Exclusive Look Inside the Blair House - 200th Anniversary
Interview Transcript
Jim Bell: Today, we're joined by Matthew Wendell, General Manager of what is arguably the most exclusive guest house in America, the Blair House, and we're celebrating their 200th anniversary. Good morning, Matthew.
Matthew Wendel: Good morning, Jim,
Jim: thank you for having us.
Matthew: Well, you're welcome. We'd like to welcome all our guests and make everyone a VIP at Blair House.
Jim: That's terrific. So we're standing at the front door, which is secure, I might add.
Matthew: Yes.
Jim: for security reasons. And Matthew describe this piece of American history.
Matthew: Well, this door is the original entrance, 200 years old, along with a floor. So every president since Andrew Jackson has walked on the these floors and still today with President Biden, the first thing you'll see is a is a portrait of Joseph Lovell, the first Surgeon General of the United States. He actually built the house for he and his family. Tragically, he and his wife died years later, and they had 11 children, and they were all orphaned and moved in with relatives. Then comes the Blairs. This is Francis Preston Blair and Eliza Blair. They moved in at the behest of Andrew Jackson. They wrote a pro-Jackson newspaper there, from Kentucky. They wrote a pro-Jackson newspaper called The Globe, so he convinced them to move to DC and support him.
Jim: So these are all beautifully gilded frames of original oil paintings of these people,
Matthew: Yes.
Jim: And it's just, it's museum quality,
Matthew: Correct. Then we come right into the Lincoln room. Now this was Mr. Blair's law office, but after Jackson's presidency, they became supporters of Abraham Lincoln, and they are credited with starting the Republican Party and promoting Lincoln into office. So you'll see a portrait over the mantle. It's the last portrait that Lincoln set for at the White House before his assassination.
Jim: It's a really large formal painting of Abraham Lincoln in another stunningly beautiful, gilded frame. And this is covered, really in Lincoln, everything is Lincoln. I guess that's why we're calling the Lincoln room.
Matthew: Well, pretty much the oval on this wall, this is Francis Preston Blair and his wife at the top the second portrait picture down is an engraving of Abraham Lincoln and his cabinet signing the Emancipation Proclamation. And standing at the far right is Montgomery Blair, who was in Lincoln's cabinet. Below that is a picture of General Sherman and his generals. And seated at the far right is another Blair's son, Frank Blair. And Frank, Frank isn't able to make the sitting of the photograph, so he's levitating a little bit off the floor, so they Photoshopped him in even in the 1800s
Jim: Wow. So the Blairs are truly a part of American history.
Matthew: Yes, they and their summer home was in Silver Spring. So that's Montgomery high school Montgomery county. All that is Blair. Montgomery Blair.
Jim: Okay.
Matthew: These cartoons, political cartoons from the 1800s are the Blair's original political cartoons from their paper The Globe. And Mr. Blair was the first to go to Congress and record what they were saying and report it out to the rest of the country, and his paper still exists today. It's called the Congressional Record.
Jim: Wow, amazing.
Matthew: In this corner, we have the last photograph of Lincoln, an original letter written by Lincoln. He used to come over and work at this desk,
Jim: And this is a beautiful oak desk.
Matthew: Yeah.
Jim: We're at the bust of Lincoln.
Matthew: It's a lot of history in this room. This is also where, at the behest of Lincoln, the Blairs offered Robert E Lee the command of the Union army. Of course, he had to turn it down, and that's a copy of his resignation paper.
Jim: Wow. Amazing, great history here in the Lincoln Room at Blair House. Blair House is approximately, from what I understand, 16,000 square feet.
Matthew: Well, the whole complex, is made up of four townhouses. Now that is 70,000 square feet.
Jim: Wow, that's a big house.
Matthew: It's a big house.
Matthew: This is the Blair dining room.
Jim: The chandelier is absolutely stunning,
Matthew: Yeah, and the gold guild is amazing. It's all hand-carved.
Jim: This is the molding, the crown molding above the ceiling. The ceiling heights here must be 14 feet.
Matthew: 14 feet. This is where they would have had their meals, the Blairs. This is also where in 1948 to 1952 President Truman lived in the Blair House. And this is where he would have all his Winston, Churchill, lot of presidents. Then we enter the Blair rear drawing room,
Jim: Another beautifully gilded chandelier.
Matthew: We you see the oldest piece in the house, the Chinese folding screens, hand carved and painted there from 1680 and they were made by a gentleman for a woman's 90th birthday, tells the story of her life in pictures, and on the back, it tells The story in Mandarin.
Jim: And then we have a really large painting of Daniel Webster over the fireplace.
Matthew: We have a Daniel Webster over this fireplace. And the in the front drawing room, we have Lord Ashburton. So he was the Secretary of State at the time, and Lord Ashburton was the British Foreign Minister. They are facing each other with their hands upon a treaty that they negotiated avoiding a major war, deciding the border between the US and Canada. The web strategy,
Jim: that's incredible.
Matthew: So they're placed here for symbolically to show you that diplomacy works,
Jim: diplomacy and food.
Matthew: Yeah, yeah,
Jim: that's what we're all about.
Matthew: So Jim, let's walk this way. Now we've entered the Lee house, what we call the Lee house. This is a house that the Blairs built for their daughter who married a cousin of Robert E Lee, and it's right next door. So when the government bought the houses in 1942 they opened up a doorway so they could use both houses.
Jim: So it's flawless. You just walk right from the Blair House into the Lee house.
Matthew: And this is where Truman, President Truman, had his offices in the lee house. He lived in Blair House, worked in the Lee House. Now you can this wallpaper in here. Is just it's one of a kind. It is beautiful. Hand-painted Chinese watercolor from the 1760
Jim: green, this green wallpaper is just breathtaking.
Matthew: It took about 2000 man-hours to paint it well. It came from Manor house in England. Was taken down and refurbished and given to Jackie Kennedy
Jim: So the Kennedy wallpaper, right? That's really cool.
Matthew: and no pattern repeats. It's all, all individual.
Jim: Beautiful.
Matthew: Come over here, Jim, and I'll show you President Truman's cabinet room.
Jim: President Truman, can you tell everybody why President Truman was spending so much time here?
Matthew: President Truman lived here because they gutted the White House entirely down to the walls. There's a great PBS documentary that tells the story of that renovation. That's when the piano leg of his daughter's piano was falling through the floor. So they thought it was time to repair those old beams. But this table here in the Cabinet Room, which is called the Lee dining room, this is Truman's actual Cabinet table.
Jim: Wow.
Matthew: So all the decisions that were made during his presidency, like the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, UN, NATO, joining the Korean War, was all at this very table.
Jim: So it looks like a Queen Anne-style dining room table, and you're truly making American and world policy. Truman was from a dining room from a dining room table.
Matthew: So every time the Koreans come and stay with us for a visit, they always have a meal at this table.
Jim: That's very incredible.
Matthew: Just to honor the connection between us and Korea,
Jim: And once again, it truly is a part of the whole series where diplomacy and food and history come together in such an iconic place as Blair House, and now we're in the Lee House.
Matthew: Yeah, you can't have diplomacy without food,
Jim Right.
Matthew: Well, come here. I'll show you Truman's office. So this was basically Truman's Oval Office. This is where he worked out of it's just a small, very small room. It is currently is dark brown velvet on the walls, padded with a picture, a painting of Truman over the fireplace, and then we have many landscapes scattered around the room. This was redone two years ago. Previously, it was all a red room, and this is where Nancy Reagan greeted her guest, famously, Margaret Thatcher was one of them when President Reagan died. So Blair House is used not only for visits but also for the family of former presidents when they pass.
Jim: So the Bush family was here recently,
Matthew: the Bush family was here. We're, you know, we'll, just be here for the next whenever that happens.
Jim: Now, this rug. This rug is fantastic. This rug is it looks like Washington, DC. Tell us about it.
Matthew: It is a rug, handmade rug, based on an antique map of Washington. But it's, of course, it's updated with all the current buildings you see Blair House, the White House, Washington Monument, all the monuments in the tidal pool. This rug was made by a rug maker named Elizabeth Aiken. And she makes the rug. She raises their own sheep, shears them, dyes the wool, and then makes the rug.
Jim: That is incredible.
Matthew: So it's truly farm the floor.
Jim: So one thing I'm looking at this is one of my favorite rooms in Blair House. I know we're in Lee House now, but one of the things that makes this place very special, this is not accessible to the public.
Matthew: Correct.
Jim: This is very private.
Matthew: Yes.
Jim: one painting that I love is of FDR that we're looking at right now. Can you describe this painting for us?
Matthew: Well, that's a beautiful painting. It's very large. It's of FDR seated in the Oval Office. And it shows you what a little bit about FDR's character, because he's seated behind his desk, and his desk is covered with knickknacks and tchotchkes of dogs and donkeys and all kinds of things. It's just a beautiful painting, and everyone who sees it falls in love with it.
Jim: He's so peaceful in this painting. So Matthew, do you want to tell our audience what's happening here at the Blair House? You guys are going through a little renovation yourself.
Matthew: We are, we are, every summer we close down and we do repairs and updates. This summer is a very huge update because of the 200th anniversary. So we're having a lot of furniture recovered. We're having new drapes all over the first floor. We're having all the wood floors on this level refinished and restained. We also send out yearly all the rugs to be cleaned. All the chandeliers will be cleaned piece by piece. They take them apart, one by one hand wash them. That takes about a week. So it's going to be big changes here and in the fall,
Jim: Terrific. It's beautiful.
Matthew: Let's go see some of the Blair House, China, and silver.
Jim: And what is this we're looking at?
Matthew: this is, well, this is our butler's pantry. So this is where the food is served out of. It's made in the kitchen downstairs, brought upstairs to the pantry, and served out of here. Most people it's a very, very large pantry, butler's pantry. Most people think this is the kitchen, but it's only
Jim: Correct this is the largest butler pantry I've ever seen.
Matthew: Yes, the best thing about it is we have sparkling water on tap. That's my favorite thing. But we have all our dishes here. Our dishes were made by Linux and four Blair House.
Jim. So you want to describe these to people.
Matthew: These are cream-colored with a gold rim and a monogram of Blair House on the top. Beautiful. And they're all hand-washed.
Jim: Wow.
Matthew: Everything in the kitchen is hand-washed.
Jim: So approximately how many plates do you have?
Matthew: We have probably enough for 200 place settings.
Jim Well, that's great.
Matthew: We have our glassware also made by Linux with the state seal on it. These glasses are the water glasses. They're fluted with this. State seal on the front and gold and a gold rim. Also hand wash.
Jim: These are absolutely stunning.
Matthew: Then we have our another pattern made by Tiffany for Blair House. This is a cream-colored with a flower pattern and a gold rim, and on the bottom, it says Blair House by Tiffany and Company.
Jim: That's fantastic,
Matthew: Designed by Tiffany for the Blair House.
Jim: It's really beautiful, really a testament to American China and glass, and it's so classic that Tiffany's and Lenox made this for Blair House.
Matthew: Yeah, yeah. Also, Tiffany made our flatware,
Jim: So we'll be seeing that soon, I hope.
Matthew: Yes.
Jim: I've heard lots of really interesting things about your silver collection.
Matthew: Yeah, we have beautiful silver closet, one that one of two that we have a lot of things are Blair Family Silver that we some of them. We use some of them. We can't. Okay, Jim, now we're on the third floor of Blair House, and we have a surprise. Everyone is off for always surprised. This is our beauty salon. Elizabeth Arden, red door,
Jim: Incredible. Elizabeth Arden, beauty salon across the street from the White House, in the Blair House.
Matthew: If you'll come in, we have a large area where you can sit. This is all mirrors, chandelier, of course. It's Blair House.
Jim: Of course.
Matthew: And you have, it's very retro, because it was, it was put in an 80s.
Jim: Okay, it has an 80s vibe to it.
Matthew: And there's two chairs for hair and makeup. We also
Jim: looks a little like Nancy Reagan
Matthew: and, yeah, yeah. Well, Elizabeth Arden actually donated all this stuff.
Jim: That is incredible, pretty much, from what I'm understanding, most things here are donated.
Matthew: Yes, a lot of them are donated. The Blair House is run by the Department of State protocol, and then we have a Blair House Foundation, which makes everything beautiful. They pay for all the upholstery, all the carpeting, all the wallpaper, everything. So that is all done with private funds, that is no government funds,
Jim: That is incredible. This is a real treat. This is actually a very large private salon.
Matthew: Yeah.
Jim: It's not small.
Matthew: and outside, you have a beautiful view of the Eisenhower Executive Building and the White House.
Jim: Perfect. Love it. Thank you. Sir.
Matthew: Now, Jim, we're walking downstairs from the third floor of this historic stairway. This is 200 years old, so follow me, and we'll go into the Blair Family Library.
Jim: This is undoubtedly one of my favorite rooms at Blair House. It's so cozy,
Matthew: Very quiet, very cozy, and it speaks to what our mission at Blair House is to make our guests feel at home, feel comfortable, because when they're staying with us, we consider this their home, so they use it as they like, and we have to make sure they're well fed, well rested and relaxed, so they can have productive meetings with the President or Vice President or Secretary of state.
Jim: So the windows in this room were really beautiful. There's a lot of natural light here. The room itself, if I could describe it, is very federal. You've got a lot of really federal moldings around the doors,
Matthew: Yeah.
Jim: This is very georgetowny, very period of the time. The bookcases are very interesting. They are six feet tall, and they line all the walls around the library. And then you have busts of different people and presidents and so forth, and photographs.
Matthew: We also have a collection of signed books of all the presidents and first ladies.
Jim: It's really beautiful.
Matthew: And then the books in the bookshelves are all, mostly all Blair family. So they had a very extensive library, and we even have some first editions.
Jim: Wow.
Matthew: So Jim, come with me down the back stairs.
Jim: Very different than the main the main stairs.
Matthew: But this is where staff usually goes.
Jim: So we're going down a back stairwell that's floors are lined with rubber backing so. People don't slip.
Matthew: Very industrial.
Jim: Very industrial, very small, very not what's in the main house.
Matthew: And we come out in the basement.
Jim: Okay, here we are.
Matthew: And I want to show you our laundry facility.
Jim: Wow, this is huge. This is a hotel-sized laundry.
Matthew: So we do all our laundry in-house. We do all our laundry, pressing, steaming, anything but dry cleaning has to be sent out, and we offer that for our guests as well.
Jim: That's terrific.
Matthew: You can see here we have commercial washers and dryers.
Jim: This press is a linen press, correct?
Matthew: Correct.
Jim: You use that for sheets.
Matthew: And sheets and napkins and tape cloths.
Jim: You're essentially running a guest house or a small hotel.
Matthew: Right, The most Exclusive Boutique Hotel.
Jim: The most exclusive boutique hotel in the world
Matthew: Right.
Matthew: Now, let's go see the kitchens.
Jim: Let's do it.
Matthew: If you walk down the hall, you'll see the halls are lined with equipment.
Jim: We're right outside the kitchen.
Matthew: right outside the kitchens, but we know the kitchens are large, but you got to have so much equipment. So we use this space to pans and containers and everything that could be outside the kitchen to use. Come here and meet the chef.
Jim: So we're walking into one side of this really enormous kitchen. There's Chef James, nice to meet you, and I think we're going to see some silver first. Perhaps
Matthew: Sure.
Jim: was that okay?
Matthew: Yeah.
Jim: And then we'll come back and cook with Chef James.
Chef James: Yeah.
Matthew: So Jim, while we're walking around here, we just went into our flower shop. Blair House has its own flower shop, of course, because we like fresh flowers in the house, so we have pretty extensive counter space, two large coolers with fresh flowers, and then we have a very large cooler over here, Just like a flower shop.
Jim: Wow. This is huge. So this is a walk-in cooler for flowers. Yeah, this is great.
Matthew: And we get flowers delivered. We have our person that comes and arranges them, or we do some ourselves.
Jim: So all the flowers are done here in house.
Matthew: Yes.
Jim: it's great.
Matthew: So Jim joining me in this Silver vault.
Jim: So we're in the pantry upstairs, and this is a very large vault we just walked into.
Matthew: Yes, like a bank vault.
Jim: Yes.
Matthew: All secure. You have to call security when you're opening it because it's alarmed. All we have all our silver Well, we have two silver vaults.
Jim: This is the most silver I've, I've ever seen.
Matthew: This is the silver we use the most. And here we have our Tiffany silverware.
Jim: So Tiffany, a company, made this for you,
Matthew: Custom made for Blair House.
Jim: It's spectacular,
Matthew: Heavyweight.
Jim: yeah. Oh, he's handing me a spoon here, which must, must weigh five pounds.
Matthew: But somehow it still seems to slip in some bus pockets.
Jim: So this is often the souvenir of too many people,
Matthew: Yes. sadly,
Jim: Well, it's beautiful sterling silver from Tiffany's, and you have little blue bags everywhere to prove it.
Matthew: Yes. And here we have all our Schaefers, our coffee service.
Jim: This is American diplomacy at its highest level.
Matthew: Yeah, yeah. All our serving trays.
Jim: I mean, it's just really stunning. Matthew, thank you for your time today. You really appreciate it.
Jim: We are joined by Chef James of Blair House. Thank you for having us.
Chef James: Well, thank you for coming.
Jim: We're in the kitchen, the main kitchen, the Blair House. This what are we making today?
Chef James: This is the hot kitchen. We have two kitchens here. Tell us about it. The hot, cold kitchen was the noisy kitchen.
Jim: Okay.
Chef James: So we are today. We're making some focaccia, which I make it all the time because we have a sourdough that I had started, oh, God, this is like 20 years old.
Jim: Wow.
Chef James: The sour and so I always make bread, and focaccia, focaccia in particular, because I love it.
Jim: So the focaccia dough you have on your greased tray right now your baking sheet.
Chef James: Yeah,
Jim: Absolutely stunning. It looks like it's herbed.
Chef James: It is.
Jim: So what are the herbs you're using?
Chef James: I used rosemary and another thing of what I picked out of my garden, rosemary, thyme, basil.
Jim: It's really beautiful.
Chef James: Thank you.
Chef James: Yeah, so we're just stretching it out now. And you try to stretch it and get it to fit your pan. I never, ever get it perfect. And I think that's the beauty of it is it's imperfection. And now that I've got it kind of evenly stretched, Ryan, our beautiful assistant will run this across.
Jim: So now you gotta proof it.
Chef James: The proofing, yeah, you'll proof it for us for a little bit.
Jim: So chef, tell us a little about yourself. Where you from?
Chef James: I'm from a small town outside of the city of Rochester, New York.
Jim: The accent comes through.
Chef James: It's very, it's very, yes, it is very strong. Yeah,
Jim: how'd you get into cooking?
Chef James: I'm one of seven children, and when my mom went back to work, we kind of took turns,
Jim: Okay.
Chef James: And I was a nerdy kid like I watched Julia Child.
Jim: love that,
Chef James: You know, we had four channels right right back then.
Jim: Sure.
Chef James: and PBS was one of them.
Jim: Sure.
Chef James: So, and I was fascinated by Julia Child, so I, I used to watch her all the time. And then I started cooking. And we took turns cooking for the family. And eventually, my sisters were like, yeah, no, this isn't, this isn't for us.
Jim: Sure.
Chef James: Just let…they all call me Jimmy. Just let Jimmy do it. You know.
Jim: I'm a Jimmy too. I get it. Yeah, with family, you're Jimmy
Chef James: Until you're 40 and bald, and then you become James or Jim.
Jim: Yeah.
Chef James: Which you haven't become bald yet.
Jim: No, hopefully, I escaped that virtue.
Chef James: Okay, and so I started cooking very young. That was, that was my thing. And we were Catholic, so I did a lot of stuff with church.
Jim: Sure. Picnics and dinners?
Chef James: Yeah, but I had a, like, a little bootleg catering business when I was, you know, as an altar boy,
Jim: Were we frying fish? On Fridays?
Chef James: Yeah. yes, and a lot of little baptisms and that sort of thing.
Jim: That's very industrious of you at a young age.
Chef James: I was, yeah, I was working very young.
Jim: So this is a tough job you have here. How did you get from there to here? You've been in this position a long time.
Chef James: No.
Jim: 10 years. That's a long time.
Chef James: Okay
Jim: In the world of chefs?
Chef James: not in comparison, because there are many people who have been here much longer than I. The executive chef has been here for 30 years. And then one of the other executive chefs has been here 20 years. Brian is the newest, but I'm kind of new to
Jim: So how did you get for Rochester?
Chef James: Oh, my goodness.
Jim: And you have a James Beard Foundation etching on your jacket.
Chef James: I'm I sit on the kitchen cabinet for the diplomatic corps. And so that was how I got this fancy jacket.
Jim: Explain that organization to us because it's a very important.
Chef James: it is an important organization. It is a group of collective chefs from all over the US, and it's a diverse group, which I really like, and it showcases just the talent of American chefs, and brings people around a table together and breaking bread.
Jim: That's wonderful. Yeah, that's wonderful. So what are we cooking today?
Chef James: Today we're going to do something that is kind of very Blair House when we have visits and such, we do sort of regions. And so I wanted to showcase a few American products, because that is in our mission. Like in the focaccia, I have the feta, which is a sheep's milk feta, which is made in, I think it's Wisconsin, but it's phenomenal. And sun-dried tomatoes are made out of think it's New York. But also here we're showcasing these, particularly these grits.
Jim: Those are beautiful.
Chef James: Are you familiar?
Jim: I'm from Atlanta.
Chef James: Oh, you okay. So you know about Jimmy Red Grits.
Jim: Yes, Jimmy Red Grits.
Chef James: Not everyone knows about them.
Jim: Are they from Charleston?
Chef James: They are. And they were green for a while, I did some reading on that.
Jim: So there's a real movement in Charleston, and please jump in. There's a real movement in Charleston to capture ancient grain, to grow them again.
Chef James: I think it was Sean Brock's.
Jim: Yes, yes.
Chef James: Great company, helped him.
Jim: That's terrific. And there's, they also do that with rice.
Chef James: I like Carolina Gold.
Jim: Yeah.
Chef James: They have, like, a rice called popcorn, rice.
Jim: Yes, and it tastes like popcorn.
Chef James: Taste like popcorn, butter, popcorn.
Jim: It's incredible.
Chef James: That stuff. Yeah, yeah, we use that. We will use that frequently, whenever we have a chance.
Jim: So critical question for you, Chef. This is make or break. Do you use water in your grits or milk?
Chef James: So I am going to use both. in these grits.
Jim: Okay, that's fair. That's fair.
Chef James: I am going to use both.
Jim: Because if you only used milk, I might have to end the interview.
Chef James: Yeah, no, I'm not, no. Although...
Jim: Because some people don't know how to make grits.
Chef James: So grits is nothing but fancy polenta.
Jim: Yes, it is.
Chef James: Polenta is nothing but fancy grits, right?
Jim: Right, 100%.
Chef James: And so being Italian-American, Brian is also Italian-American, we talk often about polenta and how polenta can be made venetian which is with milk
Jim: Okay
Chef James: or you make it with stock
Jim: It's like whole milk really fatty milk.
Chef James: Yes, yeah so I'm using half and half in this recipe so um we soaked it overnight.
Jim: So these are Jimmy Redd grits.
Chef James: I do want to talk about the history of that.
Jim: Please.
Chef James: So The reason why they brought this back, it was an heirloom corn that was native to here, to America. And the Native Americans had been growing this. And then they realized later on, under prohibition, that the dent, this particular brand, of very high bricks. So it makes good whiskey and it makes good bourbon.
Jim: It makes good bourbon.
Chef James: And that's probably one of the reasons why it may have gone out of fashion.
Jim: Interesting. So let me set the scene for this kitchen. This is one of the largest... kitchens I've ever been in it's also the cleanest kitchen I've ever been in I said that the first time I was here and i'll say it again today
Chef James: Thank you.
Jim: Chef you keep a fantastic kitchen
Chef James: we try you know but it there are times where it gets kind of chaotic down here um our kitchen is a little bit larger than the white house kitchen So we've been told. And a lot of people will bring this to a boil first. But what I'm going to do is I will watch it. That's why we have our lovely assistant, Brian. And we'll just kind of constantly stir it. And we have the... water that it
Jim: So you soaked these grits ahead of time?
Chef James: Yeah and I used the same water because why would I throw away that corn flavor right and that starch?
Jim: And by soaking them overnight it accelerates the cooking time
Chef James: It sure does
Jim: So you don't have to cook them all day.
Chef James: So right, because if you ever cooked coarse grits it takes a minute it takes a long time, uh so we have a little bit of salt here for these And thank you. Brian, you'll just keep an eye on these for us. And we'll throw some cream in there too. The mission for us is to use as many, is actually to showcase. I want to say to showcase. The best of American products. the best of American farming, the best of American viticulture and viniculture. So we only try as hard as we can to use good American products. So like our olive oil, for instance, is coming out of California. And we just started using this. But you could literally drink shots of that. It's just...
Jim: That's amazing.
Chef James: It's that umptuous and delicious.
Jim: The shrimp, are these from Georgia?
Chef James: They're Texas Gulf.
Jim: Really?
Chef James: Yes.
Jim: Not as sweet as George's, but that's a personal statement.
Chef James: Really?
Jim: I... I'm joking.
Chef James: I ate shrimp for the longest time and now I have a weird love-hate relationship with shrimp.
Jim: Yeah.
Chef James: But I chose this dish because of that.
Jim: It's a very American classic.
Chef James: It is very classic American. And like I said, when we do a region, we try to really go all in on a region. And so we're doing a little bit of Charleston today.
Jim: In a recent interview you did, I think a couple of years ago, when President Macron was coming, you described Thanksgiving, because it was that time of year, right after Thanksgiving. Oh, my God. You described that, which I thought was really fascinating, as the first diplomatic, American diplomatic meal. I think it was beautifully put that way. Please expand on that.
Chef James: On Thanksgiving or...
Jim: Diplomacy and food at Thanksgiving.
Chef James: I think that for chefs, I would say, one of the things that we really love is when... We bring people together around our table and we can share a meal. We can laugh, drink, and have a good time with people. And I think that is human nature. I feel like food and beverage and that sort of communal dining brings people together in a way that you can't do over a board table or a conference table.
Jim: I totally agree.
Chef James: So it's one of the things that we do is that we try to showcase America. And, you know, America isn't just one particular thing, right? We're a melting pot.
Jim: Yeah. I see you're putting a bay leaf.
Chef James: I'm putting a bay leaf in there. That's not in my recipe, is it?
Jim: It's very interesting. I haven't seen your recipe yet.
Chef James: Yeah, I'm sorry. So come on, we have to have our secrets.
Jim: Yeah. So we've got an American chef secret here, bay leaf.
Chef James: I know.
Jim: Which you will fish out? I will. Before you serve. Of course.
Chef James: Of course.
Jim: These are really great looking bay leaves on that end.
Chef James: Yeah, so for... Us, here at Blair House, when there's a visit, it's important that I think one of our biggest tasks is that people feel comfortable. And they feel comfortable like they're in their own home. One of the things I bet you Matthew has already mentioned is that when there is a visiting country, we fly the flag of the country that's staying here.
Jim: That's kind. I did not know that.
Chef James: Yeah, it's sort of like, you know, hey, you're home. This is your home away from home. That's great. And Blair House is such a crazy interesting institution in itself. I love the history of it.
Jim: I know you can tell stories about people who've been here. I get that. And I think all of our listeners understand that. Having said that, what's your favorite fun story of a visitor who's been here?
Chef James: Oh, I probably could tell this. One of the first, actually the very first person I ever cooked for was George W. Bush. He had knee surgery and was in for, there was some big meeting going on, but he was here for that. And so they offered him the house. All he wanted, and I was ready for everything. All he wanted was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Jim: That is so classic. I love that.
Chef James: And evidently, when I met Matthew, he was like, he loves those.
Jim: So Matthew Wendell was President Bush's former White House chef?
Chef James: Yes, he was. One of their chefs out at the ranch. And so, you know, I remember Meeting him.
Jim: Oh, classic. But here's very specific. Was it creamy or chunky?
Chef James: It was creamy.
Jim: It was creamy peanut butter. Do you remember the jelly?
Chef James: That was very specific. It was just, you know.
Jim: Grape jelly, whatever?
Chef James: It was grape jelly. Sometimes we make our own jelly here now.
Jim: So there's a presidential historic tidbit.
Chef James: Yeah. But when I met him, he was like the most... generous, warm and very genuine person. And he was he just said to me, are you the chef that made my sandwich? Yes, thanks. Thanks for that culinary challenge. He said, well, it was the best peanut butter and chili sandwich I've ever had.
Jim: There you go. I have had the opportunity of meeting him a couple of times.
Chef James: Yeah.
Jim: And he is just terrific. Laura Bush, I will say that, having met her twice as well, is one of the most beautiful first ladies we've ever met.
Chef James: She's a very, very sweet woman as well.
Jim: She's so beautiful.
Chef James: I would say that a second memorable cooking would be, was when they all were here for President George H. Bush's funeral, because the Blair House becomes the home for the family while the body lays in state.
Jim: Very important mission.
Chef James: They were very, very wonderful, wonderful people.
Jim: So we are sauteing right now.
Chef James: Yeah, we're sauteing off the sausage. Now, the recipe calls for andouille. And I do have andouille, but when we tried the sausage recently, and once a piece is warm, I'll give you a piece. It is a burnt and beef brisket sausage with jalapeno.
Jim: Look who came in the room for the sausage. Well, probably because he smelled good. Matthew Wendell. Yes. So as this is cooking away, we have our grits that are cooking away. The grits are being dutifully stirred by our sous chef.
Chef James: Yes.
Jim: Everything is smelling incredible. I wish people, I wish smell could translate in a podcast, but it doesn't. So I'm here to sacrifice myself This incredible smells that are coming out of this kitchen right now.
Chef James: So Jim, I do this in stages. First, I crisp up the sausage. Then I take the sausage out, leave the drippings, put the bacon in, take that out, leave the drippings.
Jim: Very luxurious. Three levels of flavor. And then cheese. Can I see some cheese? The cheese is going to go into the grits. We might see some cheese in the grits.
Chef James: We do, yes. Very exciting. You don't necessarily need it.
Jim: I might not leave the Blair house. I'm getting very comfortable here.
Chef James: Well, you'd be happy here with one of the many guests that have stayed so you know Blair House is coming on 200 years.
Jim: It's the 200th anniversary absolutely that's why we're here today so congratulations to you and the entire team here so many people are in your kitchen
Chef James: It really depends. Full-time on my team, there are four, five, six with me. And then when we have a visit, we have a roster of part-time chefs who will come and help. And so you had asked earlier one of the ways I made my way here. I moved to Washington, D.C. in 2000. 2000, and I used to work at a culinary school. And so the culinary school that I worked at was Baltimore International Culinary College. And then they had partnered with this Virginia school because they didn't have a bachelor's degree program. And then they partnered with Stratford University, who had a bachelor's degree program. And I had met...
Jim: Well, this is really sizzling, not to interrupt you.
Chef James: Oh, you're fine.
Jim: This is really sizzling and smelling great.
Chef James: So I had met the staff at Stratford, and... When I moved to Washington, DC, I was working as a personal chef, and I had a nice little client list going, but I missed teaching. So I had ran into the culinary director of Stratford at the Eastern Market.
Jim: Eastern Market on Capitol Hill for people.
Chef James: And he just, out of the blue, was like, hey, how you been? And, you know, I was telling him how much I missed teaching. And he was like, I need a teacher. Come teach for me. So that's what I was doing. And one of my Co-workers said to me, hey, have you ever heard of Blair House? And I'm like, no, what is that? I thought it was the dinner theater that is in Tacoma, was in Tacoma's Silver Spring area. That was the Blair Summer residence. It's near the Lincoln Cottage.
Jim: Okay, yes, yes.
Chef James: And I had no idea what it was. Came for an interview and I started here part-time in 2002.
Jim: Okay.
Chef James: Under the Bush administration. And then I worked part-time on and off for years. And I was working... at the State Department and the job became available. And I applied. I think Ambassador Marshall, Capricia Marshall, she had started the Dip Corps. She felt like we needed that anchor between Blair House and what was happening at State Department.
Jim: And you cook it both.
Chef James: My team does. But Jason Larkin, who's the executive chef over there, he kind of started this whole American food and wine program. And Jason's like one of those quiet assassin chefs. You can please taste one of those sausages.
Jim: Oh, thank you. I'd love to.
Chef James: Go right ahead. I'm now sizzling off the bacon. So Jason had started this whole...
Jim: Oh, my God. There's so much flavor in it.
Chef James: Those are awesome.
Jim: Yeah. You can really taste the brisket.
Chef James: Yeah. That's a new acquisition in this kitchen. We loved it when we tried it.
Jim: Yeah.
Chef James: American-made product.
Jim: That has so much flavor. That is not turkey kielbasa.
Chef James: So use any kind of sausage you want. You could use a smoked kielbasa.
Jim: But the flavor in that is really great. So right now we're sauteing bacon.
Chef James: Yeah, we want to crisp that up. Same pan. Same pan. Same drippings.
Jim: Our grits are coming together. I can see it from here. So you have to continually stir the grits so they don't stick and so they don't become lumpy.
Chef James: Or burn because of that milk.
Jim: Right. That's true.
Chef James: Jim, I'm going to run across the way to the cold kitchen.
Jim: Okay.
Chef James: And I just want to check on the focaccia.
Jim: Excellent.
Chef James: So Jason Larkin had started this program of the American food and wine over at the State Department on the 8th floor.
Jim: And your bacon is now super crispy.
Chef James: Yes, it is. And it's going to come out of here.
Jim: So Jason had a great reputation.
Chef James: He does. He's a quiet assassin. He's very quiet. And so when the job became available, I applied. I have to say, he had much more brilliance about where this would go than I did at the time. And Jason's very quiet and reserved. So prior to Jason working as a chef here at the State Department, we used to sort of try to mimic the food of the country that was visiting. And not very successful, always, I should say. Not, you know, because let's be honest, if you are traveling somewhere, right, Do you want to eat, I don't know, do you seek out a McDonald's if you're over, do you look for American food? No, you want to eat the food of the country. So he had started doing that whole thing here.
Jim: And I think- Chef, not to interrupt you, we're sautéing what now?
Chef James: in here we have our peppers onions these are red bell peppers shallot and while that's happening i'm going to do a quick marinade on the shrimp.
Jim: These shrimp from Texas these are beautiful and pink they've been deveined. They're number ones.
Chef James: They are $21.25.
Jim: $21.25.
Chef James: And we're going to just do this real simple. It's just a lemon juice and zest goes in there. And we're going to do a little bit of cayenne, salt and pepper, and a little smoked paprika. That's it.
Jim: There looks like a pound of butter.
Chef James: Well, that's hanging out there.
Jim: Where's that going?
Chef James: That'll go into the sauce at the end.
Jim: You're much more chef-y with this than I am.
Chef James: Not really.
Jim: No, it's just so beautiful the way you're putting it together.
Chef James: I guess maybe years of practice. The sausage is good.
Jim: Yeah. You have to tell me where we can get it. Is this available locally or retail?
Chef James: You know, I don't know if it's available. I do not know that. I'll have to show you the brand.
Jim: Sure, sure, sure.
Chef James: So you don't want to let this sit too long, Jim, because the acid does start to cook the shrimp.
Jim: From a lemon?
Chef James: Yeah.
Jim: And you turn it into a shrimp ceviche.
Chef James: Yeah, it would be. And shrimp takes on the flavor so quickly. So we're just going to put this all together.
Jim: So some minced garlic, I'm guessing?
Chef James: Yes, yes.
Jim: OK. Those grits are looking amazing. They look so fantastic.
Chef James: Don't they? I love the little speckles in there.
Jim: So just to describe the grits for people, they're not your plain white grit. These are stone ground grits that actually have black specks as a part of the corn.
Chef James: Right.
Jim: They look like basically peppercorns. It does. Right. But it's actually black ground corn kernels. So the grits are basically black and white.
Chef James: So we're close to pulling the grits, I think. Right, I'm going to give you just a little more water in there, OK?
Jim: The grits will continue to cook when you take them off. So Chef has added a little bit of water to make sure they're not too thick.
Chef James: You know, Jim, I don't know everything there is about every single region that we cook from. So I sometimes have to do a little bit of studying, which is how we came upon these particular grits. And I have to look at my cheat sheet too. So what we're going to do is we're going to add these shrimp to the pan with all the drippings. But only until they start to turn pink.
Jim: So he's sauteing the shrimp now. And those will basically cook for just a couple of minutes.
Chef James: Just a minute or two. It's not going to take very long for this to start turning. Because we'll finish cooking the shrimp in the sauce.
Jim: This smell in this kitchen is just heavenly. Brings me back to breakfast with my parents outside of Atlanta. My dad always cooked breakfast. My mother was never allowed to cook breakfast. Breakfast was his domain.
Chef James: You know, I wonder if that's a dad thing, because my dad cooked breakfast for us a lot on Saturdays.
Jim: Yes, yeah. No breakfast during the week, but Saturdays and Sundays.
Chef James: We had a box of cereal during the week.
Jim: Sure, 100%.
Chef James: Fruit Loops.
Jim: Here we go.
Chef James: We had a box of cereal, and you made your own lunch. I don't think kids do that anymore.
Jim: I don't know.
Chef James: Everyone that I know who has children has to put money on their account all the time. It's like they're always buying little lunch at school.
Jim: We love the school lunch program. Sponsored by your local FDA. Sponsored by the Farm Bill. Also, SNAP is a part of the Farm Bill, which is very important for kids' nutrition.
Chef James: You know, I think that it's important for us to remember that There are still places in the United States that are food deserts.
Jim: Yes. I do agree.
Chef James: And not everyone has the same access that we do here in Washington, DC. When I was growing up, if it wasn't strawberry season, it wasn't strawberry season. And now it's sort of year round. You can have access to food in some locations all the time. I'm going to pull these off now, and they will finish in the sauce. You see, I just keep collecting things in one bowl.
Jim: Right. Chef is putting the shrimp in the same bowl as the bacon.
Chef James: And the sausage.
Jim: And the sausage. So it will cool out of the frying pan.
Chef James: And I'm going to give the frying pan just a quick cleanup.
Jim: So do people drink here?
Chef James: They do, and they drink only American wines.
Jim: That's great.
Chef James: Jason Larkin, again, was responsible for starting that whole program. And he has really good sort of industry experience with vineyards and local vineyards and things like that. He had worked at the Inn at Little Washington.
Jim: Oh, fantastic. So that's, I think, where I know him from.
Chef James: That's kind of how he started that whole, hey, we need to be doing regional and American cuisine.
Jim: Yeah, that's great.
Chef James: And he brought me in to help him out. And that's how I ended up here.
Jim: So what are we doing in our saucepan?
Chef James: So now this is where those hunks of butter are coming into play.
Jim: We have about 10 pounds of butter going into the saucepan.
Chef James: No, no, no. It's only about three tablespoons.
Jim: Okay. Which means just two pounds.
Chef James: So we're going to make a slightly darker roux than normal.
Jim: Oh, great.
Chef James: So roux, as you know, is usually just flour and fat brought together until it's tan or blonde, we're gonna bring this a little darker.
Jim: Okay, so you're adding flour to the butter.
Chef James: We're gonna add the flour to the butter and combine the two of them.
Jim: We're gonna cook that down.
Chef James: Yeah, and I'll turn up the heat a little bit just so that we can expedite the process. But keep it stirred, keep stirring it, don't let it sit.
Jim: That's really important for people that don't cook very much. First of all, roux is very, very simple to make.
Chef James: Very.
Jim: But when you're using a nonstick frying pan, you need to always use something that's non-metal so it doesn't scratch your saute pan.
Chef James: You know, they make a lot of nice silicone products now for this, even whisks for these pans. So I am just now going to start browning it up, Jim. And then we'll add our stock.
Jim: So are we adding chicken stock to the grits?
Chef James: To this, we're going to add chicken and shrimp stock. The recipe calls for just chicken. You could do whatever you want. We had the shells. We made the stock.
Jim: So you make all your stocks in-house, of course.
Chef James: You know, we do. We also are big fans of, as many chefs are, you know, A quick bouillon base.
Jim: Right.
Chef James: You've got to keep this moving, otherwise it will burn.
Jim: Chef is cooking his roux very quickly. It's turning from a creamy yellow with the butter and flour, and it's going to develop that until it's...
Chef James: Dirty blonde.
Jim Dirty blonde, a little bit of a light golden brown.
Chef James: Yep. And then we can add in our stock.
Jim: Our sous chef is combining the chicken and shrimp stock into the grits and stirring vigorously. His arm's about to fall off. I'm worried about him. Do not let those grits burn. No, the podcast will be over.
Chef James: We'll both be out of jobs. We'll be out.
Jim: Very, very lots depending on the grits. And at this point, I'm so hungry, I could, like, you know.
Chef James: Food is right around the corner.
Jim: Because in front of me is some of the most beautiful shrimp I've ever seen sitting on a counter just cooling. They're calling my name. But I'm not going to touch them until they're ready.
Chef James: All right, we have enough color here. You see how that's...
Jim: beautiful yes, sandy sandy brown.
Chef James: Just start adding in stock slowly just like it is gravy
Jim: Everyone loves gravy my dad's favorite was white pepper gravy biscuits and i have to plug myself I was the biscuit baking champion of the state of Georgia at 10 years old I know. It's my highest achievement so far. It was downhill from there. That was a 4-H baking program.
Chef James: I was going to ask, was that a 4-H program?
Jim: 4-H program. I still have the little medal. Something I'm very proud of. Biscuits are a big part of Southern cuisine.
Chef James: I love making biscuits.
Jim: Biscuits make everybody happy.
Chef James: You know, baking in general is sort of one of those zen things.
Jim: Baking makes everybody happy.
Chef James: And I am going to whisk that just a little bit. Okay. And all I'm going to do, again, I pick some thyme. So we're ready there.
Jim: Beautiful fresh thyme.
Chef James: And everything will go right back into this sauce, Jim.
Jim: So we're grabbing the focaccia from the other side of the kitchen.
Chef James: Brian will bring it on over.
Jim: We have our beautiful shrimp. We're adding to your sauce. To the sauce. We've got the bacon, we've got the sausage, we have the shrimp, we have the sauteed peppers, garlic, onion.
Chef James: And we just want to just basically warm it through.
Jim: Beautiful.
Chef James: This will be ready. So Jim, this hot sauce that we're using is one of our local products that we love. This is out of Virginia, and it's called fish pepper sauce.
Jim: Is this sort of close to pick a pepper sauce?
Chef James: No, you'd have to taste it. This was made by... So the pepper was originally brought over from Africa by enslaved people. And a lot of them who worked in the eastern shores, in the oyster houses, would make this pepper sauce. and they just used it in the fish houses there. And so this company found this old recipe and they started making fish pepper sauce.
Jim: It's fantastic, especially with shrimp.
Chef James: It's awesome. Yeah. Probably one of my favorite hot sauces to use. Good there. OK, so that's good. We could start that plate up and then let's get the focaccia going in the oven, right? is nice and pillowy now and liberal be real liberal with your oil over the top like. Brian made a couple little dents that's that's all you need
Jim: so it needed to prove for 20 minutes 30 minutes
Chef James: it's about 20-25 minutes I overnight proofed this particular batch so it was a little cold when you arrived. Probably took a little longer than normal if it had been sitting out because this is made with a starter and it has a little bit of instant yeast in it. It does come up. quite nicely on its own. So I slowed the process down by refrigerating it overnight. And that's just a little vegan pesto that we make here. And we're going to top it with some olives and tomatoes. And this also will give you the little dents you want. You want to poke them in to the bread a little bit as you go along. We're using the feta. I love that. little acidic bite that it gives. I think one of the best ingredients we put in is kind of passion. We love what we do.
Jim: It's very obvious. So you're dotting this with tomatoes, with olives. We've had the pesto. Then you'll add some feta.
Chef James: Do you want your grits with cheese or without cheese, Jim? It's an important question.
Jim: Who doesn't like cheese?
Chef James: All right. Brian, you'll add that at the last minute, and then we'll do the plate up on that. Feta me, and then I could get this into the oven. A liberal amount of feta.
Jim: Yeah.
Chef James: We left it kind of chunky. It will, it's never ever going to melt, melt feta, but it will.
Jim: The landscape of the focaccia is really beautiful. The vibrancy of the tomatoes and the olives.
Chef James: Hair of sea salt on there. Let's pop that in and we'll give it a little steam in the beginning.
Jim: So we're going to pop the focaccia in the oven?
Chef James: So we have this beautiful oven that we can quickly set to steam if we want to throw steam on this, which we do.
Jim: Okay. So you're steaming the focaccia?
Chef James: A little bit in the beginning. Now, if you were at home and you had a little, maybe even a cast iron pan in the bottom and you threw some ice in, that would create steam in your oven.
Jim: Right.
Chef James: This one here, we're just going to pop up the steam.
Jim: Same effect if you're making bread or bagels?
Chef James: Same exact theory.
Jim: Right. Yeah. The steam is going to seal it to a certain extent.
Chef James: It'll actually help with the oven spring.
Jim: OK.
Chef James: So the yeast is not totally dead when it goes in, right? It has to wait till it hits above 130. And then it'll finally die off. Giving it that steam allows the top to still stay supple for it to spring off.
Jim: OK. Chef science.
Chef James: I love the science behind cooking, too. That is the geeky part of me. And I think Julia Child really did inspire me. That was, you know, she would explain those sort of things.
Jim: Sure. Her cookbook, one thing I love about her cookbook.
Chef James: Oh, my God.
Jim: have photographs of her hands. And the position of her hands when you're baking is very important. And someone had the foresight to photograph her hands in her baking book. And I learned a lot from that.
Chef James: I'm going to throw a hunk of butter just to finish this off.
Jim: So a little more butter.
Chef James: You never have enough.
Jim: Never enough butter. We love that.
Chef James: Bri, would you cut this steam off now all the way back down? Just take it down to like 20?
Jim: As Julia Child famously said, if you didn't have butter in your menu, your skin would fall off.
Chef James: You know, it's funny that you said pull these bay leaves out. Being one of seven kids, we ate very quickly. My sister once choked on a bay leaf and it was like minutes before anyone noticed because, you know, there's nine people at the table.
Jim: This is an amazing setup. So we're cooking at 413 right now at 20% humidity. This is the most incredible oven I've ever seen. This is a true commercial computerized oven. So with a huge ladle, he's now ladling the grits into our Tiffany, beautiful Tiffany china with a floral pattern, an American treasure unto itself.
Chef James: Yeah. We don't use these plates as often. And so whenever I get the opportunity to showcase them and use them, I love to use these.
Jim: So Chef is now ladling the shrimp sausage bacon mixture over the grits. It just looks so insanely good.
Chef James: I do hope you're going to enjoy this.
Jim: I wish everybody could see this. Chef, it's just stunning.
Chef James: Thank you.
Jim: I think you could probably come close to solving world peace. with these shrimp and grits. True diplomacy.
Chef James: If only, right?
Jim: Diplomacy on a plate.
Chef James: Go ahead.
Jim: Sure. Okay, I'm going to dive into the grits here. Oh, my God. This is so amazing. So the focaccia is now out of the oven. It's looking beautiful and golden brown.
Chef James: Thank you. this is don't be afraid of the dark right you know definitely have that nice crust on there and that's the olive oil that did that um so i'm going to give it just probably another minute or two in the pan and then while it's hot i do pull it out and put it on a rack so that the crust stays crispy all the way around.
Jim: terrific chef this has been an incredible day in your kitchen
Chef James: Thank you for coming to Blair House today.
Jim: Thank you for treating us to American classics here at Blair House to celebrate your 200th anniversary. Thank you, Chef.
Chef James: It's a pleasure.