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A look at the President\\u2019s kitchen and some of the first cooks to feed the Founding Fathers\\u2014Hercules and James Hemings\\u2014the enslaved chefs of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.
\\n\\nHercules, described as a \\u201cdandy,\\u201d had eight assistants\\u2014stewards, butlers, undercooks, waiters. He cooked in a huge fireplace\\u2014hearth cooking. He walked through the streets of Philadelphia in a velvet waistcoat, with a gold-handled cane. When Washington was getting ready to leave Philadelphia to return to Mt. Vernon, Hercules escaped. Washington sent out search parties and offered rewards. Hercules was never found.
\\n\\nIn 1784, Thomas Jefferson was appointed minister to France.\\xa0He took with him his body servant, 19-year-old James Hemings (the brother of Sally Hemings), to master the French style of cooking. Hemings apprenticed with well-known French caterers and pastry chefs and\\xa0assumed the role of chef de cuisine in Jefferson\\u2019s kitchen on the Champs-Elysees, earning $48 a year.\\xa0In 1793, Hemings petitioned Jefferson for his freedom. Jefferson consented upon one condition\\u2014he must train someone to take his place.\\xa0After teaching his brother, Peter Hemings, the cooking techniques he had learned in France and at home, James Hemings became a free man.
\\n\\nThese stories begin\\xa0a long connection of presidents and their African American cooks, including the story of Zephyr Wright, President Lyndon Johnson\\u2019s cook who worked for the family for 27 years. Johnson spoke\\xa0to Zephyr Wright\\xa0about the\\xa0Civil Rights Movement and the March on Washington. She attended the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964\\xa0and\\xa0Johnson gave her a pen he used to sign the document.
\\n\\nFeaturing interviews with: Jessica Harris, Culinary Historian and author of The Welcome Table: African American Heritage Cooking; Historian Willliam Seale, author of The President\\u2019s House; Chef Joe Randall, founder of African American Chef\\u2019s Hall of Fame; William Woys Weaver, food historian and author; Sharron Conrad, African American food historian. Special thanks to the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum and Michael L. Gillette for use of Zephyr Wright\\u2019s oral history.
\\n\\nThe Kitchen Sisters Present is produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Davia Nelson & Nikki Silva) and Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell. Part of Radiotopia from PRX, a curated network of podcasts created and owned by independent producers.
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