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Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With Allie Bice.

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The Covid-19 pandemic has had a dramatic impact on the food business, altering everything from the bottom line of restaurants to the flow and price of ingredients across the globe.

Inside the White House, that impact has been felt in a particularly acute way. The chefs who customarily cook for grand affairs—state balls and seasonal gatherings — are now largely whipping up dishes just for the Bidens themselves, small meetings of dignitaries, and snacks for Cabinet-level and department meetings, according to a source familiar with their duties.

The current crop of White House chefs is historic. For the first time ever, the kitchen is being led by two women: executive chef CRISTETA COMERFORD, who was appointed by first lady LAURA BUSH in 2005 after beating out hundreds of applicants, and SUSAN MORRISON, who was appointed executive pastry chef late last year, after serving as assistant pastry chef since 2002. Both rose in the ranks after decades in the White House kitchen. But after reaching the pinnacle of their careers, they’re now faced with a different reality: the absence of formal White House events means that the gourmet meals and sumptuous desserts they’ve been training for years to make are not on the menu at State Dining Room dinners right now. In their place, Biden's preferred pasta with tomato sauce.

Because they’ve worked in the White House before, both Comerford and Morrison are already familiar with President JOE BIDEN’s likes and dislikes. His palate remains largely the same as when he was vice president.

But they did their due diligence nonetheless. Residence staffers held meetings with the first lady and handed out written questionnaires asking about food favorites, food allergies and dietary requirements when the Bidens moved in January — just in case anything had changed within the last five years.

Both executive chefs tend to keep a low profile. We asked the first lady’s office for an interview and for further information about the two chefs but were turned down. That’s a shift from the Obama days, when Comerford and other chefs who worked under the former president appeared on television shows and in print, often but not always to promote former first lady MICHELLE OBAMA’s health initiative, “Let’s Move!” That included an appearance by Comerford on an episode of “Iron Chef America,” and a video promoted by the White House about how they have a beekeeper on site that helps them brew their own beer.

In a CNN interview in 2014, which was part of the “Let’s Move” media blitz, Comerford talked about working her way from the bottom up. Born in the Philippines, she arrived in Chicago when she was 23. Her first job was a “salad girl” at Chicago hotels. From there, she worked as a chef at two Washington hotels and did a six-month stint as a rotating chef in a residency training program in Vienna, Austria. Former White House executive chef WALTER SCHEIB recruited Comerford in 1995 to become a sous chef during the Clinton administration.

“She likes to say that traditional Filipino cooking informs everything that she does, in taste and flavor,” a source with close ties to the White House told us. “And a lot of garlic is her ground zero.” Morrison, they said, is an “incredible sugar artist.” (Yes, an artist of sugar.)

The pandemic, however, has put many of the White House’s most feted events and fine dining opportunities on hold, including one of the most important social events on the White House calendar: the black-tie Governors Dinner that is typically held in February. The president and first lady have yet to host a state dinner, which typically include up to 120 people in the State Dining Room.

“I'm sure that Cris and Suzie are very eager to get back to sort of a regular pace because they're trained for it. That's what they do, and their teams as well,” BILL YOSSES, former White House executive pastry chef said.

Though it is a small role, the White House chef does factor into the subtle diplomacy that a president engages in at home. White House affairs can be vehicles for deal-making, schmoozing and informal conversations with world leaders. And the food at those events is a bit of kindling for it all. Former President FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, who held 11 state dinners, famously served KING GEORGE VI and QUEEN ELIZABETH hot dogs and beer at a 1939 dinner.

We asked presidential historian JON MEACHAM what the president is missing in not being able to host the traditional White House dinners and parties.

“I think the unconventional nature of the 2020-21 period is one of the untold, or at least little-understood, features of recent political history,” Meacham said. “COVID has altered the ordinary rhythms of the presidency, from travel to White House hospitality. This isn’t to say that these social rituals and common spaces would really make a substantive difference, but the dearth of such things means President Biden is compelled to govern without even the possibility that retail politics might help, if only on the margins.”

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Alex wrote this question himself: Which president held a toga party at the White House and dressed up for it?

(Answer at the bottom.)

IS PRINT DEAD? Yesterday’s piece on Biden’s dearth of interviews, especially with newspapers, prompted a lot of feedback. Democratic operative ERIC JOTKOFF suggested that at least some of Biden’s strategy is the result of how much the media industry has changed: namely people don’t subscribe to newspapers as much.

Pew estimates that the number of Americans subscribing to newspapers has gone from approximately 46 million to 24 million from 2009 to 2020. So the argument goes that newspapers are just not as critical for communicating to voters. Still, many TV stations and aggregators rely on newspapers for some of their content, meaning they have an impact beyond their subscribers. But we thought it was an interesting point.

KAMALA’S B-DAY CAKE: The vice president celebrated her 57th birthday today with a German chocolate cake and an off-key rendition of “Happy Birthday,” sung by her staff. They struggled with what to call her in the naming verse, but most of the crowd seemed to settle on “happy birthday, Madame Vice President.” Second Gentleman DOUG EMHOFF gave her flowers.

Harris also came into the room and shouted “SURPRISE!,” which is usually the opposite of how we’ve done it. “Kind of hard to be inconspicuous ‘round here,” PETER VELZ tweeted.

2022 ALARM BELLS — CHRIS CADELAGO and SAM STEIN got their hands on the summary of a poll for the Senate Majority PAC, the group aligned with Democratic Leader CHUCK SCHUMER, and it’s not good news for the White House. Biden’s numbers across Senate battlegrounds have eroded dramatically in recent months. Making matters worse, the president is struggling with so-called “persuadable” voters — those who are on the fence but could be convinced to vote Democratic.

SHOT: The White House-aligned outside group Building Back Together released a new ad this morning touting the Biden agenda, including that he will make “the wealthy pay the taxes they owe.”

CHASER: Sen. KRYSTEN SINEMA (D-Ariz.) has told lobbyists that she is opposed to raising tax rates on businesses, high-income individuals or capital gains, per the Wall Street Journal.

BURGESS EVERETT and HEATHER CAYGLE report on Democrats scrambling to find more revenue some other way.

BURN BABY, BURN(S) — Biden’s pick to be ambassador to China, NICHOLAS BURNS, previewed his tough talk approach today before Congress. “Beijing proclaims that the East is rising and the West is in decline,” Burns testified in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, according to Bloomberg. “I’m confident in our own country...The People’s Republic of China is not an Olympian power.”

Burns will be a key player in the administration’s complicated approach to China, which The New York Times’ DAVID SANGER wrote about earlier this week.

TERRIBLE TIMING: Former Chicago Mayor RAHM EMANUEL, Biden’s nominee to be ambassador to Japan, also testified before the Foreign Relations Committee today — which happened to also be the seventh anniversary of the death of LAQUAN McDONALD, a Black Chicago teenger shot by a white police officer while Emanuel was mayor of the city.

Despite the controversy over Emanuel’s response to the shooting, he received “a warm welcome” from the committee, Roll Call’s RACHEL OSWALD reports. “Only one senator, Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., questioned Emanuel at length about the 2014 fatal shooting.”

CALLING IN HARRIS: The vice president had to ditch a roundtable with Labor Secretary MARTY WALSH and federal workers five minutes into her remarks to head to Capitol Hill, after being summoned to break a tied Senate vote to confirm CATHERINE LHAMON as the Department of Education’s assistant secretary for Civil Rights. The vote was split along party lines.

Border arrests have soared to all-time high, new CBP data shows (Washington Post’s Nick Miroff)

Yellen still sees U.S. on track to hit full employment next year (Bloomberg’s Christopher Condon)

Biden plan pits Hispanic-serving colleges against HBCUs (POLITICO’s Bianca Quilantan)

Biden to visit N.J. on Monday, just 8 days before election for governor (NJ Advance Media’s Jonathan Salant)

He flew to Scranton, Pa. this afternoon. Sen. BOB CASEY (D-Pa.), deputy chief of staff BRUCE REED, press secretary JEN PSAKI, director of message planning MEGHAN HAYS, Senate legislative affairs correspondent ELIZABETH JURINKA, NSC senior director for strategic planning SASHA BAKER, deputy director of Oval Office Operations ASHLEY WILLIAMS, trip director TRAVIS DREDD, senior presidential speechwriter DAN CLUCHEY, and Biden’s personal aide STEPHEN GOEPFERT traveled with the president on Air Force One.

In Scranton, he delivered remarks at the Electric City Trolley Museum, where he touted his Build Back Better agenda. “It’s good to be home!” He told the crowd.

He flies back to the White House this evening.

Harris led a worker roundtable with Labor Secretary Marty Walsh and Office of Personnel Management Director KIRAN AHUJA, where they discussed worker organizing and collective bargaining.

Growing up in Omaha, Neb., Harris senior adviser and chief spokesperson SYMONE SANDERS got her start working as a cashier at Time Out Foods, a local, Black-owned restaurant.

Sanders told Elle Magazine back in Sept. 2020 that the restaurant has “the absolute best fried chicken and dirty rice I have ever had.” (Don’t just take her word for it — it also has rave reviews online.)

But Symone added that the job — which also required the occasional mopping of floors — served as motivation.

“Working that job is what let me know I needed to get good grades because I hate to mop,” she confessed.

Same.

Franklin D. Roosevelt threw a toga party at the White House as part of his 52nd birthday celebration in January 1934, according to the FDR library.

In response to his critics calling him a dictator, Roosevelt and his team made his party “Caesarian” themed with togas and centurion costumes. “FDR, as ‘Caesar,’ is surrounded by friends, family members, and close advisers, including ELEANOR ROOSEVELT (as the “Delphic Oracle”),” per the library.

In other words: TOGA! TOGA! TOGA!

AND A CALL OUT — Do you have a harder trivia question about the presidency? Send us your best one and we may use it: [email protected].

We want your trivia, but we also want your feedback. What should we be covering in this newsletter that we’re not? What are we getting wrong? Please let us know.

Edited by Emily Cadei