Chef’s secret: Culinary Secrets of the World’s Leaders

Vladimir Putin has a taster sample his every dish for poison, Barack Obama cannot stand beetroot, and François Hollande has taken artichokes off the Elysée menu.

A group of 27 top chefs from the kitchens of the world’s presidents, prime ministers, and monarchs, is gathering in Paris this week to swap recipes and tidbits on dinner-party diplomacy. The cooks insist haute cuisine plays a crucial role in warming ties and sealing international deals.

The club, whose title plays on the double meaning of the French word “chef” for cook and leader, was founded 35 years ago by Gilles Bragard. On Tuesday, he revealed that President Vladimir Putin of Russia maintains the medieval monarchs’ tradition of having everything he eats tried by someone else for fear of poisoning.

“Tasters still exist but only in the Kremlin, where a doctor checks every dish with the chef,” Bragard said ahead of a reception for the chefs hosted by new French president, François Hollande.

Hollande is the sixth Gallic leader to be cooked for by Elysée Palace head chef Bernard Vaussion, who has catered to the gastronomic foibles of French heads of state for the past 40 years. Hollande’s fitness-mad predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, a teetotaller and recovering chocoholic, banished cheese from the Elysée, saying it was “too much” for him.

“But François Hollande has brought it back in,” said Bragard, clearly delighted. “Both he and Angela Merkel adore cheese.” London-based Anton Mosimann, a visiting chef to 10 Downing Street who has cooked for several British prime ministers, recounted how Baroness Thatcher once asked for an unusually lavish meal to entertain the then–French president François Mitterrand.

He created an elaborate dish of veal steak with morille mushrooms. During a conversation several years later, Lady Thatcher congratulated him on the meal but added with a frown: “It was very expensive.” “That was Mrs. Thatcher, she never missed a thing,” Mosimann said.

The cooks insist haute cuisine plays a crucial role in warming ties and sealing international deals as Gilles Bragard once said; Politics divides, then the table brings people together.

But having a good chef is only half the battle. Knowing what to serve wins the war. French diplomats never proffer foie gras to their American guests because the force feeding of geese used to produce it is banned in California. ¨

An otherwise perfect meal for former French President Nicolas Sarkozy would be utterly ruined by a chocolate dessert; Sarkozy is a recovering chocoholic. He also loathed cheese, which he banished from the Elysée, saying it was "too much" for him.

"But Francois Hollande has brought it back in," said a thrilled Bragard, "Both he and Angela Merkel adore cheese." Hillary Clinton, however, dislikes all French food. Bragard sorrowfully said that she "got rid of the French chef when she arrived at the White House, she found his cuisine too rich."

And other leaders have their own peculiarities when it comes to eating in general. Russia's President Vladimir Putin is so security obsessed, he has every dish served to him first vetted by a medically-qualified professional sample.

In his following a medieval monarch's tradition of having "testers" sample their food for fear of poisoning, Putin has an unlikely ally in George Bush (Bragard did not specify whether it was the father or son), who had two FBI agents taste all his food while on a visit to the UK. But it is the chefs who have the last laugh. As Bragard said, "Presidents come and go, but chefs remain."

Source: The daily beast