The president's kitchen

American Visions, Feb-March, 1995 by Sharron E. Wilkins

The intimate link between black cooks and presidents dates back to George Washington. Long before he assumed the presidency, Washington was accustomed to welcoming both friends and strangers alike to Mount Vernon, his grand Virginia home. His guests were served sumptuous meals prepared by slave cooks, one of whom, Hercules, was especially esteemed for his culinary mastery. Indeed, Hercules often traveled with Washington to the presidential mansion in Philadelphia, in the days before the District of Columbia became the nation's capital.

Martha Washington's grandson, George Washington Parke Custis, remembered Hercules as "highly accomplished and [as] proficient in the culinary art as could be found in the United States." Hercules' skills and energies went far beyond mere cooking. He helped manage Washington's kitchen, which at one point contained a German cook, Jacob Jonus, and two French cooks, Peter Gilling and a man named Lamuir. He managed with a high regard for propriety, performance and pomp. "Under [Hercules'] iron discipline, woe to his underlings if speck or spot could be discovered on the table ... or if the utensils did not shine like polished silver. ... His underlings flew in all directions to execute his orders, while he, the great master-spirit, seemed to possess the power of ubiquity, and to be everywhere at the same moment," one observer wrote.

One can envision the scrupulous Hercules in the heat and bustle of an 18th-century kitchen. Assisted by a crew of stewards, butlers, undercooks and waiters, operating over a fireplace, he is busy creating such delicacies as trifle, a sponge cake soaked in wine and layered with custard; almond pudding; fricassee chicken; and beefsteak and kidney pie. The fireplace is full of a series of iron pots. Hooks and cranes are readily visible, and the cook--anxiously watching over the fires--uses them to check on the pots located at the back of the fireplace. To bake Martha Washington's famed "Great Cake"--consisting of 10 eggs and one peck of flour--Hercules builds a fire to heat the walls of the brick oven, and then gauges the temperature, using either his hand or a slip of paper.

If George Washington initiated the link between black cooks and the presidency, it was our country's third president, Thomas Jefferson, who forged the enduring pattern between African Americans, haute cuisine and the White House. Long before he assumed the presidency, Jefferson had sought a French chef to train one of his slaves in the art of fine cooking. This intention was amended in 1784 when Jefferson, as minister to France, was sent to Europe to negotiate treaties of commerce for the new republic. He decided that his body servant, James Hemings, was to journey with him "for [the] particular purpose" of mastering the French style of cooking. Hemings' culinary apprenticeship began under caterer Monsieur Combeaux and continued with a pastry chef in the household of the Prince de Conde.

Before long, Hemings assumed the role of chef de cuisine in Jefferson's kitchen on the Champs-Elysdes, earning 288 livris ($48) annually. Although under French law he could have claimed his freedom at any time he was residing there, Hemings chose not to do so--of reasons that remain a mystery. Hemings returned with Jefferson to New York, and in 1790 followed him to Philadelphia when Jefferson became America's first secretary of state. In a city with only 210 slaves, surely Hercules and James Hemings were each aware of the other's existence--and probably would have had amazingly intimate knowledge of the households and personalities of two of America's greatest men.

In 1793, Hemings entered into a manumission agreement with Jefferson. In that contract, Jefferson wrote that "if the said James shall go with me to Monticello ... and shall continue until he shall have taught such persons as I shall place under him for the purpose to be a good cook ... he shall be thereupon made free." In April 1796, having fulfilled the terms of the manumission agreement by having taught his brother Peter the cooking techniques that he had learned in France and the United States, James became free. He departed Monticello, leaving behind him only a well-written inventory of the kitchen and some recipes, both composed in his own hand.

It is entirely possible that the news of Hemings' emancipation--and the contrast with his own position--encouraged Hercules to run to freedom, for he escaped late in 1796, roughly seven months after Hemings had acquired the liberty of his person. After initially resolving to purchase another slave to take the place of the escaped cook, Washington ultimately took steps to get Hercules back. He authorized a former steward, Frederick Kitt, to "hire someone who is most likely acquainted with his haunts, to trace them out," urging him to use only "indirect inquiries" because "if [Hercules] was to get the least hint of the design he would elude all your vigilance." But Hercules' skills as a cook and travels with the president seem to have secured him many friends--or at least the ability to function independently in a white world--for he was never recaptured.