HONG KONG - Serving meals for US President Barack Obama and his family is not as tough a job as outsiders like to think, according to White House executive chef Cristeta Comerford.
"The president and his family are very open to all different types of food. It's very easy to please them," Comerford, who emigrated to the United States from the Philippines in the 1980s, told AFP on a visit to Hong Kong.
"It's such a blessing to have that."
Obama's family love trying seafood such as Maryland blue crabs, and a wide variety of international cuisines, including Chinese dim sum and Vietnamese dishes, she said.
Comerford was appointed to head the White House's kitchen "cabinet" by former first lady Laura Bush in 2005, making her the first female and the first person of ethnic minority origin to hold the position.
Together with other chefs serving heads of states around the world including French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Comerford was invited to Hong Kong by a hotel group this week to sample local cuisine.
The group will also visit Macau and Beijing.
In addition to leading a team of seven full-time chefs for the White House, the executive chef took on an additional task under the Obama administration: tending to the White House Garden.
The organic plot, on a secluded part of the White House's south lawn, was an initiative launched by First Lady Michelle Obama last year to promote healthy eating habits across the country.
School children and volunteers were hired to take care of the plot, which grows a large variety of vegetables and herbs, the chef said, adding that the produce is used throughout the White House.
"We harvested more than 100 pounds of vegetables last year from the tiny plot. We hope to turn it into a four-season garden."
Comerford admitted it was always a challenge to cook for large state dinners with guests having very different dietary needs.
"You have to be cognisant of all of their different dietary preferences. But you also have to be very even-tempered.
"At the end of the day, you try to make most of them happy."
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