Twice a month, US President Barack Obama’s senior policy advisers gather at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building to hash out strategies for improving the health of the country’s children. Among the assistant secretaries, chiefs of staff and senior aides sits an unlikely participant: a bald, intense young man who happens to be the newest White House chef.
His name is Sam Kass. And when he’s not sauteing fish for the first family or tending tomatillos in the White House garden, he is pondering the details of child nutrition legislation, funding streams for the school lunch program and the best tactics to fight childhood obesity.
Part chef and part policy wonk, he is reinventing the role of official gastronome in the executive mansion. Indeed, Obama administration officials describe him as a vital conduit to the first family.
“How do I get to the first lady, how do I try to transmit ideas and messages to her? Sam Kass,” Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Kathleen Merrigan said. “He’s been a real ally when we talk about farm to school.”
Kass, 29, forged a close bond with the Obamas while cooking for them and their children for about two years before they moved to Washington and has golfed with the president on Martha’s Vineyard. He often acts as a sounding board on food issues for Michelle Obama.
Behind the scenes, he attends briefings on child nutrition and health, has vetted nonprofits as potential partners for White House food initiatives and regularly peppers senior staff about policy matters.
“Do we have a toxicologist who specializes in colony collapse disorder?” Kass asked in a recent e-mail message about the Department of Agriculture’s plan for coping with declining honey bee populations, Merrigan recalled.
For some former White House officials, this is nothing short of astonishing. Walter Scheib, former executive White House chef during the admistration of presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, called Kass’ involvement in public policy unique.
While he is steeped in all matters locavore and was a moving force behind the White House garden, Kass has no formal culinary training and has never run a restaurant or hotel kitchen. He graduated with a history degree from the University of Chicago and honed his culinary skills at Avec, a Chicago restaurant, before becoming a private chef.
In recent months, Kass has emerged as one of the most high-profile promoters of Michelle Obama’s healthy living agenda. He has baked Swiss chard frittatas for students on the White House lawn, prepared chicken salad with red onions and toasted almonds at the Department of Agriculture’s cafeteria and sprinkled crab meal and ladybugs — instead of chemical fertilizers and pesticides — on the first lady’s garden.
“You look around our country and you see that we have a lot of major challenges, the origin of which is food,” said Kass, who wore a suit and tie instead of kitchen whites during an interview in the East Reception Room of the White House. “It’s not a big step to think about what am I doing? How is that affecting this problem? How am I helping?”
“Cooking for people’s pleasure is obviously a nice thing to do,” he said, “but the No.1 reason we eat is to nourish ourselves and take care of ourselves.”
Kass’ title is assistant White House chef and food initiative coordinator. Friends say he cooks primarily for the Obamas, while the executive chef, Cristeta Comerford, handles most formal gatherings.
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