes roses that look real."

Mesnier was known for making cakes just so he could put them under a sugar piece. "He's very talented in everything in desserts," says Dionot.

Every first lady put her stamp on the White House - and Mesnier says he's enjoyed them all.

"Mrs. (Rosalynn) Carter spent less time worrying about what was served at a dinner party, but she loved desserts," he says. During Nancy Reagan's time, "the White House became a showcase of grand cuisine. She was determined to have new desserts for every dinner, and she was very demanding."

Mesnier recalled the time, two days before the arrival of the queen of the Netherlands for a state dinner for 150 people, that Nancy Reagan rejected four different desserts. She told him to make 14 sugar baskets decorated with half a dozen sugar tulips and filled with assorted sorbets and fresh fruit. She then said, " 'Don't forget you have two days and two nights,' " Mesnier remembers. The chef pulled it off without any help: "Mrs. Reagan made me a better pastry chef," he says.

With the witty and smart Barbara Bush, "the house took on a different dimension - with children laughing, dogs barking, etc. She didn't make waves with what was served.

"The Clintons, very charismatic people, were very casual - and the only family that ate in the kitchen. Mrs. (Hillary) Clinton was very political - it was like having a second president in the White House." During their eight years, the number of people invited to the White House increased dramatically, as did Mesnier's work load. Mrs. Clinton favored leaner cuisine and plated service for desserts.

"First lady Laura Bush is meticulous - and the house is sparkling," he says. "She has a great knowledge of food and how it should be prepared and (how it should) taste."

Over the years, Mesnier has focused on reducing calories in desserts but without sacrificing flavor. His strategies include reducing sugar, butter, cream and eggs, using low-fat or regular milk instead of cream and sometimes cornstarch to make a thicker base.

"There are at least 50 recipes (out of 300) in the book that would qualify as low-calorie desserts."

His penchant for desserts dates back to the summer fruit tarts of every color and flavor he enjoyed during his childhood. "My mother was a wonderful chef - an unbelievable home cook."

His five golden rules for making great desserts: "Learn the basics and then practice, practice, practice; respect the classics; value economy and simplicity; focus on flavor; and be an artist, develop your talent."

CHEF PROFILE ...

ROLAND R. MESNIER

Age: 60.
Profession: Pastry chef.
Hometown: Bonnay, France.
Food background: Mesnier began a three-year apprenticeship in a pastry shop near his home at age 14. He went on to stints as a pastry cook/assistant in pastry shops and hotels in Paris, Germany (Hannover and Hamburg) and London. Eventually, he became head pastry chef at the Princess Hotel in Bermuda.

After a stint at The Homestead, a resort in Hot Springs, Va., he landed the ultimate pastry job: In December 1979, Rosalynn Carter hired him to be the White House pastry chef - and for almost 25 years his desserts were on view to the world - until he retired in July 2004. Kitchen secret: Work with all of your ingredients at room temperature (including eggs).

Three favorite foods: A good steak, a good apple pie a la mode, honey ice cream.

Favorite junk foods: A good hamburger and a good doughnut.

Foods he hates: Cilantro, dill, onions.

Secret food passion: A good pate.

Favorite kitchen gadget: A homemade cherry pitter (made with a wine cork and a ladies' hairpin).

Pet peeve: Mediocrity in the hotel and pastry industry. Ideal vacation: Alaska.

Favorite restaurant: Jean Marc Raynud in Tain L'Hermitage (near Lyon), France.

Pastimes: Fishing, gardening, cultivating roses, working on recipes for upcoming cookbooks (a cake volume is in the works).

Family: Wife, Martha, and a 35-year-old son, George. If he couldn't be a pastry chef, what would he be?: An actor.

Worst White House kitchen disaster: The time the eggs for the hot raspberry souffles for a state dinner wouldn't whip (guests were in the dining room). "I was sweating bullets (and could visualize this as my last day at the White House)." But fortunately, he started with new egg whites, adding sugar to them instead of an Italian meringue, to gain time, and the souffles came out beautifully. Worst part of being the White House pastry chef: "The inside politicking among the White House staff."

[BigWaveBetty]

JIMMY CARTER - Carter liked low-calorie desserts such as a yogurt and fresh fruit tart, but he also splurged on chocolate cake and strawberry napoleons.

RONALD REAGAN - Reagan had a sweet tooth. "He was a chocolate lover and loved a crunchy chocolate cake along with my quick chocolate mousse (with crystallized ginger) and raspberry mousse."

GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH - Mesnier says Bush liked creme brulees, silky chocolate cream pie and a cheesecake served with lemon curd.

WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON - Since Clinton couldn't eat dairy or chocolate, Mesnier baked special desserts for him - low-calorie strawberry cake, cherry pie, apricot sunburst and hot dried pear souffle. "He loved apple pie."

GEORGE W. BUSH - The president was a fan of Mesnier's chocolate cherry cake, cherry trifle, bananas in raspberry cream and sunflower tart.

[BigWaveBetty]

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[BigWaveBetty]

Oh my word, I completely forgot to put The Guild in the title. Talk about getting old!

[speedy]

Great article, BWB. I need to wake the pastry chef to make me a creme brulee.

[BigWaveBetty]

Be gentle. :-)

[Timeout]

Talk about getting old!......Let's not!

In today's lead editorial in the WaPo, they provide a perfect example of what I was talking about yesterday.

Mr. Frist is really arguing that Democrats should not be able to do to Republican nominees what Republican senators only recently did to Democratic nominees, using a different set of procedural tricks.

There you go. They blithely ignore that REPUBLICANS WERE IN THE MAJORITY when Clinton's nominees were bottled up in the Judiciary Committee. Not only did Clinton LOSE his party's majority. Bush has his party in control AND has INCREASED HIS MAJORITY in each subsequent election.

These are the folks who were totally unconcerned with majority tactics for decades...when Dems controlled Congress. Now they say it should make no difference whether a president has his own party controlling congress. Or, in other words, "elections don't matter".

Grrrrr.

[mountaineer]

Mmmm, pastries! At this very moment I'm baking cookies for the town ice cream social to be held on Friday (proceeds for tsunami and local flood relief): pumpkin raisin and HLL's chocolate chip cookies. In other words, nothing quite as fancy as the former White House pastry chef's creations, but still delicious.

[lizma]

I think the Food Network did a special on this guy a few years back. After reading this, I think I'll dump the planned piece of toast for breakfast and go for the strawberry shortcake ice cream. Yummmmmmm.

[BigWaveBetty]

Arrrgh!

The other media lie that drives me around the bend is the one about how there's no more civility in DC, always with the insinuation that this kind of discourtesy is because republicans are in control.

No one with the exception of Rush has pointed out that civility took a dive in DC when dems lost power and they're the ones who have been acting like spoiled children that unless they get their way, on EVERYTHING, they'll obstruct.

[BigWaveBetty]

Yummy! I think I can smell those cookies from here.

[BigWaveBetty]

Laura looked great last night...

Don't even think about it Jay, Laura is way out of your league.

[mountaineer]

Washington Post's Mensa Invitational again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are this year's (2005) winners:

1. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.

2. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

3. Bozone (c): the substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the future.

4. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.

5. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.

6. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

7. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.

8. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

9. Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.

10. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease.

11. Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.

12. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.

13. Glibido: All talk and no action.

14. Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

15. Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.

16. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

17. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.

And the grand winner:

18. Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an a- hole

[anniegetyourgun]

Oh my goodness, I knew I loved Ronald Reagan...but after seeing his favorites, I'm an even bigger fan! And, if I ate this guy's pastries, I'd be an even BIGGER fan....as in LARGER!

[mountaineer]

Both Carter's and Reagan's favorites have me drooling, but I could be persuaded to try just about anything Chef Mesnier created.

[BigWaveBetty]

A strange thought popped into my head yesterday about Syria's hasty retreat out of Lebanon. Perhaps there were additional reasons to the pull out, like... Syria needs every last soldier they have in case they need to fight a war with the U.S.? It seems the book isn't quite closed on the 'where are those WMD's' question....

The CIA's chief weapons inspector said he cannot rule out the possibility that Iraqi weapons of mass destruction were secretly shipped to Syria before the March 2003 invasion, citing "sufficiently credible" evidence that WMDs may have been moved there.

Inspector Charles Duelfer, who heads the Iraq Survey Group (ISG), made the findings in an addendum to his final report filed last year. He said the search for WMD in Iraq -- the main reason President Bush went to war to oust Saddam Hussein -- has been exhausted without finding such weapons. Iraq had stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons in the early 1990s.

But on the question of Syria, Mr. Duelfer did not close the books. "ISG was unable to complete its investigation and is unable to rule out the possibility that WMD was evacuated to Syria before the war," Mr. Duelfer said in a report posted on the CIA's Web site Monday night.

He cited some evidence of a transfer. "Whether Syria received military items from Iraq for safekeeping or other reasons has yet to be determined," he said. "There was evidence of a discussion of possible WMD collaboration initiated by a Syrian security officer, and ISG received information about movement of material out of Iraq, including the possibility that WMD was involved. In the judgment of the working group, these reports were sufficiently credible to merit further investigation." More

[BigWaveBetty]

Those are great! I love to play around with words. I found this story interesting on presidential language.

Btw, on this day in history: In 1937, the nation’s first Social Security checks were distributed. FDR's mother refused to pay SS on the "help" at her home, saying it was unconstitutional. FDR asked the new agency to send the bill to him and he'd pay it, but told them, DO NOT tell his mother he was paying it for her. Ha!

[Timeout]

Ha! I had opened a page to post that very article to you!
But the phone rang and I was tied up for half an hour. Not sure we'll ever know the truth about Syria. But at least we know one thing: the next logical repository would have been Iran and, given our presence in Iraq, that option is no longer viable. Whew!

[najida]

Oh my!

Reading this has me wanting to rummage through the pantry for anything sweet and chocolate.

[najida]

Oh my!

Reading this has me wanting to rummage through the pantry for anything sweet and chocolate.

[BigWaveBetty]

I gained 12 pounds just reading the story. ;-)