President Bush: Getting Dressed For Royal Dinner!
(The gold-engraved invitations are the hottest tickets in town. Photo Doug Mills/The New York Times)
Photographs of US President George Bush and the British Prime Minister Tony Blair have evoked interest, and even mirth, whenever the two appeared together in the past several years.
I now look forward, for a change, to a pictorial study of GWB and the British Queen dining together. It will be the Bushes‘ fifth state dinner in six years, but the first white-tie state dinner of his presidency. (There were three white-tie dinners during the Clinton administration and one during the Reagan administration, reports AP).
“How does George W. Bush, a towel-snapping Texan who puts his feet on the coffee table, drinks water straight from the bottle and was once caught on tape talking with food in his mouth prepare for a state dinner with the queen?” asks The New York Times.
“The visit has brought a sense of giddiness to a White House worn down by the Iraq war and fights with Democrats in Congress, as well as distracted by a sex scandal that brought the resignation of a top State Department official.”
Read on…
I am always curious to know what the menu would be at such high-powered dinners (as a young reporter I managed to find out the menu at the State banquet in honour of President Richard Nixon when he visited India).
So I visited the official White House site and found out: “Mrs. Bush planned the dinner menu with her Social Secretary Amy Zantzinger and Executive Chef Cristeta ‘Cris’ Comerford to prepare the dinner menu. Chef Comerford has worked in the White House kitchen since 1995 and was named Executive Chef in August, 2005.
“Mrs. Bush also coordinated with Social Secretary Amy Zantzinger and Bill Yosses, the White House Executive Pastry Chef responsible for creating the dessert. Chef Yosses was named Executive Pastry Chef in January 2007.
“The menu will include five courses: Appetizer/Soup, Fish, Meat, Salad and Dessert.”
My mouth is already watering!!!
