Groundbreaking executive White House chef steps down
By Betsy Klein, CNN
(CNN) — White House executive chef Cristeta Comerford has retired after nearly three decades cooking for five commanders-in-chief and their families, a White House official tells CNN.
Comerford, who broke ground as the first woman and person of color to hold the top job in the White House kitchen, arrived at 1600 Pennsylvania during the Clinton administration in 1995 and was elevated to executive chef by first lady Laura Bush 10 years later.
Comerford cooked for America’s first families over 29 years, including the Clintons, Bushes, Obamas, Trumps and Bidens, overseeing all White House cuisine from family meals to state dinners in the executive chef role. Her last day was Friday, the White House official said.
“I always say, food is love. Through her barrier-breaking career, Chef Cris has led her team with warmth and creativity, and nourished our souls along the way. With all our hearts, Joe and I are filled with gratitude for her dedication and years of service,” first lady Jill Biden said in a statement.
Comerford oversaw a team of three sous chefs and executive pastry chef Susie Morrison.
“To be a White House chef, it’s really your temperance that really counts for a lot. Because it’s not just your knowledge and your skills and the way you cook – it has to be the way you treat people, the way you delegate your work, the way you put your team as a cohesive force,” she said in a 2014 interview with CNN.
She added, “At any point in time that you cook for the first family and cook for the president of the United States, it’s such a humbling experience.”
Born and raised in Manila, Comerford emigrated to the US when she was 23 years old, and she said she worked as a “salad girl” in Chicago hotels making Caesar and cobb salads. She worked as a chef at two Washington, DC, hotels, and spent six months in Vienna, Austria, learning French culinary techniques, before being recruited to work at the White House.
In 2005, she was one of about 450 applicants for the executive chef role, which included what she described as a final “cook-off” round.
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