Early on Easter Monday morning, the Easter Bunny found Kemp, Spencer, and yes, yours truly, on the South Lawn of The White House rolling eggs with thousands of enthusiastic fellow Americans. Although the ticket lottery was open to all, we were there thanks to chef Cliff Wharton of TenPenh, whom White House Chef Cristeta Comerford had invited to participate in one of the day’s events called “Play With Your Food” – part of the First Lady’s initiative to combat our nation’s epidemic of childhood obesity.
Cliff demonstrated a dish that parents can prepare in under 15 minutes – and that kids will love [including this big kid, herself – it’s one of my favs on the TenPenh appetizer menu…]: Filipino Summer Rolls with rice noodles, chicken, and shrimp. Other local chefs included Robert Wiedemaier and Art Smith [Oprah’s former personal chef and a favorite of the First Couple, fairly new to Washington from Chicago]. But among many celebrities [culinary, political, and otherwise!] the undisputed star was the Easter Bunny.
On one side of the TenPenh team [which also included chef owner, Jeff Tunks] was Art Smith, and on the other side was the White House culinary team which in addition to chef Cris included another familiar face: chef Tefari Campbell. I met Tefari 2 years ago when I was assisting in the PR for the Great American Seafood Cookoff where famed competitors like Paula Deen and John Besh in 2004 going at it spatula to sauce pan! Tefari was one of the leading contenders in 2008. He made Maryland proud. Now I am even more proud to see that he is pursuing his passion in cooking and has landed a plum position working with an extremely talented chef, Cris Comeford. I got to know Cris when she came and proudly executed a wonderful meal and cooking class at TenPenh restaurant with Cliff Wharton, highlighting the Philippines and its culture. And of course they would being both Cliff and Chris were born in the Philippines.
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