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Dinner with the President with Alex Prud'homme

Dinner with the President with Alex Prud'homme

What does a President's dinner habits say about them? Sharon sits down with author Alex Prud'homme about his book, Dinner with the President, all about White House food. He is the coauthor of his aunt Julia Child's memoir, My Life in France, and merges Presidential history with dishes that were the height of sophistication at one point. An on ramp to this book and conversation can be summarized in this passage:

“Presidential meals often had personal meaning, and sometimes con­tained coded political messages. James Garfield and Dwight Eisenhower liked bowls of squirrel soup. William Howard Taft had a taste for possum. Zachary Taylor died after eating cherries and drinking cold milk. Wood­row Wilson had chronic indigestion and consumed dubious elixirs, yet he and Herbert Hoover saved millions of lives with innovative food poli­cies. The gourmand Theodore Roosevelt and his gourmet cousin Frank­lin D. Roosevelt led the nation over bison steaks and terrapin soups. (A gourmand is someone who eats and drinks to wretched excess. A gour­met is a connoisseur of fine dining.) JFK liked clam chowder, LBJ favored chili, Richard Nixon ate cottage cheese almost every day, and George W. Bush liked ballpark hot dogs. The presidents’ food choices reflected the state of the nation.”

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  • Host: Sharon McMahon
  • Executive Producer: Heather Jackson
  • Audio Producer: Jenny Snyder

Guests

Guests

Alex Prud'homme

ALEX PRUD’HOMME is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, and other publications. He is the coauthor of Julia Child's memoir, My Life in France, and has authored or coauthored The French Chef in America, France is a Feast, Born Hungry, The Ripple Effect, Hydrofracking, The Cell Game, and Forewarned. He lives with his family in Brooklyn, New York.