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Spinach, scallops and sauvignon blanc: How to eat like a president

Michelle Obama with White House chefs
First Lady Michelle Obama meets with White House chefs for a dinner preview. Photograph: Kevin Dietsch/Pool/EPA

Memo to Washington-area farmers: Barack Obama may have eaten your shallots and spinach last night, but you'll never know.

The US president last night held the first state dinner, welcoming the nation's governors and their spouses for a lavish four-course meal derived from locally sourced and seasonal ingredients.

Feeding the president and his guests would be an honour for any farmer and food purveyor, but for security reasons, the growers, ranchers and fishermen do not know they are supplying food for a presidential meal, White House executive chef Cristeta Comerford said yesterday.

The four-course meal: Chesapeake crab agnolottis with roasted sunchokes, paired with a 2007 Spottswoode sauvignon blanc from California; wagyu beef and Nantucket scallops with glazed red carrots, portobello mushroom and creamed Spinach, paired with the 2004 Archery Summit "estate" pinot noir, from Oregon; and a winter citrus salad with pistachios and lemon honey vinaigrette.

For dessert, White House pastry chef William Yosses prepared a huckleberry cobbler with caramel ice cream, paired with a 2007 Black Star Farms "A Capella" Riesling ice wine, from Michigan.

In a preview yesterday afternoon in the White House kitchen, First Lady Michelle Obama said her husband "loves scallops", and said of the creamed spinach: "That is an amazing spinach, a creamed spinach without cream. There is no way you would eat that and not think that it wasn't filled with cream and cheese."

Comerford said she sauteés spinach and shallots in olive oil, and at the last minute whips it into a puree in order to maintain the nutritional value.

The White House kitchen staff stressed that the ingredients are American and locally sourced. Comerford said much of it comes from Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Sam Kass, who was Obama's personal chef in Chicago, said he used watermelon radishes grown close to Washington, and that the lettuce was a mix of greens that "grow well in winter".

The meal for about 130 guests last night was prepared by a staff of about 10 in the White House kitchen, which is far smaller than most commercial kitchens.

The menu sounds delicious, but raises an obvious question: is it appropriate to dine in such opulence when the president virtually every day warns of economic collapse, and a main theme of his meetings with the governors yesterday and today was how to spend the $787bn in taxpayer dollars to get the economy moving again?

What do you think? Do crab, wagyu beef and Nantucket scallops sound like an inappropriate luxury in these times?

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