Capital Call

Posted: February 3, 2010

Washington, D.C.-History was made on a sunny October afternoon in the garden of the White House when a small blond dynamo from Cuba by way of Hoboken came to cook. If Maricel Presilla wasn't the first woman invited as a guest chef by the White House, her Ph.D. in medieval Spanish history, her two artisanal Pan-Latin New Jersey restaurants (Zafra and Cucharamama), and her five James Beard Award nominations (as a writer as well as a chef) qualified her as a singular presence in the nation's top kitchen.

Presilla also played culinary pioneer, foraging in the White House garden seeking inspiration for her 400-person buffet. Who knew she'd discover fresh tomatillos among the parsley and a satisfying variety of chiles? She instantly concocted a salad with the tomatillos and the arbol chiles. She used White House honey to glaze the slab bacon for her fresh corn polenta and adapted her Bahian black-eyed peas to accommodate the garden's fennel.

Adaptability. That's a specialty of Presilla, too.

The great honor of cooking at the White House came as a total surprise when the White House tracked her down on a trip to Peru. Could she cook for the next of the White House's monthly music festivals? Certainly. When? Well...in two weeks. Not only did Presilla have to get herself back home from Peru in a hurry, the White House wanted her to quickly submit ideas, accompanied by recipes.

The countdown began. "I was working away at the dessert," Presilla explains, when she finally asked who was going to be the featured chef, hoping it would be some star like Rick Bayless. The White House response was that Presilla wasn't doing just dessert, she was the chef, to be assisted by the White House kitchen staff. She'd been picked from a list the White House had compiled of Latin American chefs.

Why her? She thought she might have been noticed from her recent feature in Gourmet magazine or Food Arts' Silver Spoon in October. Maybe, she says with a chuckle, it was because the article emphasized that she cooks frugally. She got the impression the party had a strict budget, and she focused on dishes based on corn, chiles, and chicken. "I got the idea they liked that."

Presilla arrived at the White House Sunday midday, accompanied by a couple of assistants for at least part of the time. She was not allowed to bring her own ingredients; the White House had done her shopping. Taro had been purchased in place of malanga-close but no cigar-but the correct vegetable was supplied the next day. The rum for her truffles was not what she'd requested, but the guests wouldn't notice the difference. With only a few glitches, the ingredients were going to be fine.

Her days began at 7:30 each morning and didn't end until well past 8 each evening until the Tuesday afternoon party. The kitchen staff were a mere handful, producing seven hors d'oeuvres and si xdesserts in massive volumes. The thousand pasteles alone ordinarily would require 20 cooks in a kitchen.

Presilla took it all in stride. "I really felt like an insider. As you know, there's nothing like the kitchen to make you feel at home," she says. "And I loved that kitchen. It isn't like a professional kitchen. It's small and really comfortable." Not every chef would consider that an asset.

She greatly enjoyed working with chef Cristeta Comerford, whose Filipino background seemed in tune with Presilla's ethnic pride. She found the diversity of the staff stimulating, having discovered co-workers from Trinidad, Peru, and El Salvador. She was enthusiastic about pastry chef Bill Yosses, who happens to be an old friend.

Otherwise, she wasn't an instant fit for the White House. She didn't really like making the kind of finger food and cocktail tidbits the White House envisioned. "Miniature stuff is not my style," she declares. Actually, she didn't mind making small portions, but she wanted it to be substantial fare. It was going to be a long, lively party. The 400 guests would be served hors d'oeuvres. Then there would be a concert with Marc Anthony, Gloria Estefan, Jose Feliciano, Los Lobos, and more. The finale was desserts.

Presilla's menu covered most of the countries in Latin America. From her Cuban roots came roast pork and malanga canapès with her signature Lulu sauce. The Honduran-Mexican enchiladas with chicken hash were served with Guatemalan slaw. A red chimichurri sauce accompanied Argentinean empanadas. She acknowleged Japan's influence with Peru in poached shrimp with Nikkei coleslaw, miso dressing, and dried seaweed. Among the six desserts were mazamorra morado, which Peruvians feast on throughout October, and a hot chocolate that dates back to 1649, its color intensified by achiote seeds. Chocolate/coffee crëme brûlèe, chocolate truffles, and chocolate/cheese flan are at home everywhere, though more distinctly Latin with Presilla's garnishes of hibiscus flowers and candied cacao beans.

The dish that seemed to make Presilla most proud was Puerto Rican pasteles, hand-wrapped in banana leaves by the thousand, her version named after new Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor.

Presilla couldn't wait to serve them to their namesake. Even role models have role models. -Phyllis Richman