To the dismay of some, the Obamas will be keeping the Bushes’ chef, Cristeta Comerford:

[S]ince the election, there’s been an almost global assumption that Ms. Comerford couldn’t possibly cook well enough for The Obamas, even though the Bushes adore her, which is due to the fiction that The Obamas have very refined palates. Foodies started speculating madly about whom The Obamas should choose to be their chef; it was assumed it had to be a chef that was as famous as they’d now become. A bevy of high-profile chef names were tossed about. Legendary chef/activist Alice Waters, restaurateur Danny Meyer and Gourmet magazine editor Ruth Reichl even took it upon themselves to send an open letter to Barack, offering their services to help him choose his Top Toque, and proposing they be appointed as his own Kitchen Cabinet. Ms. Comerford, it seems, simply was not good enough for them. Mr. Scheib’s been pretty steamed about this part of the foodie disinformation campaign, as loud foodies have essentially demanded Ms. Comerford be fired.

Scheib is former (for The Clintons and The George W. Bushes) White House Executive Chef Walter Scheib. Cristeta Comerford was his favorite associate:

Mr. Scheib told us that Ms. Comerford’s talent, combined with long experience dealing with all the nuances of White House protocol, made her the best person for the job, no matter what the loud foodies have been fantasizing about. And he emphasized that the ego aspect associated with rock star chefdom wouldn’t play well in the White House, either, nor would the income aspects.

That from Obama Foodorama, The Walter Scheib Interview, Part I, which deserves a full reading:

Why is the choice of White House chef suddenly national news? Why has the foodie world felt not only free to weigh in, but believed it was their duty? The first and most obvious reason is that food and agriculture in the US is in a desperate situation, with the twin crises of hunger and food-related illness spiraling out of control, with monster food safety problems, with skyrocketing food bills, with environmental issues, with small farmers losing their land…and Barack’s promised us change.

Part II of the interview will be posted tomorrow. I found (and immediately subscribed to) the Obama Foodorama site when Ezra Klein mentioned it — “following all things at the intersection of Barack and food…from ag policy to Obama’s visit to Ben’s Chili Bowl” — after blasting Obama’s disappointing food policy:

Tom Philpott delivers a nice reality check on the Obama campaign’s almost wholly disappointing approach to food policy. Despite the momentary flash of promise when Obama mentioned Michael Pollan’s work in an interview, his subsequent appointments and statements haven’t demonstrated an evident commitment to understanding farm policy as a question of food rather than a question of food producer interests. Indeed, Obama’s agricultural adviser, Marshall Matz, is a partner at a law and lobbying firm that represents agricultural interests against federal regulators. And he also served as co-chair of Obama’s rural outreach committee, which neatly places him on the wrong side of another problem in farm policy: The tendency to understand it as an issue that’s mainly of interest to rural Americans who produce food rather than urban or suburban residents who eat food. That’s two for two.

Michael Pollan will be delivering the keynote address at Georgia Organics’ 12th Annual Conference in March. I’ll be spending that day in the Victory Gardening track [pdf]. I’m guessing Pollan will have plenty to talk about that night.