What’s being served at President Obama’s $25,000 Hunt’s Point dinner?
Jul 22, 2014, 6:35 PM | Updated: Jul 23, 2014, 9:11 am
(Photo courtesy of Lisa Dupar Catering)
What would you cook if President Obama was coming over to your house for dinner? That’s what Jim and Jan Sinegal had to to ask themselves when the former Costco CEO and his wife offered to host the President at their Hunt’s Point home. It’s a $25,000 a plate affair to benefit the Democratic Senate Majority PAC fundraiser.
In the end, the Sinegal’s decided to order out, and not for Chinese or pizza like you might have guessed. Lisa Dupar Catering is cooking for the President and 35 guests, and Lisa says it’s not her first rodeo.
“This will be our fourth time cooking for him but usually we’re sequestered in the back, it’s not like we’re out socializing.”
So what will she make?
“The last time he was here he requested salmon. So we kind of thought, alright, he eats really healthy so we should probably be suggesting some really nice, beautiful, wild salmon for him.”
But before the salmon, there will be passed appetizers.
“We’re doing a goat cheese panna cotta with crystallized ginger and roasted baby beets and a crushed pea crostini with crispy Parma ham, grapefruit pieces and mint. We do a beef tartar finger sandwich with a little olive tapenade.”
For the main course, she wanted to highlight some of the Pacific Northwest’s best seafood.
“We’re doing a fresh picked crab gazpacho with creme fraiche, Dungeness crab, and a slow-baked wild King Salmon with maple cured salmon roe.”
There’s a vegetarian meal:
“Yellow lentils and roasted heirloom tomatoes with quinoa and coriander broth.”
And, of course, a dessert.
“Then just a fun summer blackberry cobbler with almond-vanilla ice cream.”
But the thing is, there’s a chance Lisa’s food will never pass through President Obama’s lips.
“We don’t know. We might show up tonight and his chef might be there and have his food prepared for him. A few times ago, his traveling chef was with him and prepared his food for him. The last time he was here, I don’t know if his chef was on vacation or what, but one of the Secret Service men was in charge of his food. He said, you know, I’m going to taste the salmon first but we’re going to serve him the salmon that you’re serving the guests.”
Lisa seemed surprisingly calm for someone preparing to serve a meal to the President of the United States of America, but her catering company has literally fed hundreds of celebrities and politicians including Julia Child, President Clinton, Bill Cosby and Steven Spielberg.
“The catering piece we’ve been doing for 30 years and we do about 1,500 events a year. Usually we wouldn’t be sending four chefs out for 35 people, but tonight we are.”
As for how President Obama eats on a daily basis:
“Other chefs that have cooked for him have said the same thing, that he’s really clean. Probably the way we all should eat, the way the doctors tell us too. You know, he likes to splurge once in a while. But on a day-to-day basis it’s just really clean protein, a lot of vegetables, he’s just super healthy.”
So if you have an extra $25,000 just hanging around, and you’re a wee bit hungry, perhaps there’s a chance you can get a last minute invite to tonight’s meal.