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The Butler Did it! Presidential Cocktails with Adrian Miller

07/19/2021 @ 7:00 pm 9:00 pm America/California

Presidential cocktails? POTUS potables? Whatever you call them, they’ve been equally critical in managing the affairs of state and maintaining the peace at home. On Monday, July 19, join The Cocktail Collection in welcoming Adrian Miller, the James Beard Award-winning author of THE PRESIDENT’S KITCHEN CABINET, to Los Angeles for a colorful, fun-filled and educational evening of cocktails, food, and the untold—and largely Black—history of White House tipples at the exclusive Kimpton La Peer Hotel in West Hollywood.Admission includes five cocktails closely associated with five US presidents crafted by master bartender—and host of HISTORICALLY DRINKING—Sarah LM Mengoni and a light supper of gourmet bites. Tickets are $40 for Center for Culinary Culture (CCC), USBG, SoCal Culinary & Spirits Clubs, and Hospitality Industry members, $45 General Admission in advance, and $50 at the door (if available). CCC membership is available to all at www.culinaryculture.center/membership.

RESERVE NOW at https://bit.ly/36bGOYx!

FEATURED COCKTAILS
Air Force One (Barack Obama)
Bourbon & Branch Water (Lyndon B. Johnson)
Daiquiri (Joh F. Kennedy)
Martini (Franklin D. Roosevelt)
Egg Nog (several)

After the program, Adrian will sign copies of THE PRESIDENT’S KITCHEN CABINET: THE STORY OF THE AFRICAN AMERICANS WHO HAVE FED OUR FIRST FAMILIES, FROM THE WASHINGTONS TO THE OBAMAS, an NAACP Image Award Finalist for Outstanding Literary Work—Non Fiction!

ABOUT THE PRESENTER
Adrian Miller received an A.B in International Relations from Stanford University in 1991, and a J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1995. From 1999 to 2001, Adrian served as a special assistant to President Bill Clinton with his Initiative for One America–the first free-standing office in the White House to address issues of racial, religious, and ethnic reconciliation. Adrian went on to serve as a senior policy analyst for Colorado Governor Bill Ritter Jr. From 2004 to 2010, he served on the board of the Southern Foodways Alliance. In June 2019, Adrian lectured in the Masters of Gastronomy program at the Università di Scienze Gastronomiche (nicknamed the “Slow Food University”) in Pollenzo, Italy. He is currently Executive Director of the Colorado Council of Churches and, as such, is the first African American, and the first layperson, to hold that position.

ABOUT THE DRINKMASTER
A veteran barkeep, Sarah LM Mengoni cut her teeth working Michigan beer dives and shot joints (before the law even allowed her to enjoy them), then moved to Chicago where she discovered and embraced the World of the Cocktail. Her enthusiasm for cocktail culture and gift for crafting unique recipes has earned her industry recognition, such as “50 Women to Watch” in HOTEL F&B magazine, as well as countless features in publications such as IMBIBE, FOOD & WINE, VOGUE, FORBES, GQ, and TIME OUT LA, to name a few.Sarah is a graduate of the distinguished BAR 5-DAY program in New York City, which stands as one of the industry’s top mixology certifications. Based at the Kimpton La Peer Hotel in sunny Los Angeles, Sarah bartends, creates cocktail programs, and curates exciting events and workshops with passion and joy.You can also find her working on her passion project, HISTORICALLY DRINKING, on YouTube, where she posts short information-packed episodes on what, when, where, and how people have engaged with alcohol throughout history, on Instagram and Facebook, where she’s live most Friday nights, and on her website, www.historically-drinking.com.

ABOUT THE BOOK
James Beard award–winning author Adrian Miller vividly tells the stories of the African Americans who worked in the presidential food service as chefs, personal cooks, butlers, stewards, and servers for every First Family since George and Martha Washington. Miller brings together the names and words of more than 150 black men and women who played remarkable roles in unforgettable events in the nation’s history. Daisy McAfee Bonner, for example, FDR’s cook at his Warm Springs retreat, described the president’s final day on earth in 1945, when he was struck down just as his lunchtime cheese soufflé emerged from the oven. Sorrowfully, but with a cook’s pride, she recalled, “He never ate that soufflé, but it never fell until the minute he died.”A treasury of information about cooking techniques and equipment, the book includes twenty recipes for which black chefs were celebrated. From Samuel Fraunces’s “onions done in the Brazilian way” for George Washington to Zephyr Wright’s popovers, beloved by LBJ’s family, Miller highlights African Americans’ contributions to our shared American foodways. Surveying the labor of enslaved people during the antebellum period and the gradual opening of employment after Emancipation, Miller highlights how food-related work slowly became professionalized and the important part African Americans played in that process. His chronicle of the daily table in the White House proclaims a fascinating new American story.

$10-$45

627 La Peer Drive
West Hollywood, California 90069 United States
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