Pleasing the palates of the presidents

A scene from “Les Saveurs du Palais (Haute Cuisine)” / Yonhap

By Yun Suh-young

Public interest in gourmet food has noticeably increased these days as people have started to consider diet as the prime mechanism for leading a healthy life.

Riding on the trend, more TV channels are programming cooking shows in a variety of formats. Movies about food and chefs have been released one after another in the recent months -- and they are, surprisingly, doing pretty well. Either the audience is constituted of cooking enthusiasts or those who'd rather be vicariously satisfied via the screen than actually cooking.

Whereas "Chef" (titled "American Chef" in Korea), released January, about an American chef running a food truck, was a casual, mouth-watering film about American cuisine, the recently released "Les Saveurs du Palais (Haute Cuisine)" is a more graceful version screening eye-pleasing French cuisine. The latter is closer to a docu-drama portraying the struggles of the President's private chef at the Elysee Palace in France.

The movie, based on the true story of Danièle Mazet-Delpeuch who was appointed as the private chef for French President François Mitterrand, shows how the female chef fights her way through the male-centered, top-down community to cook the meals she recommends for the President. She has been the only female chef in the history of the Elysee Palace.

Cover of “The President’s Chef”

Her struggles as a female chef are also mentioned in a recently released book called "Chefs des Chefs" (translated as "The President's Chef" in Korean) written by Gilles Bragard, founder of Club des Chefs des Chefs (CCC), and French journalist Christian Roudaut. Club des Chefs des Chefs is a global association of presidential chefs from all around the world.

The book recounts the stories of the chefs who carefully reveal their years as the President's chef (which is seldom discussed due to the sensitivity of the issue). The story of chef Mazet-Delpeuch featured in chapter 10 of the book about female chefs is based on her book "Carnets de Cuisine" which was also the basis of the movie.

For those who have seen the movie, reading the book will be an amusing extension of the film about the lives of presidents' chefs. Much like Mazet-Delpeuch, the chefs who cook for the presidents all face difficulties in their own ways.

One of the biggest common struggles for chefs is to please the different palates of different presidents, more so if they've worked for many years.

French chef Rene Verdon who worked for President Lyndon Johnson in the 1960s left the White House due to the huge gap in their tastes. Verdon, who was an acclaimed chef in the French culinary scene, recounts that he was stressed at the fact he had to prepare meals from canned or frozen food due to the president's particular love for them.

Changing the presidential menu is also a cautious issue as everything is officially set in advance. Audacity, wit, and sensitivity for the surroundings are required for a chef to alter the menu.

Walter Scheib who worked for the Clintons recalls when he served beef fajita for Hillary Clinton after seeing the worn out first lady from an overseas trip. He says he wanted to offer a delightful surprise for a mood uplift. The fajita wasn't part of the menu as she was avoiding greasy food and meat at the time, but it succeeded in boosting her mood. He says a thank you note she personally wrote after the meal reminded him of why he became a chef.

Keeping health problems of presidents secret is another difficult yet mandatory job of the chefs.

French President François Mitterrand was suffering from cancer but the Elysee Palace managed to keep it silent. It only went public when a conversation between former Elysee chef with a food critic was published in Le Figaro.

Marcel le Servot and Bernard Vaussion, main and sous chefs of the Elysee Palace at the time, said it was difficult to prepare meals following the strict regulations provided by the President's private doctor.

The book further elaborates on how chefs at the presidential residence encounter a variety of hardships and also some rewarding moments.