Nov 11, 2008 4:27 pm US/Central
White House Chef: Cooking For The President
Local Chef Rick Bayless Rumored To Be In Line for Job
Drew Levinson
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
Barack Obama has a lot on his plate these days as he chooses the men and women who will be his closest advisors and members of his Cabinet. There's one key position that will not only keep the president-elect and the nation satisfied, but his family too. CBS 2's Drew Levinson serves up the dish on a familiar name in Chicago - who could become the White House chef.
Chef Rick Bayless has been serving his Mexican cuisine to Barack Obama since he was an Illinois state senator.
Bayless loves to change up his menu, and it was Obama who preached "change."
"You know I've been thinking that for a long time that we set the whole precedent for change," Bayless said.
There are now rumors that the man behind it could take the taste of Chicago to the nation's capital.
But Bayless isn't sure he's ready to change enough to put on the White House apron to please the presidential palate.
"What we do is cook this really wonderful Mexican food, I don't think that's what they're going to want at every state dinner," said Bayless, the chef of Topolobampo. "So maybe every once in a while we could be the guest chefs in the White House."
The White House chef is not all about state dinners, you're cooking in the residence too.
"I think the unique thing about working in the White House is that it isn't a hotel or a restaurant. It really is first and foremost and in every way, a private home," said former White House chef Walter Scheib.
Chef Scheib cooked for the Clintons and the Bushes. His advice is to be prepared and to check your ego and politics at the door.
"If the president says I want peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every day for lunch, then you learn how to make great peanut butter and jelly sandwiches," Scheib said.
In fact Obama himself makes a mean tuna fish sandwich and chili.
But now that he'll be in the White House, it will be the chef who will head up the kitchen cabinet.
So - he better make a good tuna fish sandwich and brush up on the chili too.
Bayless says the one thing that makes him sad about Obama being the president is that he can no longer come to his restaurant and have a nice, quiet dinner. He will always have the Secret Service and a crowd around him.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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