First Family Chef, Sam Kass, Cooks up Policy

Politico.com (October 23, 2009)

Michelle Obama hired Sam Kass to cook for her family.

As the White House food initiative coordinator, Sam Kass has a fancy title. But he’s also a chef who turns out healthful dinners for the first family. His job comprises the connection between dinner menus (more vegetables, smaller portions) and policy goals (producing local food, reducing childhood obesity). The dual role makes this new position a bit of an anomaly, but all ambiguity aside, he’s got the ear of first lady Michelle Obama.

Their relationship began in Chicago, where Obama hired Kass to cook for her family. As she has often said, the family pediatrician suggested a change in eating habits to prevent the children from becoming overweight.

It was Kass who helped her achieve that goal. “It’s difficult to exaggerate how important Sam was in reversing the way the Obamas ate,” said chef Dan Barber, of New York’s Blue Hill at Stone Barns. “The most interesting thing here is that a chef, literally through cooking, has made the most important woman in America see the connection between the way we shop, the way we cook, how we cook, where it comes from, who’s growing it and the health and well-being of children and adults.”

Creating and shaping his role are matters that Kass will have to address.

“He is the first food initiative coordinator in the White House, and he had to define what that role is,” said Kass’s mentor. Anthony Nicalo, owner of Farmstead Wines Import Co. in Vancouver, British Columbia. “Sam is fairly young and a chef. Though chefs are increasingly respected in our culture, they are not respected from a policymaking standpoint.”

Kass himself sees the difficulty. “It’s been a challenge to figure out my position,” he said.

And he knows how hard it is to change people’s habits. At a recent school lunch event, he noted how many children removed the vegetables from the pizza. “It’s a reminder of how big the challenge is,” he said.

But this may be the right moment to fight for better nutrition: A highly visible and popular first lady is leading the charge, and public awareness of the problem is at an all-time high. Kass has definitely learned the ways of Washington. He is generally tight-lipped and careful to frame what he says in terms of Obama’s vision. “The first lady has repeatedly said the issues of feeding our kids healthy food, getting exercise and raising a healthy younger generation are challenges that every single family across the country faces — Democrats, Republicans and independents,” he said. “Everyone agrees it is not easy to do. So many people have been doing this for decades, and we are trying to learn from their mistakes.”

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Michelle Obama hired Sam Kass to cook for her family. | AP Close

Kass is working with the president’s Domestic Policy Council, which is collaborating on the initiative with other members of the first lady’s staff and government agencies such as the Agriculture Department and the Department of Education.

The council has two central tasks. It will be distributing prevention and wellness grants to fund strategies to reduce obesity. It also aims to make sure the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act includes removing junk food from schools and incorporating healthier food in the school lunch program.

“Sam provides the connection to the world of people who actually prepare food in schools and in restaurants,” said Martha Coven, a special assistant to the president on the council. “It helps make real everything we do at a policy level, and we are learning all the time what works and what doesn’t.”

“If you are cooking every day,” Kass said, “it’s not a huge leap to start thinking about where food comes from and how it grows. As a citizen, you take a look around and see we have a very serious problem in this country, due, in no small part, to what we are eating. And that led me to start exploring how we eat.”

A graduate of the University of Chicago, Kass began cooking at one of Chicago’s top restaurants, Avec. It led him to travel around the world, cooking as he went, including a job at a one-star Michelin restaurant in Austria. After returning to the States, Kass later opened a private chef service, Inevitable Table, that featured local produce and focused on healthful eating.

Now at the White House, Kass has an emerging role. For the launch of the Healthy School Challenge on the South Lawn of the White House on Wednesday, Kass brought in chefs and cooks who provided samples of quick, cheap, healthful snacks and breakfasts for children to try. Some even asked for seconds.

He has been visiting schools that are doing things right, like the Baltimore City school system, which runs an organic farm and has Meatless Mondays in its cafeterias. He will be planting a winter garden at the White House, providing garden tours for those interested in replicating it in schools and working on ways to provide fresh fruits and vegetables to inner-city shops.

Whatever he ultimately achieves on the policy side, Kass will still be keeping the first family well-, and healthfully, fed.