Thursday, May 18, 2023

 5-7 PM

Location: Field + Fort, 2580 Lillie Ave, Summerland, CA 93067

Price: $45

This event is sold out! Join our waitlist.

Enjoy reverse martinis, local wines, and presidential bites at Field + Fort as we toast Alex Prud’homme’s new book, Dinner with the President: Food, Politics, and a History of Breaking Bread at the White House.  

Alex Prud’homme, Julia Child’s grandnephew and co-author of Julia’s New York Times best-selling memoir, My Life in France, invites readers into the White House to learn about the palates and eating habits of twenty-six of America’s most noteworthy presidents. Enjoy a moderated conversation led by The Montecito Journal’s Les Firestein that explores Alex’s experience researching the book and some of his most surprising findings. You’ll have a chance to ask Alex questions about your favorite president’s eating habits and purchase a signed copy of the book to read or gift to a friend!

Throughout the evening there will be presidential bites featured in the book and prepared by Field + Fort’s Executive Chef, Austin Moore. You’ll also get to sip on FDR’s favorite cocktail, the reverse martini and enjoy local pinot noirs inspired by Ronald Regan’s love of Santa Barbara wines.

A portion of the proceeds from the Taste of Santa Barbara will benefit the Santa Barbara Culinary Experience in partnership with The Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts.

*Ticket includes entry, cocktails, local wines, and refreshments based on recipes in the book.

Signed copies of the book will be available for purchase onsite.

Attendees who consume alcohol at this event must be 21 years of age or older with a valid photo ID.

Alex Prud’homme has been a nonfiction writer for thirty years. As a journalist he covered a wide range of subjects for The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Talk, and Time. As an author, he has written ten books, on subjects ranging from biotech to terrorism, fresh water, and food.

Prud’homme is best known for co-writing Julia Child’s memoir My Life in France, published by Alfred A. Knopf in 2006. It became a #1 NYT best-seller, and inspired half of the film “Julie & Julia.” His sequel, The French Chef in America: Julia Chiuld’s Second Act, was published in 2016. Thames & Hudson published France is a Feast: the Photographic Journey of Paul and Julia Child in 2017, which led to a blockbuster photo show at the Napa Valley Museum. In 2022, Astra Books published his first children’s book, the colorfully illustrated Born Hungry: Julia Child Becomes “The French Chef.”

In 2023, Knopf published Dinner with the President: Food, Politics, and a History of Breaking Bread at the White House, a narrative history of presidential food. From George Washington starving at Valley Forge to FDR’s terrapin soup, Reagan’s jellybeans, Trump’s burgers, and Kamala Harris’s masala dosas, the book looks at the American story through a culinary lens. How did we get from then (hoecakes, squirrel stew) to now (veganism, artificial meat)? What does that arc tell us about the food of politics and the politics of food, our leaders, and how the nation’s diet reflects its evolution?

Les Firestein is a writer who has written for some really good TV shows and some bad ones. Les has also built some great houses and no bad ones. Les writes about architecture and design for the Montecito Journal. Thirty years ago, at The National Lampoon, Les predicted that Donald Trump would conquer North America. You can look it up.