The White House pastry chef has retired after twenty-five years of service. A native of France, Roland Mesnier was hired by former First Lady Rosalynn Carter in 1979. Mesnier became the sole pastry chef for the White House, which allowed him to “mold and shape the pastry kitchen into his own.”

Mesnier insisted all desserts made in the White House would come only from the White House, causing him to work endless hours. Mesnier recalled making 1500 cookies without any assistance and another time creating a half ton of fruitcake by himself. He has prepared hundreds of desserts for State Dinners over the years—never once making the same dessert twice.

Mesnier revealed some tidbits in video provided by the White House, such as he knew of no President who ever snacked between meals; and First Dog Barney is not allowed to have sweets at the decree of President Bush and First Lady. According to Mesnier, on one occasion he met Barney in a White House elevator and the dog started licking his shoes: “And what was one my shoes? Bits of sugar, flour, chocolate and butter cream. So Barney got his dessert after all.”

 

In answer to a question about desserts at state dinners, Mesnier responded:

When we do a State Dinner, it is usually a very long series of different desserts that we put together to make one main dessert or two desserts. Usually we have on the platter, serving 10 people, the main dessert complemented by fresh fruit pieces, or some scoops of ice cream depending on what the dessert is. On the other hand, we have another presentation of cookies, homemade chocolates, candy, and that usually is the centerpiece of the tray. To give you an idea, for state dinners, one of the Italian state dinners we had blown sugar swans, for India we had chocolate white tigers, for Kenya we had blown sugar giraffes. We always try to do something different for the visiting head of states.

Even the White House generates culinary trivia…