![\"christeta-comerford\"](\"http:\/\/www.jenniferpickens.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/christeta-comerford.jpg\")
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When Cristeta Comerford was 21, she came to the United States from the Philippines and took the first job she could get, in the kitchen of an airport hotel. Ten years ago, at age 42, she became the White House executive chef\u2014the first woman in that role. Comerford took some time to speak with Real Simple about rallying talent, keeping calm, and feeding the country\u2019s most influential family.<\/p>\n
Be ready to leap:<\/strong> \u201cWhen opportunity knocks, you\u2019ve got to open the door and grab it. The sous chef at the White House was leaving to open a restaurant. Walter Scheib, the chef at the time, said, \u2018Hey Cris, are you interested?\u2019 At that time, I had my own restaurant in D.C., The Colonnade, but I knew this would be a great opportunity and honor. So I took the position. That was back in \u201898. In 2005 the Bushes installed me as their executive chef.\u201d<\/p>\n Edit your life:<\/strong> \u201cIf you bring too much into your day, it gets really hairy and you don\u2019t do things well. I have an hour commute to work. It gives me time to plan. As soon as I walk in the kitchen, I know what I\u2019m going to do. I have a list of the top ten things I have to do for the day. I love crossing things off my calendar.\u201d<\/p>\n What goes around, comes around:<\/strong> \u201cI was number ten in a family of 11 kids. The constant smell of food is a very vivid memory for me. My parents came from a town on the outskirts of Manila. My grandparents had a rice paddy, a fishpond, and livestock. Everything was right in their backyard. If you wanted to have chicken for dinner, you had to catch your own chicken and give it to Grandma so she could pluck it for you. In 2010, the first lady installed a four-season garden. We use a lot of vegetables from there. It\u2019s a beautiful resource. You just walk in the backyard and pick whatever you want. It\u2019s almost like coming back home to my grandma\u2019s place. Everything is right there.\u201d<\/p>\n Rally your team:<\/strong> \u201cI always welcome everybody\u2019s ideas\u2014more of a coaching leader. You\u2019re there to look at everyone\u2019s talents and make sure you get the best of each team member. Last year, at the Africa Leaders Summit, we had to cook for 50 heads of state. We had to accommodate all the dietary restrictions, practices, and preferences. It was a huge logistical challenge. We have a lot of different ethnic backgrounds in the kitchen. The sous chefs have all these wonderful recipes in their heads.\u201d<\/p>\n Appreciate thy partner:<\/strong> \u201cMy husband stepped back from his executive-chef job to be a work-at-home dad. He\u2019s a great support system. He makes sure our daughter is driven to practices and doctors\u2019 appointments, and he does the cooking Monday to Friday. He\u2019s such a great partner. I couldn\u2019t ask for more.\u201d<\/p>\n Carve out personal time:<\/strong> \u201cI\u2019m very protective of Saturday because it\u2019s family time. We don\u2019t schedule anything. My daughter and I try out different recipes. She loves to bake.\u201d Keep looking forward: \u201cPeople always say, \u2018The White House is the pinnacle of your career.\u2019 But when you reach a pinnacle, everything goes downhill from there. You don\u2019t want to call it your pinnacle. You want to call it a stepping-stone for the next great thing.\u201d<\/p>\n Official White House Photo by Sonya N. Hebert<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When Cristeta Comerford was 21, she came to the United States from the Philippines and took the first job she could get, in the kitchen of an airport hotel. Ten years ago, at age 42, she became the White House executive chef\u2014the first woman in that role. Comerford took some time to speak with Real… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1048,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-traditions","category-white-house-wednesdays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jenniferpickens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jenniferpickens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jenniferpickens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jenniferpickens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jenniferpickens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1047"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.jenniferpickens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1050,"href":"https:\/\/www.jenniferpickens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1047\/revisions\/1050"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jenniferpickens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jenniferpickens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jenniferpickens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jenniferpickens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}