19-05-2025
The Asian chefs who have fed U.S. presidents
Adrian Miller was hoping to find a long-lost treasure in the stacks at the University of Denver's library — but the one he discovered was unexpected.
The self-described 'Soul Food Scholar,' whose books exploring African American food history have won two James Beard Awards, was searching through the library's Cookery and Foodways Collection of more than 11,000 volumes, many of which had originally been collected by Margaret Husted, whose husband had been the business editor of U.S. News & World Report. Among the items were community cookbooks and compilations of historical recipes, dating back centuries. In 2015, while looking for information about Black chefs who may have cooked in the White House, Miller simply typed 'presidential' into the database and was surprised by the book title — and author — that suddenly appeared: 'To a President's Taste: Being the Reminiscences and Recipes of Lee Ping Quan, Ex-President's Steward on the Presidential Yacht, U.S.S. Mayflower.'
