Green curry, purple flowers for Obama India dinner
By Darlene Superville, APTuesday, November 24, 2009
Green curry headlines menu for Obama India dinner
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is welcoming Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to the White House for the administration’s first state dinner.
More than 300 guests arrived at the expansive tent Tuesday night on the White House South Lawn. Obama and first lady Michelle Obama greeted the Indian leaders at the North Portico in a ceremony steeped in red carpet protocol.
The formal dinner is expected to make a statement about the Obamas’ sense of style.
Mrs. Obama is wearing a lightly colored, sleeveless dress with a shawl. The president is in a tuxedo with black bow tie.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Guests at President Barack Obama’s first state dinner were being treated to an eye-catching scheme of green and purple, from the green curry surrounding the prawns to the purple floral arrangements paying homage to the peacock, India’s national bird.
Pumpkin was on the menu, too, with Tuesday’s dinner coming just two days before Thanksgiving.
Hours before guests were to start arriving and in keeping with tradition, first lady Michelle Obama previewed the glamorous table settings in the State Dining Room. That’s often the venue for such dinners, but not for Tuesday’s honoring Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Instead, in an effort to show Singh how much the U.S. values relations with his country, the Obamas decided to serve dinner for 320 people in a huge white tent on the South Lawn, with views of the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial through clear panels.
Magnolia branches native to both India and the U.S. adorn the inside walls, along with ivy and nandina foliage.
Guests, including some Hollywood A-listers, were to sit 10 apiece at tables draped in green apple-colored cloths and napkins, offset by the sparkle of gold-colored flatware and china, including service and dinner plates from the Eisenhower, Clinton and George W. Bush settings.
Floral arrangements of hydrangeas, roses and sweet peas in plum, purple and fuschia were meant to evoke India’s state bird.
Mrs. Obama brought in award-winning chef Marcus Samuelsson of Aquavit, a Scandinavian restaurant in New York City, to help White House executive chef Cristeta Comerford and her staff prepare the largely vegetarian meal. Singh is a vegetarian.
Samuelsson said being chosen to help whip up dinner was both “overwhelming and humbling.”
The culinary offerings included potato and eggplant salad, arugula from the White House garden, red lentil soup and roasted potato dumplings or green curry prawns. Pumpkin pie tart and pear tatin were for dessert; the pears were poached in honey from the White House beehive.
The entertainment lineup promised to be as stellar.
Singer-actress Jennifer Hudson and jazz vocalist and composer Kurt Elling, both Grammy Award winners from the Obamas’ hometown of Chicago, were performing. Hudson also won an Academy Award for her role in “Dreamgirls.” Indian musician and singer A.R. Rahman, who won two Academy Awards for the music in “Slumdog Millionaire,” also was in the lineup.
The guest list, which the White House released a few hours before dinner was to begin, was a mix of wonky Washington, Hollywood A-listers, prominent figures from the Indian community in the U.S., and Obama friends, family and campaign donors.
Among them were actors Alfre Woodard and Blair Underwood, and Hollywood moguls Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg. Guests with ties to India included spiritual adviser Deepak Chopra, director M. Night Shyamalan and PepsiCo chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi. Katie Couric of CBS News, Brian Williams of NBC News, Robin Roberts of ABC News and CNN Medical Correspondent Sanjay Gupta were among the media representatives invited. Oprah Winfrey was not on the list, but her best friend, Gayle King, was among the guests. Also on the list were Obama friends Eric Whitaker and Martin Nesbitt, along with Obama’s half sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, and her husband, Conrad; and Marian Robinson, the first lady’s mother.
Every aspect of Tuesday’s events was fraught with meaning and symbolism, from the flower colors to Mrs. Obama’s clothing designers.
The first lady wore a skirt by Rachel Roy, who is Indian, for the State Dining Room event. It was Mrs. Obama’s second wardrobe change of the day, to be followed still by the gown she was wearing to dinner.
In the morning, she wore a pumpkin-colored dress and matching overcoat tied at the waist and designed by Isaac Mizrahi, for the ceremonial welcome for Singh that the White House moved inside to the East Room, from the South Lawn, because of damp and chilly weather.
The biggest social event of the Obama White House also was a debut of sorts for florist Laura Dowling, who’s been on the job less than a month.
Mrs. Obama also used the traditional preview event as a “teachable moment” for high schools girls participating in a White House mentoring program. They sat at two prepared tables as White House and State Department officials explained what state dinners are all about.
Afterward, Mrs. Obama sat at one of the tables and everyone dived in to dessert — the same fare being served guests at the state dinner.
