A White House Garden Cookbook Stands Alone

April 19, 2010 - PRLog -- Some 10 months ago Boston Globe contributor and cookbook author (The Boston Chef’s Table and coauthor of New England Soup Factory Cookbook) Clara Silverstein told Michelle Obama’s press secretary that she was working on a book chronicling the new kitchen garden, a book with recipes. The White House agreed to put Ms. Silverstein on its garden and state dinner press lists, but sounded a discouraging note: at least four dozen other writers were working on the same book.
Clara Silverstein and her editor, Red Rock Press Creative Director Ilene Barth, discussed this. The editor counseled her author, “I never expected to be out there alone with a book on such a hot topic. Your job is to report it thoroughly and write it beautifully. Our job is to help you, and to make the book look as good as it reads. We already know your book will be different from the others.”
Indeed. Weeks earlier the author and editor had decided the season-by-season narrative of the garden’s first year would include recipes from the Obamas and their White House chefs, other presidential households and community gardens across the country.
It was important to the author that the community gardens she drew on included children as gardeners, as the White House Garden did, and encouraged kids to help prepare what they’d grown.
“I'm impressed that Michelle Obama has not only talked about how kids can eat healthier, she has created a garden on the White House lawn to show everyone how it can be done.  Kids around the nation really do like vegetables—I have personally tested and tried nearly 100 kid-approved recipes, even for broccoli and spinach.”
Next month, Red Rock Press ships bookstores A White House Garden Cookbook which contains a fitting four score and seven recipes, starting with suggestions for spring greens and ending with dishes prepared by White House chefs for Presidents Day 2010: turkey lasagna, green salad with honey vinaigrette and Orange Yogurt Cake with Baked Apples. The salad uses winter spinach grown in the sheltered wintertime “hoop house” garden at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Both the salad dressing and desert employ honey duly manufactured by White House bees in the First Hive erected on the lawn.
The book also looks great, and among its many photos are some taken by the author that give readers a view of the garden not available elsewhere. For instance, the book’s back cover shows cartons of just-picked fall vegetables on the lawn right outside the White House.
As for the competition---there isn’t any.  “I’m so surprised,” said Red Rock Press’s Ilene Barth, a former Newsday book critic and senior editor. “Did Mrs. Obama’s press office scare them, or are they just taking a long time?  But I’m not worried. Clara’s book is just on time, and it’s good. And that means A White House Kitchen Cookbook is not just a one-season wonder.”

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