A Meal Fit for McCain, Hill, Barack or Even…You!

As the nation tuned in tonight to watch the results of Super Tuesday pour in, a small group of journalists got a taste of what the next president might be eating when he or she stays in New York. The Presidential Suite of the Waldorf-Astoria hotel, the New York home away from home for every sitting president since Herbert Hoover, is a surprisingly compact (2,000-square-foot) habitation thirty-five stories above Park Avenue. For the past twenty-three years, when the time has come for a meal in the Presidential Suite, the commanders-in-chief have called upon John Doherty, the hotel's executive chef. In other words, Doherty has cooked for presidents Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush #2. And now, he'll cook for you (and your good friends), too. What does it take to sup like the president does? Book the Presidential Suite (cost, from $7,000 to $10,000 per night, depending on length of stay) and for $330 per plate, you, too, can dine on seared scallops with potato-chive mousseline (as Bill Clinton did in 2000); poached turbot with champagne-caviar sauce (as Ronald Reagan did in 1985); roast rack of lamb with saffron potatoes, candied eggplant and pickled onion (as George H.W. Bush did in 1992); and the so-called Chocolate Extravaganza (which George W. Bush tucked into in 2007). See dishes below. Designed to resemble the décor in the big house on Pennsylvania Avenue, the accommodations in the Presidential Suite contain artifacts including a rocker bequeathed by John F. Kennedy (which yours truly tried out, see below)and crystal sconces provided by Richard Nixon. Although Doherty swears he never fielded any outrageous culinary requests from residents of the Oval Office, he admitted that his least challenging meals were the "pasta and vegetables" so favored by Bill Clinton. The only MENU no-no's were super-rich foods during the Reagan years (the Gipper suffered from diverticulitis) and of course, broccoli, which was verboten during the tenure of Bush #1. %%showphotos [setid=72157603859709085]%%