Throughout John F. Kennedy’s temporary tenure within the White Home, he and his spouse, Jackie, employed French-trained chef René Verdon to organize rarified meals for esteemed friends and he appeared joyful to oblige, per The New York Occasions. However every part modified on November 22, 1963, when the demise of JFK put his vice chairman, Lyndon B. Johnson into the Oval Workplace and the State Eating Room (by way of The White Home). Immediately, beef filet au jus gave solution to barbecued spareribs and crème brûlée was now tapioca pudding. Verdon felt it was beneath him and tapped out in 1965.
Unfazed, Woman Chicken Johnson hand-picked Swiss-born New York lodge chef, Henry Haller, as Verdon’s successor, per a 2010 interview with the Gerald R. Ford Basis. Haller was, nevertheless, forewarned by the FLOTUS herself that pleasing the president wouldn’t be simple. Certainly, it was not, with Johnson rapidly discovering fault in Haller’s dealing with of Florida pole beans — he had left the stringy stems intact. Johnson’s response was to only do it himself after which hand a fistful of stems to Haller, together with a warning: by no means once more.
To his credit score, Haller, who died in 2020 on the age of 97, had no drawback with Johnson’s brusqueness. “I imply, the President was proper, however he was very well mannered, he known as me ‘Mr. Haller,'” Haller stated within the above interview. “He might have known as me one thing else, you realize.”