The White House Chef Cookbook; Over 500 Recipes and Menus by the Man Who Was White House Chef During the Kennedy Years by Verdon, René - 1967

Garden City: Doubleday & Company, 1967. First Edition. White leather with gilt titling. Very good/good. INSCRIBED "To Mrs. Lou / With Best Wishes. / René / San Francisco June 4, 1974" with an chef hat doodle of signature on half title page. 5.5" x 8.13" pp 12-287 with eight color plates. Book is clean with only some crimped corners at top right of first 15 pages and bumping at top and bottom of spine. Dust jacket is good with chipping along top and bottom edges and spine has half inch chip at top and bottom, smudges from handling noticeable, now appropriately protected in mylar. These recipes are interspersed with upbeat anecdotes of his time serving the first family.<br /> <br /> René Verdon (June 29, 1924 - Feb 2, 2011) was a French-born American chef hired by First Lady Jackie Kennedy and stayed on for the early time of LBJ's tenure. He left the WH kitchen over creative differences when asked to cook with frozen and canned vegetables. "Mr. Kennedy shared his wife's liking for soufflés, especially at luncheon, but there was a day when he learned that a soufflé waits for no man, not even a President." (p 70).