Cookbooks and Dinnerware

Resources listed in this section, while not always directly focused on presidential food and cooking, can help to provide background and a broader understanding of presidential foodways. Cookbooks can add a sense of place—whether it is John Kennedy's Hyannisport home, Abraham Lincoln's Sangamon County—or even Washington DC itself. Since the story of White House dining is about more than just menu selections and food preparation, some books on White House china and glassware are included.

The following materials include links to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to digital content are included when available.

Cookbooks
Glassware and Official China

These books include cookbooks and histories that can provide background and a closer look at the culture, time or place associated with particular presidents or first ladies.

The American History Cookbook for Students by Mark H. Zanger
ISBN: 1573563765
Published/Created: 2003
This book uses historical commentary and recipes to trace the history of American cooking from the first European contact with Native Americans to the 1970s.
Bibliography: p. 433-438
Colonial Virginia's Cooking Dynasty by Katharine E. Harbury
Call Number: TX715 .H258 2004
ISBN: 157003513X
Published/Created: 2004
Cookbooks of colonial and antebellum America contained recipes, medical cures, and housekeeping information that women of that time deemed necessary for family life, and serve as important social history documents. This book examines two books from eighteenth-century Virginia which afford give insights into lifestyles and foodways during the evolution of Chesapeake society. One of them is the 1739-1743 cookbook of Jane Bolling Randolph, a descendant of Pocahontas and John Rolfe.
Bibliography: p. 445-447
In the Kennedy Kitchen by Neil Connolly, Elizabeth Benedict
Call Number: TX715.2.N48 C645 2007
ISBN: 9780756626426
Published/Created: 2007
Award-winning chef Connolly was Rose Kennedy's private chef from 1983 to 1995, at her Hyannisport, Massachusetts, home. In this book, he presents Kennedy favorites.
Karnack, its recipes, landmarks & memories: birthplace of former First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson by Barbara Anderson
Call Number: TX715 .A56615 2000
Published/Created: 2000
Lady Bird Johnson's East Texas roots helped to shape her life.
Lincoln's Table by Donna D. McCreary, Compiler
Call Number: TX715 .M474314 2000
ISBN: 1578600898
Published/Created: 2000-11-01
Victorian recipes from Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois to the White House.
Bibliography: p. 104-105.
Sangamon County historical cookbook : a taste of Lincoln's era
Call Number: TX714 .S2825 2002
Published/Created: 2002
A compilation of recipes from 1838-1887 with stories and facts by and about Lincoln arranged in chronological order.
The Virginia Housewife by Mary Randolph; Karen Hess (Editor)
Call Number: TX715.R215 1984
ISBN: 0872494233
Published/Created: 1984
A facsimile of the first edition, 1824, along with additional material from the editions of 1825 and 1828. With historical notes and commentaries by Karen Hess
Bibliography: p. 301-321.
Washington Cookbook by Marny Clifford
Call Number: TX715.C635
ISBN: 0525153004
Published/Created: 1972-01-01
Marny Clifford's recipes came from First Ladies, Embassies, Senators' and Generals' wives, from her own New England forebears, from friends, and from her foreign travels. The wife of former Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford, Marny Clifford was a Washington hostess known for entertaining at brunches, lunches, buffet suppers, formal dinners, large parties and intimate suppers. She was a graduate of Fannie Farmer School of Cooking in Boston, but --in addition to cooking American food dishes that show her New England roots-- she also served up authentic dishes from the Caribbean to Indonesia.
The White House Cook Book by F. L. Gillette
Call Number: TX715 .G482 1887a
In 1887, when the first edition of Fanny Lemira Gillette 's popular White House Cook Book came out, it included limited information on actual White House cooking. Later editions, with the contributions of White House steward Hugo Ziemann, did include recipes and menus related to special occasions at the White House. The original version is available online at Feeding America External from Michigan State University

These books focus on the china and glassware used during various administrations.

White House Glassware by Jane S. Spillman
Call Number: NK5112 .S68 1989
ISBN: 0912308362
Published/Created: 1989
White House Historical Association. Bibliography: p. 144-148
Official White House China by Margaret Klapthor, Betty Monkman and William Allman
Call Number: NK4427.W3 K55 2016
ISBN: 9781931917636
Published/Created: 2016
Updated and expanded by White House Curator William Allman to include the State Services released in the Clinton, G.W. Bush, and Obama administrations. The book documents 200 years of White House china and tells the story of how it became an important part of the White House decorative arts collection. Includes bibliographical references.

Presidential Food: A Resource Guide

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Cookbooks and Dinnerware