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A pioneering White House chef who spent nearly three decades cooking for five presidents, first families, and foreign dignitaries, has retired.
Cristeta “Cris” Comerford, 61, is the first woman and first person of color to hold the executive chef role. Comerford, who has served under the Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden administrations, hung up her apron on Friday.
Comerford was born in Manila in the Philippines and studied food science at the University of the Philippines in Quezon City, before moving to the US in 1983, and becoming a naturalized American citizen.
She sharpened her culinary skills while working at hotels in Chicago and restaurants in Washington DC. She also worked as a chef at Le Ciel in Vienna, Austria.
Comerford was brought on by the White House in 1995 as an assistant chef, and named executive chef in 2005 by first lady Laura Bush, ahead of hundreds of other applicants.
It was Comerford’s handling of an official dinner that year for 134 guests in honor of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that made her the favorite for the job, according to The Washington Post.
The position was a far cry from her first job at a Sheraton Hotel near Chicago’s O’Hare airport, where she worked on the salad bar. “That’s what I called her, ‘salad girl.’ She prepared Caesar salad, Cobb salad,” her older brother Juanito Pasia told the Post in 2005.
As executive chef, Cristeta’s responsibilities included designing and executing menus for state dinners, social events, holiday functions, receptions and official luncheons.
During her time in the White House, Comerford prepared 54 state dinners – large-scale operations that begin six months in advance of the event. In 2014, she curated a dinner event for 50 African leaders that incorporated ingredients from their homelands.
Her other notable achievements include a 2010 victory on “Iron Chef America” alongside Bobby Flay.
Following the announcement of her retirement, First Lady Jill Biden hailed her “barrier-breaking career” and chef Jose Andres, founder of World Central Kitchen, described her as a “national treasure.”
“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,” Dr Biden said in a statement. “With all our hearts, Joe and I are filled with gratitude for her dedication and years of service.”
“You are a national treasure, a culinary diplomat who has shown the world how an immigrant can celebrate American food & share it with the world’s leaders…for almost 30 years!” Andres added.
In an interview with Asia Society magazine in 2015, Comerford said that her Filipino background had a “great influence” on her cooking style, as well as her mother’s cooking.
“I was exposed to great food growing up,” she said. “Both of my grandparents were farmers and had livestock. My school background was a good foundation when it comes to how ingredients and flavors go well together.”
Along with her parents and other family members she was “warmly” welcomed US by the wider Filipino community, she said. Comerford said being promoted to White House executive chef had been “such a humbling experience.”
“Being chosen from a long list of experienced, talented, and qualified chefs, it gives me great humility and a great sense of responsibility to do my job the best way I can,” she told the magazine.
Comerford is known for her collaborations with White House pastry chef Susie Morrison, also the first woman in that job. Comerford previously explained that the diets of the Bidens and the visiting dignitaries are factored into the preparations, along with those of other guests.
Still, her style and philosophy remained fairly simple.
“If you start with good products, it will be quite difficult to mess it up. And the learning never ends,” she told Asia Society. “You have to be open to all cuisines and taste as many types of food as possible.
“Different cuisines and food open the door of possibilities to new and exciting things.”
During a guest speech at a University of the Philippines Alumni Association in America (UPAAA) grand homecoming event in San Francisco in 2020, Comerford said: “If you’re passionate about something, you will fight tooth-and-nail to get there.”
