Barack Obama will be sworn into office on Tuesday -- just weeks before the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth. Obama's inaugural theme, "A New Birth of Freedom," has, fittingly, been drawn from his fellow Illinoisan's Gettysburg Address, and he's supposed to be sworn in using Lincoln's own Bible. The inaugural menu is based on what supposedly were some of Lincoln's favorite foods, and even the inaugural china is a replica of that used in the Lincoln White House. Despite these connections, let's hope that Obama's inaugural meal does not duplicate Lincoln's first, which turned into a food fight.
Lincoln's inaugural committee had planned a lavish midnight buffet for the inaugural ball: terrapin stew, leg of veal, beef a l'anglais, foie gras, pate, cream candies, fruit ices, tarts, cakes and more. The venue was the Patent Office, which had two spacious halls for dancing and dining. The buffet was set out in a corridor where patent models were displayed.
When the grand supper was announced, after several hours of dancing, the crowd rushed the table and people began grabbing, pushing and stuffing themselves shamelessly. In a matter of minutes, the sumptuous buffet was a shambles -- as were several of the patent exhibits.
Simple beginnings
Over the last 200 years, food has been an integral part of the celebrations surrounding the transition of power from one American president to another. The menus served at inaugural events have been a mixed bag -- sometimes displaying ostentatiousness, other times political symbolism and still other times just simplicity.
Things started out quietly and on the simple side. George Washington took the oath of office in New York City (the new nation's first capital); as Martha had not yet arrived from Mount Vernon, George dined alone. After John Adams was inaugurated, he repaired to his boardinghouse, where he too ate a solitary meal. Thomas Jefferson, notably more convivial, dined with 30 others after his inauguration -- but, like Adams, at a boardinghouse.
It was James Madison who broke with tradition, celebrating his 1809 inauguration with a ball, including a midnight supper for 400. The menu has been lost, but tradition has it that ice cream, then a "fancy dish," was served. Ever since Madison's time, new presidents have been feted with more and more elaborate events, most of them featuring a festive meal.
The shocking melee at Lincoln's party had a precedent: the reception held for Andrew Jackson, the "man of the people," whose 1829 inauguration was attended by thousands. When Jackson returned to the White House after the ceremony, he was followed by some 20,000 rowdy well-wishers hellbent on getting refreshments: ice cream, cake and lemonade.
The mob all but destroyed the White House; Jackson was forced to exit by a back door. The White House steward finally lured guests outside with tubs of whiskey-laced punch. (Jackson did have a steak dinner with guests that night, but there was no ball, as his wife had recently died.)
Despite occasional problems, most inaugural parties have succeeded in impressing guests while also amply satisfying their hunger and thirst.
James Buchanan, the only bachelor president, really knew how to party. At his inaugural celebration in 1857, guests were served 400 gallons of oysters, 500 quarts of chicken salad, 500 quarts of jellies, 1,200 quarts of ice cream, eight rounds of beef, 75 hams, 60 saddles of mutton and four of venison. Buchanan hired Charles Gautier, a French caterer and chocolatier, to handle the preparations.
James A. Garfield's inauguration dinner in 1881 was supplied with 15,000 "assorted cakes," 3,000 rolls, 350 loaves of bread, 100 gallons of pickled oysters and 250 gallons of coffee.
Benjamin Harrison's 1889 menu included oysters a la poulette, cold tongue en Bellevue, breast of quail a la Ciceron, terrine of game a la Morton and pate de foie gras a la Harrison; among the desserts were Bonbons Republican. But most impressive was a cake in the shape of the Capitol building -- 6 feet high, nearly 9 feet square and weighing 800 pounds.
Plain dinners
Of course, not all inaugurals have been so grand. Franklin D. Roosevelt's four dinners were not particularly distinguished. Henrietta Nesbitt, the first family's housekeeper, prepared the food for three of them. In 1937, she served ham, tongue and a sweet potato casserole topped with marshmallows -- Eleanor Roosevelt's favorite.
For FDR's fourth inauguration, during World War II, the president requested chicken a la king, but Nesbitt protested that she couldn't keep it hot while serving 2,000 guests. Instead, she offered an austere, ration-conscious "ladies' lunch" of cold chicken salad, rolls (no butter), cake (no frosting) and coffee (no sugar). To make matters worse, some of the chicken had spoiled and had to be thrown out.
George Jessel, the luncheon's toastmaster, posed the question, "How is it humanly possible to make chicken salad with so much celery and so little chicken?"
