Pasia Family of Morton Grove, IL Video
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From: Felynn.Haberecht@wellsfargo.com
To:
lgabriel@harris-assoc.com, canfernandez@hotmail.com, Claudia.L.Hughes@wellsfargo.com
Subject:
A washingtonpost.com article from: Felynn.Haberecht@wellsfargo.com
Date:
Tue, 23 Aug 2005 15:57:46 -0400 (EDT)
You have been sent this message
from Felynn.Haberecht@wellsfargo.com
as a courtesy of washingtonpost.com
Hail to the
Chef
By Jose Antonio Vargas
She's come a long, long,
long way, this former hotel "salad girl." Before she was hired as an assistant
chef in the White House in 1995, before first lady Laura Bush promoted her to
White House executive chef last week, Cristeta Comerford -- "Cris" to her
neighbors and co-workers here in the Washington area, "Teta" to her large but
tight-knit Filipino family in the Chicago suburb of Morton Grove -- was in
charge of a salad bar.
"That's what I called her, 'salad girl.' She
prepared Caesar salad, Cobb salad," says Juanito Pasia, Cristeta's older
brother, trying not to laugh. It was Juanito who drove Teta -- then 23, newly
arrived from the Philippines -- in his blue Ford van to and from work at a
Sheraton Hotel near Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. "Can you believe
it?" he asks, giving another hearty laugh. "Can you believe this is
happening?"
Ask the people who have worked alongside the
42-year-old Comerford around the world, whether in Chicago, Vienna or
Washington, and the answer seems to be a definitive yes. Her new position as the
White House's top toque -- a uniquely high-profile and sought-after celebrity
chef job -- is an affirmation, her former bosses and co-workers say, of the hard
work, focus, imperturbable demeanor and culinary talent she has shown in the
kitchen.
"Over and over and over again," says Walter Scheib III,
who as the former executive chef -- hired by Hillary Rodham Clinton in 1994,
then asked to resign by Laura Bush earlier this year -- lured Comerford to join
the White House kitchen staff in 1995. In the subsequent years, he adds, he
considered her not so much his assistant chef as his "co-chef." "She's an
all-around great chef, no question about it. Let me put it to you this way: In
the years that I've worked with her, there's been so many dishes she's made for
me, and I cannot think of anything she did that wasn't
good."
Comerford, who lives in a two-story Colonial-style home in
Columbia with her husband, John, and their 4-year-old daughter, Danielle,
declined to be interviewed for this article. The White House is planning a
"press event" in the first week of September to accommodate the hundreds of
requests -- "more than 500 so far and counting," says an overwhelmed Susan
Whitson, Laura Bush's press secretary -- to interview Comerford (who, the very
moment she made headlines, left for an already-planned weeklong family vacation
to Cancun, Mexico).
"White House taps 1st woman, minority as head
chef," read a headline in USA Today.
"Her résumé reads like a
classic American success story," read an editorial in the Chicago
Tribune.
The popular comedic news program "The Daily Show" weighed
in, with faux senior presidential correspondent Stephen Colbert reporting that
Comerford faces a tough confirmation battle (she doesn't, of course) because she
once deemed curried yams "too ethnic" (dubious, but funny).
* *
*
Cristeta Comerford is the second youngest of 11 children, with
six half brothers, one half sister and three full sisters. Everyone was everyone
else's babysitter.
Born in October 1962 in Manila, she was raised
in a working-class neighborhood of Sampaloc, near the sprawling campus of the
University of Santo Tomas, a Catholic school founded in 1611. Honesto Pasia, her
father, was an elementary school principal; Erlinda Pasia, her mother, was a
dressmaker. "So driven," says Cristeta's older sister, Ofelia Aguila, a design
director for the College of American Pathologists. "So
ambitious."
Erlinda, who's 78 and lives with Ofelia and her family
in Morton Grove, a 20-minute drive from downtown Chicago, has only one word to
describe her Teta: " Napakabait. " That means "very kind" in Tagalog, the
dominant native language in the Philippines.
" Tuwang tuwa ang
boong pamilia para sa kanya," says Erlinda. ("The family is very, very happy for
her.")
"I could feel within my heart that joy that is kind of just
overflowing," says Ofelia, recalling Teta's phone call telling her about the
promotion. "Then I thought of my dad. Oh, if he were still alive!" Honesto died
more than 10 years ago, before Teta started working in the White House. "He
would have been very, very excited over this."
The Pasia daughters
grew up in a house of food, with Erlinda as the perfectionist, hard-to-please
head chef. "It's either overcooked or too salty, she would say. Too little this
and too much that," says Ofelia. It was rare for the family to eat
out.
Filipino cuisine is determinedly eclectic, a mix of Chinese,
Japanese and Spanish influence. Erlinda can whip out a classic chicken adobo, a
kind of stew, or pancit canton, a kind of noodle dish, or lumpia Shanghai, the
Filipino egg roll, all staples of any Filipino party, not so much "by formula,"
says Ofelia, but "by instinct." The mother passed that gift on to her
daughters.
Encouraged by her family, Comerford studied food. She
attended the University of the Philippines-Diliman, in Quezon City, and majored
in food technology. Contrary to a news release issued by the White House,
though, she didn't complete her degree. Juanito, an accountant and the first in
the family to move to the States, had petitioned his parents, brothers and
sisters to let her join him there, and Comerford opted to leave school when her
visa was approved.
After stints at the Sheraton and Hyatt Regency
hotels near Chicago O'Hare, Cristeta, with her husband, who's also a chef, moved
here. She was a chef at two Washington restaurants -- Le Grande Bistro at the
Westin Hotel and the Colonnade at the former ANA Hotel. For six months, she
worked as chef tournant ("revolving chef") at Le Ciel, in Vienna, Austria,
sharpening her mastery of French classical techniques. Scheib, then the
executive chef at the White House, recruited her.
"As a chef, you
need a certain feeling, a certain way of putting food together, not just cooking
it but presenting it. It's hard to describe, but she has that feeling," says
Siegfried Pucher, her former boss at Le Ciel.
In her 10 years at
the White House, however, her specialty has been ethnic and American cuisine.
What pleased the first lady is the way Comerford can more than satisfy the
president with a lunch of enchilada or cheeseburger, then turn around to cook a
state dinner that pairs chilled asparagus soup and lemon cream with pan-roasted
halibut and basmati rice (with pistachio nuts and currants). In fact, the dinner
for 134 guests held last month in honor of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
won Comerford the job.
"For those back home in the Philippines, and
for the Filipinos who are working immigrants and naturalized citizens all over
the world -- and there are millions of us -- she is this wonderful, wonderful
example," says Greg Macabenta, a columnist for the Manila Times who lives in
California.
The Filipino population in the United States, according
to Census Bureau figures, hovers around 2.4 million, with almost half residing
in California. The New Jersey/New York area, as well as Hawaii, have substantial
Filipino populations, followed by the Chicago and Washington metropolitan
areas.
"She's one of our own, she's doing very well, and we share
in the pride," Macabenta says. "We want to tell our children, 'Hey look, don't
believe that canard about the glass ceiling in the United States. You can be as
good as the best of them in the world.' "
* * *
lgabriel@harris-assoc.com, canfernandez@hotmail.com, Claudia.L.Hughes@wellsfargo.com
Subject:
A washingtonpost.com article from: Felynn.Haberecht@wellsfargo.com
Date:
Tue, 23 Aug 2005 15:57:46 -0400 (EDT)
You have been sent this message
from Felynn.Haberecht@wellsfargo.com
as a courtesy of washingtonpost.com
Hail to the
Chef
By Jose Antonio Vargas
She's come a long, long,
long way, this former hotel "salad girl." Before she was hired as an assistant
chef in the White House in 1995, before first lady Laura Bush promoted her to
White House executive chef last week, Cristeta Comerford -- "Cris" to her
neighbors and co-workers here in the Washington area, "Teta" to her large but
tight-knit Filipino family in the Chicago suburb of Morton Grove -- was in
charge of a salad bar.
"That's what I called her, 'salad girl.' She
prepared Caesar salad, Cobb salad," says Juanito Pasia, Cristeta's older
brother, trying not to laugh. It was Juanito who drove Teta -- then 23, newly
arrived from the Philippines -- in his blue Ford van to and from work at a
Sheraton Hotel near Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. "Can you believe
it?" he asks, giving another hearty laugh. "Can you believe this is
happening?"
Ask the people who have worked alongside the
42-year-old Comerford around the world, whether in Chicago, Vienna or
Washington, and the answer seems to be a definitive yes. Her new position as the
White House's top toque -- a uniquely high-profile and sought-after celebrity
chef job -- is an affirmation, her former bosses and co-workers say, of the hard
work, focus, imperturbable demeanor and culinary talent she has shown in the
kitchen.
"Over and over and over again," says Walter Scheib III,
who as the former executive chef -- hired by Hillary Rodham Clinton in 1994,
then asked to resign by Laura Bush earlier this year -- lured Comerford to join
the White House kitchen staff in 1995. In the subsequent years, he adds, he
considered her not so much his assistant chef as his "co-chef." "She's an
all-around great chef, no question about it. Let me put it to you this way: In
the years that I've worked with her, there's been so many dishes she's made for
me, and I cannot think of anything she did that wasn't
good."
Comerford, who lives in a two-story Colonial-style home in
Columbia with her husband, John, and their 4-year-old daughter, Danielle,
declined to be interviewed for this article. The White House is planning a
"press event" in the first week of September to accommodate the hundreds of
requests -- "more than 500 so far and counting," says an overwhelmed Susan
Whitson, Laura Bush's press secretary -- to interview Comerford (who, the very
moment she made headlines, left for an already-planned weeklong family vacation
to Cancun, Mexico).
"White House taps 1st woman, minority as head
chef," read a headline in USA Today.
"Her résumé reads like a
classic American success story," read an editorial in the Chicago
Tribune.
The popular comedic news program "The Daily Show" weighed
in, with faux senior presidential correspondent Stephen Colbert reporting that
Comerford faces a tough confirmation battle (she doesn't, of course) because she
once deemed curried yams "too ethnic" (dubious, but funny).
* *
*
Cristeta Comerford is the second youngest of 11 children, with
six half brothers, one half sister and three full sisters. Everyone was everyone
else's babysitter.
Born in October 1962 in Manila, she was raised
in a working-class neighborhood of Sampaloc, near the sprawling campus of the
University of Santo Tomas, a Catholic school founded in 1611. Honesto Pasia, her
father, was an elementary school principal; Erlinda Pasia, her mother, was a
dressmaker. "So driven," says Cristeta's older sister, Ofelia Aguila, a design
director for the College of American Pathologists. "So
ambitious."
Erlinda, who's 78 and lives with Ofelia and her family
in Morton Grove, a 20-minute drive from downtown Chicago, has only one word to
describe her Teta: " Napakabait. " That means "very kind" in Tagalog, the
dominant native language in the Philippines.
" Tuwang tuwa ang
boong pamilia para sa kanya," says Erlinda. ("The family is very, very happy for
her.")
"I could feel within my heart that joy that is kind of just
overflowing," says Ofelia, recalling Teta's phone call telling her about the
promotion. "Then I thought of my dad. Oh, if he were still alive!" Honesto died
more than 10 years ago, before Teta started working in the White House. "He
would have been very, very excited over this."
The Pasia daughters
grew up in a house of food, with Erlinda as the perfectionist, hard-to-please
head chef. "It's either overcooked or too salty, she would say. Too little this
and too much that," says Ofelia. It was rare for the family to eat
out.
Filipino cuisine is determinedly eclectic, a mix of Chinese,
Japanese and Spanish influence. Erlinda can whip out a classic chicken adobo, a
kind of stew, or pancit canton, a kind of noodle dish, or lumpia Shanghai, the
Filipino egg roll, all staples of any Filipino party, not so much "by formula,"
says Ofelia, but "by instinct." The mother passed that gift on to her
daughters.
Encouraged by her family, Comerford studied food. She
attended the University of the Philippines-Diliman, in Quezon City, and majored
in food technology. Contrary to a news release issued by the White House,
though, she didn't complete her degree. Juanito, an accountant and the first in
the family to move to the States, had petitioned his parents, brothers and
sisters to let her join him there, and Comerford opted to leave school when her
visa was approved.
After stints at the Sheraton and Hyatt Regency
hotels near Chicago O'Hare, Cristeta, with her husband, who's also a chef, moved
here. She was a chef at two Washington restaurants -- Le Grande Bistro at the
Westin Hotel and the Colonnade at the former ANA Hotel. For six months, she
worked as chef tournant ("revolving chef") at Le Ciel, in Vienna, Austria,
sharpening her mastery of French classical techniques. Scheib, then the
executive chef at the White House, recruited her.
"As a chef, you
need a certain feeling, a certain way of putting food together, not just cooking
it but presenting it. It's hard to describe, but she has that feeling," says
Siegfried Pucher, her former boss at Le Ciel.
In her 10 years at
the White House, however, her specialty has been ethnic and American cuisine.
What pleased the first lady is the way Comerford can more than satisfy the
president with a lunch of enchilada or cheeseburger, then turn around to cook a
state dinner that pairs chilled asparagus soup and lemon cream with pan-roasted
halibut and basmati rice (with pistachio nuts and currants). In fact, the dinner
for 134 guests held last month in honor of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
won Comerford the job.
"For those back home in the Philippines, and
for the Filipinos who are working immigrants and naturalized citizens all over
the world -- and there are millions of us -- she is this wonderful, wonderful
example," says Greg Macabenta, a columnist for the Manila Times who lives in
California.
The Filipino population in the United States, according
to Census Bureau figures, hovers around 2.4 million, with almost half residing
in California. The New Jersey/New York area, as well as Hawaii, have substantial
Filipino populations, followed by the Chicago and Washington metropolitan
areas.
"She's one of our own, she's doing very well, and we share
in the pride," Macabenta says. "We want to tell our children, 'Hey look, don't
believe that canard about the glass ceiling in the United States. You can be as
good as the best of them in the world.' "
* * *
To be continued....
Published 8/25/05 ALT MSN Group
Web Page: Hail to the Chef
Published 8/25/05 ALT MSN Group
Web Page: Hail to the Chef
Subject: Hail to the Chef
ReplyDeleteBy Jose Antonio Vargas
Note: Proof once again that the American way of life is the only way.
Anyone can make it big and the only place is America!
Continued....
* * *
The White House kitchen, located in the East
Wing, is in a way the heart of the executive residence, with a style reflective
of the administration it serves. Eleanor Roosevelt offered the king and queen of
England hot dogs. Lyndon Johnson loved his barbecue (Texas style, naturally).
The Carters favored southern food, grits and country ham. Nancy Reagan, a
stickler for detail, had "tryout menus" of classic French cuisine for state
dinners and had Polaroids taken of how the food should be presented. And though
Hillary Clinton favored contemporary low-fat menus, Bill was famous for his
not-too-rare Big Mac cravings.
In the 44 years since the title
"executive chef" was introduced to the White House by Jacqueline Kennedy, only
five people have held the post before Comerford: Rene Verdon, Henry Haller, Jon
Hill, Pierre Chambrin and Scheib.
"Cris will surely bring her own
flair to this job. But the pressure is different now that she's the boss," says
Roland Mesnier, who was White House pastry chef for 25 years -- he retired in
July 2004 -- and worked with Comerford for nine years. He still remembers that
Chilean sea bass she asked him to taste, and goes on and on about how the fish
"was so very flaky and white and just extraordinary." "Hers is a job that is
extremely demanding, and she'll have to be focused at all times, which I'm
confident she'll be. In my experience with her, she doesn't do one day better
than another day. The minute she steps in that kitchen, the second she's in
there, Cris is focused."
She'll be paid somewhere between $80,000
and $100,000 annually, with no overtime, and will be in charge of five full-time
employees, though that number can rise to 25 for large parties, state dinners
and, of course, the White House Easter Egg Roll. She's an early riser, which
helps -- you never know just when President Bush, usually up at around 5:15
a.m., will want his breakfast.
So what will the White House kitchen
run by Comerford look like, feel like, taste like?
Only Comerford
knows.
The Comerfords returned from their vacation late Thursday
night. The next morning, the new executive chef was back at work.
E-mail forwarded by ALT Award-Winning Contributor
Fely of Toronto
We've got something to be proud of Executive Chef Cris Comerford. It's a great honor to be selected by Mrs. Laura Bush when she could have picked other chefs. You can tell the American First Lady has great taste!
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IS JOSE ANTONIO VARGAS NO LONGER UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANT?
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