Henry Haller, Chef for Five Presidents, Dies at 97
Henry Haller’s entree to the White House came in late 1965, after the executive chef hired by the Kennedys had quit, finding it beneath his dignity at long last to prepare food like the spare ribs, spoon bread and mashed garbanzo beans requested by the subsequent White House occupants, Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson.
Mr. Haller, a pragmatic and versatile Swiss-born chef, had impressed Johnson by preparing meals for him at the Ambassador Hotel during the president’s trips to Manhattan as a senator. He got the job and would go on to become the longest-tenured executive chef in White House history.
From 1966 until his retirement in 1987, Mr. Haller catered to five presidents of varying politics, temperaments and palates, whipped up comfort food for their families, oversaw 250 state dinners and endured several tempest-in-a-fondue-pot controversies.
Mr. Haller, who lived in the Washington suburb of Gaithersburg, Md., died on Nov. 7, his family said. He was 97.
The White House kitchens were originally run by slaves, then an assortment of military stewards and mostly unremarkable professional chefs, each brought in by whatever president was in office. That all changed in 1961, when Jacqueline Kennedy reorganized management of the Executive Mansion to reflect its status as an international showplace. She hired the French-born René Verdon as White House chef, the one who lasted two years into Johnson’s presidency before resigning in frustration.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/18/us/politics/henry-haller-dead.html