Chit chat with Walter Scheib

Demi HEWAMANNA

There are people who are born talented and some find their talent while just stumbling upon it. Each talent brings out something unique in the person and that talent gives a special feeling to the people who receive a piece of the talent.

Some are talented to sing, some to write the greatest stories ever told, some are born to lead and guide and some are born to make people happy with just a bite of something totally out of this world and that cannot be described in words itself. That talent that a person possesses is cooking!

Yes, cooking as some may not know, is an art and once you master what it is to cook to please someone's taste buds and give satisfaction to the people, and then nothing is impossible for you. But cooking to a family that's name appears page 1 or any other page in the world newspapers, then you really have to know what you are cooking!

And that was the exact work Walter Scheib, who worked at the White House for 11 years serving two Presidents, did. From the year 1994 to 2005, Walter served Former President Bill Clinton and President George W Bush. Walter, came down to Sri Lanka for a short stay and to tell us what it was like to work the First Family of the State at the invitation of Mount Lavinia Hotel General Manager Anura Dewapura.

Becoming the White House chef is not an easy task. "My wife Jean saw an advertisement in the newspaper and she asked me to apply for it. I did so, and there were 4,000 applicants and out of that 20 were enlisted and 10 were chosen out that lot," Walter said as Daily News spoke to him.

"For the last eleven years, I have had the honor of doing daily what most chefs would be lucky to do once in their life time. That honour was serving the First Family of the United States", Walter said.

Serving the first family has not been just a job of cooking for Walter, but it was an eye opener to the lives of the First family of the state. Winning the heart of the very First Lady who is now the Secretary to the State, Hillary Clinton was only the beginning to his unforgettable career as a Chef.

He has been cooking and stirring and making sure that the first lady's choice of what should be served and how it should be served are met. Walter has served many world leaders like Nelson Mandela, Emperor Aikihito, Jacques Chirac, Boris Yeltsin, Vaclav Havel, Lady Diana Spencer, Tony Blair, Vicente Fox and other personalities like journalists, congressional members and other VIPs.

At a young age, he started to cook, but as he grew up and just after his he graduated from college, he was in a hurry to follow a course in culinary arts and he joined the Culinary Institute of America which he quotes "it is the best cooking school in the world", and graduated with high honours in 1979.

Immediately thereafter, Scheib started as a Rounds Cook at a premier Washington DC hotel, and within three years was promoted to Executive Chef. Before coming to the Greenbrier and then the White House, he served as Executive Chef at other major hotels and resorts such as the Boca Raton Resort and Club.

When asked about the events at the time of 9/11, Walter said that, on that day they had planned a picnic for 3000 people and when the news reached the White House, it was a total shock for them as well as the rest of the world and a day that none could forget.

He along with others served the firefighters and the policemen and sent the rest of the food to the people at the Pentagon which was also under attack.

Chef Walter took to the stage on May 16 at the Mount Lavinia Hotel, where a state dinner inspired by him was stately presented at the Empire Ballroom.

A five course set menu that he cooked up in the White House House was talked about and also the times how the President's would raid the fridge. Scheib's White House achievement was his creation of a distinctly American repertoire for the nation's First House. He continued his repertoire in Sri Lanka with eloquence and pride about America's bounty as well as White House remembrances that ranged from State Dinner Secrets to throwing the White House Birthday Party.

He touched on concepts such as White House style cocktail reception, First Lady Luncheons, State Dinners, and Outdoor "South Lawn" barbecues and picnics and most of all the fascinating White House insider's anecdotes, culinary insights, team building and bonding.

"Scheib has proved that he can pretty satisfy any palette, and I had the privilege of working with him in an occasion in the US, which was an experience of a lifetime," Anura added.

Scheib is an avid fisherman and still enjoys cooking as much as he did as a child, and at the White House. He lives in Great Falls, Virginia, with his wife, Jean, and their two sons, Walter and Jim who he is very sure will not turn into chefs like him.

To get more on him and some of his White House recipes is www.theamericanchef.com