MMS in US: Tuesday diary

OMG! (Oh my god!, in computerese), speculation surrounding Obamas’ state dinner for Manmohan Singh has now reached fever pitch, with newspapers far and wide in the US carrying reports about who’s in and who’s out from their neck of the woods. Chicago Tribune is guarding the fortunes of the Obama flock (David Axelrod, David Pfouffe etc) while a New Mexico paper reports with relief that their man Bill Richardson is among the invitees.Newspapers are digging up archival stuff on haute couture, cuisine, and contretemps to compare with previous state dinners. But you have to be close to the scene of action to know some of the stuff. Like the time the actor Chevy Chase leaned over to shake President Clinton’s hand and toppled a glass of wine all over Prime Minister Vajpayee’s jacket...
The White House has commandeered Ethiopia-born celebrity chef Marcus Samuelson to be the guest chef to help out White House supreme Cristeta Comerford, but did the Obama folks miss a trick here? There are several acclaimed chefs of Indian origin in the US and one of them was duking it out on Sunday night on the Food Network with another famed rival in the final of the second season of the popular culinary show The Next Iron Chef. The Bombay-born Mehta lost to Jose Garces in the final, but won praise for originality with the LA Times headlining the end result “Technique trumps creativity.” Mehta, who now owns the New York restaurant Graffiti, trained as a pastry chef at the Culinary Institute of America and has earned the moniker “Jehangir the sadist” for his irresistible creations for the sweet tooth.
It’s another matter though that his efforts might have been wasted on Prime Minister Singh. In fact, there is some concern about how the spread will go down with the guest of honor, who is a vegetarian, a teetotaler and whose recent heart conditions might not allow any culinary excess. Of course, there is always Michelle Obama’s vegetable garden in the White House to bank on. The First Lady could be sharing her experience with the Prime Minister, who began life as a farm boy from the boonies. —CR