If you're not a fan of a little White House gossip, don't keep reading. But if you like reading about the everyday details of a presidency, you'll like this bit Washingtonian magazine reports in its current issue.
The magazine said that pastry chef Roland Mesnier, who worked at the White House for 26 years beginning with the Carter administration, said when President Bill Clinton came into the White House in 1993, he had a "scary" appetite. "He could eat five or six pork chops."
And check out this story he told a crowd at American University in Washington:
"Clinton arrived in 1993 with not just his appetite but also some food allergies, including chocolate and flour. 'But he loved dessert,' says Mesnier. 'It made it very difficult for a pastry chef.' He recalls the episode of a strawberry cake he made one evening. Clinton devoured half of it all by himself, and the next morning he wanted more. 'No one could find the cake,' says Mesnier, who had a face-to-face with the distraught commander in chief. 'Clinton was pounding on the table and shouting, "I want my goddamned cake."'
'The chef, who is given to flights of humor, says that when the cake could not be found, 'We decided [Vice President Al] Gore must have eaten it.'"
After leaving office, Clinton went through two different heart procedures. That was part of the reason he went vegan, giving up red meat, chicken and dairy. USA Today has a 2011 story about his transformation.
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