Healthy breakfast at the White House with Sam Kass

Alright, I'm fessing up as it's nearing Valentine's Day next week. I have a slight crush on White House chef and 'food initiative coordinator' Sam Kass (must be his shaved-head, focus on fresh, seasonal food and his work with kids to get them eating and cooking better). As a series of NBC Today Show interviews highlighted last week, First Lady, Michelle Obama and McSteamy-in-the-kitchen Sam Kass will soon be launching a campaign to lower childhood obesity and improve nutrition...getting kids involved in the kitchen and promoting "healthy eating, healthy families". Check out the Today Show clip and cutie-chef Sam Kass cooking up a healthy breakfast with some local DC kids. Sam, you can cook me breakfast any day!

Food Fight in the White House

Though the inauguration is now a week behind us, the throw down that's been stirring in the White House kitchen is just starting to simmer down...and I'm not talking "Iron Chef". There's been quite a bit of chatter and chiding the past few months over how President Obama and his family would change the way the White House, and a good portion of the U.S., eats. Renown and pioneering chefs like Alice Waters, Tom Colicchio, Danny Meyer, Ruth Riechl and one of Obama's favorites, Rick Bayless, formed the 44th Prez's informal "kitchen cabinet" and have been urging a new focus on sustainable, organic, seasonal and local foods...along with a vegetable garden to be planted behind the White House. Incredible, reforming idea, but as it turns out, it's not so new. Former President Bush's executive White House chef Cristeta Comerford has been focusing on organic and seasonal foods for years and has been chosen to stay on as the Obama's main chef. Regardless of which chef is at the helm, I'm very hopeful that the Obamas' love for great food and for good health will have an impact on our society -- encouraging Americans, particularly children, to take a closer look at what we put on our plates. Yes, I realize I write on this topic often (citing the words and writings of Michael Pollan, Alice Waters, Mark Bittman and the like), but if the political shift can take another turn towards fresh, wholesome food over the next 4 years, that'll be quite an accomplishment.
Photo credit: Flickr.com - by Whipped Bakeshop