Inaugural lunch: Maine lobster, South Dakota bison
January 09, 2013 | 05:28 PM
When congressional leaders entertain President Barack Obama and his family at a post-inaugural luncheon on January 21, he will be served a farm-to-table menu celebrating the inaugural theme, “Faith in America’s Future,” Obama Foodorama reported Tuesday.
The hour-long luncheon for 225 guests to be served in the National Statuary Hall will start with steamed Maine lobster tail topped with a New England clam chowder sauce, placed atop vegetables.
The main course will be hickory-grilled bison tenderloin (sourced from the Western Buffalo Company in Rapid City, S.D.) with a wild huckleberry reduction accompanied by a red potato horseradish cake, pureed butternut squash, and sautéed red cabbage, sweetened with a little strawberry preserve, which Obama Foodorama described as “a nod to the return of canning to the American kitchen.”
The main course will also be accompanied by green beans with golden beets — even though the Obama family is known for its aversion to beets.
“I am a believer that there is a beet gene,” First Lady Michelle Obama said in 2010. “People who love beets love them and people who hate beets can’t stand them. Neither the president nor I have the beet gene.”
Although the bison will come from South Dakota and the wine will be Korbel Inaugural Cuvée from California, most of the meal will spotlight small and artisan farmers and food producers from New York, because the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies is chaired by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.
The dessert will be Hudson Valley apple pies, topped with sour cream ice cream and a maple caramel sauce, and accompanied by a bit of honeycomb and wedges of Toma Celena and Jersey Girl Colby, both from Cooperstown Cheese Company.
The three-course farm-to-table menu was created by Shannon Shaffer, executive chef of Design Cuisine in Arlington, Va.
“Mrs. Obama wants farm-to-table as much as possible,” said William Homan, co-owner of Design Cuisine, which has prepared many other inaugural lunches.
The hour-long luncheon for 225 guests to be served in the National Statuary Hall will start with steamed Maine lobster tail topped with a New England clam chowder sauce, placed atop vegetables.
The main course will be hickory-grilled bison tenderloin (sourced from the Western Buffalo Company in Rapid City, S.D.) with a wild huckleberry reduction accompanied by a red potato horseradish cake, pureed butternut squash, and sautéed red cabbage, sweetened with a little strawberry preserve, which Obama Foodorama described as “a nod to the return of canning to the American kitchen.”
The main course will also be accompanied by green beans with golden beets — even though the Obama family is known for its aversion to beets.
“I am a believer that there is a beet gene,” First Lady Michelle Obama said in 2010. “People who love beets love them and people who hate beets can’t stand them. Neither the president nor I have the beet gene.”
Although the bison will come from South Dakota and the wine will be Korbel Inaugural Cuvée from California, most of the meal will spotlight small and artisan farmers and food producers from New York, because the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies is chaired by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.
The dessert will be Hudson Valley apple pies, topped with sour cream ice cream and a maple caramel sauce, and accompanied by a bit of honeycomb and wedges of Toma Celena and Jersey Girl Colby, both from Cooperstown Cheese Company.
The three-course farm-to-table menu was created by Shannon Shaffer, executive chef of Design Cuisine in Arlington, Va.
“Mrs. Obama wants farm-to-table as much as possible,” said William Homan, co-owner of Design Cuisine, which has prepared many other inaugural lunches.
