Cris Comerford arrived in Chicago in the 1980s as a virtual unknown, worked hard and ultimately landed a big job in the nation’s capital.
Just like her boss — Barack Obama.
Comerford, a 52-year-old native of the Philippines, has served for nearly a decade as executive chef at the White House — a quantum leap from her first American job as a “salad bar girl” at a Sheraton hotel near O’Hare International Airport.
It’s a career that seemed inevitable to her. “The first time I set my foot in the kitchen I was totally in love,” she said. “That was really where I wanted to be.”
Now one of the world’s most-watched chefs, she has not forgotten her beginnings nor her relatives, who live in Morton Grove and other Chicago suburbs. Comerford plans to visit them for Christmas.
But first comes Thanksgiving at the White House, where Comerford and her team of chefs are planning a feast for the Obamas, whose holiday table tends to favor traditional fare. Turkey, honey-baked ham, corn bread stuffing, oyster stuffing, greens, macaroni and cheese, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes and green bean casserole were on last year’s menu.
Pie was the only dessert served, a hail-to-the-chief decision for a pie-loving president. No fewer than nine types of pie tempted guests in 2013 — apple, peach, pecan, pumpkin, huckleberry, sweet potato, banana cream, chocolate cream and coconut cream.
After cooking for the first family this Thanksgiving, Comerford expects to make it to her home in suburban Maryland for a late dinner with her chef-husband John and their teenage daughter.
Comerford, who was 21 when she immigrated to Chicago with several relatives in 1983, met her husband at her second job. They were chefs at Hyatt Regency O’Hare, and they married in 1988.
Comerford went on to work as a chef in hotels and restaurants in the nation’s capital and also trained in Vienna. She has cooked full time at the White House since 1995, when Bill Clinton was president, and has been top chef since 2005, when George W. Bush was commander in chief.
Comerford has endured because of a talent for handling pressure.
Or as former White House pastry chef Bill Yosses put it: “I never saw her throw a pot or a pan or a fit.”
The real test comes when Thanksgiving ends. Comerford will be orchestrating the White House kitchen brigade during a series of holiday receptions that feature lavish decorations, holiday music and fabulous food, drawing upward of 10,000 guests.
Comerford and six other full-time chefs — two of them pastry chefs — work at the White House. Guest chefs, such as Chicago’s Rick Bayless, have lent their talents on special occasions.
Walter Scheib, the White House top chef before Comerford, said the holidays are by far the busiest time.
“Christmas is the most glorious time of the year — the house sparkles,” he said. But behind the scenes, its chefs undergo a “physical and mental ass-kicking like you can’t imagine.”
“It’s full-tilt production, 95 to 105 hours a week,” he said. “You’ve never been more physically or mentally exhausted by the time you stagger into January.”
Comerford is the first woman and first minority to be the top toque at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
She has, by her estimate, 1,500 cookbooks. She buys food from a farmers market near the White House and from purveyors from coast to coast. She draws from a burgeoning White House garden.
There’s a White House apiary at her disposal, and honey from its bees sweetens dressings, sauces, desserts — even beer.
Scheib hired Comerford in 1995, having eyed her talent when she worked in the Executive Mansion as a part-time, temporary chef.
Today, Scheib, who lives in Sanibel Island, Fla., has a cooking-and-lecturing firm called The American Chef. He said bringing Comerford onto the White House staff full time was one of his proudest achievements.
“It was very obvious when I first met Cris — she was not just a top-notch culinarian, she had a great eye for design and flair, tremendous taste buds and a great palate,” he said.
Yosses, who was the White House pastry chef from 2007 until earlier this year, said Comerford’s gastronomic skills are complemented by other attributes, such as being a good listener who methodically assembles information before making a decision.
“She is an extraordinary person as an individual, friend, colleague, chef and kitchen manager,” said Yosses, director of ChopChop Kitchen Lab, which teaches children to prepare healthy meals.
Comerford, speaking from the kitchen last week, said she loved every minute of the work, even though it can be “very, very demanding.”
It’s important to plan, rehearse and prepare some food and embellishments in advance, she said. Sauces, reductions, jams, marmalades, pickled vegetables and herb-infused olive oils are items that can be made early, she said.
In October, there was trial run of the upcoming holiday buffet fare, much like a food tasting before a wedding reception.
The kitchen hummed with activity as Comerford previewed the food offerings for this year’s holiday season, which she said would have a “winter wonderland” theme.
Spinach pie, cauliflower macaroni and cheese, and green beans with almonds will be served — all recipes in “American Grown,” the 2012 book by first lady Michelle Obama about her White House kitchen garden.
There also will be artisanal cheese, vegetarian fare and “not-so-vegetarian” items, such as rib roast and ham, she said.
Desserts at the galas are sublime, and as Comerford spoke, another chef readied the batter for madeleines, or French tea cakes, in a commercial blender.
Comerford, the second youngest of 11 children, is a naturalized citizen from the capital of the Philippines, Manila. Her late father was an elementary school principal and her late mother a dressmaker.
She majored in food technology at the University of the Philippines but emigrated before she could finish her degree. The family first lived on the North Side near Lawrence and Drake, in an area known as Koreatown.
A half-brother, Juanito Pasia, 68, of Morton Grove, remembers driving her to work at the Sheraton and being impressed at what she created, whether an ice sculpture or a tuna sandwich.
He said he took a bite of her tuna sandwich and blurted out: “Oh my God, this is good. How did you do this?”
He described Comerford as intelligent, humble and devoutly Christian.
“We’re proud of her,” he said.
Comerford knows she chose the right career.
“I love food, first of all,” she said. “I loved everything about food: the sights, the smell, and it’s such a beautiful thing. It’s really what fascinated me, even as a child.”
Dean Jaramillo, 70, of Lake Zurich, was the Sheraton’s executive chef when the young, not-yet-married Cris Pasia was hired.
“She had a very natural talent,” he said. “A very keen eye for production. She had some administrative skills in being able to work and direct people. She took direction very well, was a real team player, and people liked being around her.”
He said “never in his wildest dreams” did he envision her ascendancy, since all the top chefs at the White House before her had been men.
Talking about the position, Jaramillo said: “You have to have a very understanding husband or wife, and a total commitment, because the thing is, the challenges really come. The fact is, you’re doing everything from state dinners to being the chef for a household.
“The kids might like a grilled cheese sandwich or you have to pack a lunch for them. And the next day you might be cooking for the queen of England.”
The Obamas brought on Chicagoan Sam Kass, now 34, as an assistant chef at the start of the administration in 2009. Kass still cooks from time to time and is executive director of “Let’s Move,” the first lady’s campaign to end childhood obesity. He is also a senior policy adviser for nutrition policy.
Talking about the holidays, Kass said: “The volume of guests during the holidays is extraordinary, but quality (of the food) must remain exceedingly high.”
He said Comerford taught him that “having a really good system to manage all the moving parts is the key to success during the busiest time of the year.”
He also salutes her other successes, saying what she “pulls off with each state dinner is nothing short of a miracle.”
Kass admires Comerford’s innate talent and “inspiring” biography. Her story, he said, “is a great American story of hard work, dedication and integrity.”
The Obamas’ custom is to vacation in Hawaii at Christmas. That should free up Comerford to spend the day with hundreds of relatives at her sister’s home in Morton Grove.
And no, the chef will not do all the cooking.
It’s a potluck, she said, but she won’t bring lumpia or pinakbet or another Filipino dish she still craves and cooks.
Very much a Washington transplant, she’s thinking of shopping closer for a cured ham from Virginia.
“It’s totally something from this side of the universe,” she said.
Twitter @KatherineSkiba
