The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1884-08-16
Dinners at the white House.

A Washington Star reporter ran
across Steward Williams at the White
House the other day and asked to be
shown through the culinary department.
The steward kindly accompanied him.
There are two kitchens, one much larger
than the other, with mammoth ranges
and boilers. The walls are hung with
copper cooking utensils of every char
acter, bright and in order. In the
centre of the big kitchen stands per-
manent uncovered table, at which
most of the manipulation is done.
Chef Forth, about as broad as long,
was standing at it hard at work. He
speaks English very well, and kindly
assisted in explaining the manner ofdo-
ing business in his department.
elbow much warning do they give
you when state dinner is to be pre-
pared?" asked the reporter of Mr.. Will
liams.
"About four days, to give us plenty
of time to get things in shape. Lots of
preparations, too, are necessary. In
the first place the ornaments are TO be
made, and the chef here likes to make
an early start in that branch"
"What do you make them from?"
"Grease. Yes, we take old candles
and melt them over time and again and
mold figures, etc., of various designs.
The chef tells me that such ornamental
ton is largely taking the place of flowers
in Europe, particularly where flowers
are scarce. We enjever to have a good
supply of both and the effect is very
satisfactory"
The chef was busy with some broken
ornaments when the reporter entered.
These he melted and poured into plas-
ter of Paris mold. Placing this in
pan of ice water for little while, it
was opened and an excellent Goddess
of Liberty was produced, looking as
well as many of her marble sisters.
''You see," continued the steward
'such figures are made the centre pieces
for dishes of cold meats and the like,
which are usually served in a sort of
pyramid. One of the rules is that no
dish must be served fiat. 1t must be
raised in some way, and there are vari-
Gus plans followed. A big base of rice
is sometimes made to raise the birds
or meats or whatever is to be served.
Sometimes they are we'll raised, and
then are SO we'll concealed by tallow
ornaments and disguised that it is pref
ty hard to tell where to start in. L have
seen some ofthe Western Congressman,
when such a dish is passed, look all
around it, kind of uncertain where to
strike, and then shake their heads and
let it pass. That is not saying any,
thing against the gentlemen. l could
not do any better if hadn't seen such
dishes prepared time and again, for
they are very deceptive"
Chow do you go to work to prepare
big dinner?' asked the reporter.
"We get word that there is to be
dinner for so many persons on such an
evening. know that the dinner is to
be the best that can be prepared, and I
go to work accordingly to procure the
best, not only that the Washington
markets affords, but that can be procur-
ed in New York, where l telegraph for
the choicest game and other things that
can be obtained. The President gives
carte blanche and never grumbles at
expense, so we are never hampered.
The chef always has an assistant on such
occasions, and they first go to work on
the tallow ornaments, and Mr.. Phster
begins on the floral ornaments. Great
care must be taken in ornamenting not
to obstruct the view of any of the guests,
and, while floral designs are intended
to be characteristic on the occasion,
they are either suspended so that the
guests can see under them or else raised
on pillars far enough apart not to OBJ
struct the view. At the judicial dinner
last year the chief floral piece was a
temple of justice, with the book of laws
in the interior. 1t taxed the ingenuity
Of all of US to secure variety, and at
the same time maintain excellence in all
branches. The menus must be entire
ly different. Not a dish is brought on
the table that appeared at the previous
dinner, so you see we have to keep
scheming."
"How many persons does it take to
serve a state dinner?" asked the repor-
ter
eff there are fifty persons at the ia
BILE, or few more or less, it takes
twelve servants"
"Why so many?"
"Well, there are five services for every
course. By that mean that five dishes
of everything are served at once. If
the course is fish, five plates of fish are
served simultaneously, and so on through
the dinner. This is to prevent delay.
So you see there are five of the servants
engaged in serving the main dish of the
course, each one helping about ten per-
sons, and five more follow with the
vegetables or the accompanying dish.
Two more walters are kept busy serving
the wine which belongs to the course. !"
"The whole dinner is prepared here
in the White House, is it not 7'
''Every thing but the ice cream; that
we can get outside. OF course, we
haven't large enough force of servants
in the house to serve the dinner, and
SO have to get outside assistance, but
the dinners are truly White House din
ners."
Outside the kitchen are two refrig-
orators, big enough for mammoth no.
tCf, Dtit tr1Sy ~, --~- s>-1.--~, ---->a - aiCw
one with all the modern improvements
is about to be built. Mr.. Williams has
a comfortable office in the easements,
from which opens the Presidents wine
cellar. The stock of wines has not
been replenished since the seasons
gayeties were over, but the shelves are
pretty well filled yet.
p@TWe must necessarily live in the
element we create around us. Then, to
be happy ourselves we must make those
around us happy.