Taste Trendsetters: First Ladies In The Kitchen

“Culinary Austerity”

Eleanor Roosevelt’s unfortunate menu preferences were a result of the economic times that befell America during that time. Because of the Great Depression, Roosevelt focused on ways that America could eat efficiently. Her sparse menu items were known as “seven-and-a-half-cent” meals because she could serve “two courses for only seven and a half cents per person, including coffee,” according to a story in The New Yorker.

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Roosevelt turned her attention to “intelligent housekeeping,” after visiting the home-economics department at Cornell University. She focused on scientific eating and housekeeping, trying to figure ways that the average American could get the most nutrition out of very little resources in an efficient way, which is why the meals she developed and served at her White House gatherings were not much to speak of in the flavor department. If anyone was invited to a White House dinner by Mrs. Roosevelt, they knew to eat before they got there.

Mamie Eisenhower

After Eisenhower took office, his wife Mamie was one First Lady who fully embraced the role of America’s housewife and White House hostess. She was known to clip coupons for the White House staff, famously saying “I would squeeze a dollar so tight, you could hear the eagle scream.”

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Before she and her husband, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, moved into the White House, she was quite frugal, managing the family’s expenses on her own. She kept leftovers and used leftover food, so nothing would go to waste. She loved making use of gelatin and frozen, boxed, and canned foods — making sure the White House kitchen staff made full use of those products, according to First Lady historian Carl Anthony.