Cristeta Comerford says...

Over the weeekend I headed over to Northwestern University to attend a lecture from White House executive chef, Cristeta Comerford - the first female and first minority chef in the White House. Even first family cooking aside, she's had quite a decorated resume. So when I heard she was coming back to Chicago, I definitely wanted to listen in on what she had to say. The event was graciously put together by Kaibigan, Northwestern's Filipino student organization, and was co-sponsored by Multicultural Student Affairs, ECO, Food Health Initiative (FHI), One Book One Northwestern and SEED.

Although we didn't get to sample some top tier Obama-style cuisine, it was really interesting to hear how she got her start, how it is to work for the first family and how she envisions healthy living will evolve from the uber-processed fast food life we know (and gluttonously love & twit-pic) to a smarter, more conscious dining experience. I was also happy to hear that her knowledge went beyond the kitchen and into the impact of greener food production solutions to help us all lower our carbon footprints. Oh and yes she does make Filipino food for the Obamas, but she has found ways to put healthier, yet amazingly tasty spins on our traditionally artery clogging deliciousness. Hmmm...maybe we can snag her recipe for adobo for next year's Adobofest?! Hahaha.

Anyway, in addition to snapping some photos, Ryne from BakitWhy and I got some face to face media time with her after the event which was great.

I also got to meet another Canon red-ringed faithful (albeit the pure video iteration) from TFC who was covering the event. Nice meeting and chatting with you, Ted! I'm excited to collaborate with you and TFC more in the future!

At any rate, enjoy the photos everyone! For higher-res requests, shoot me an e-mail and I'll take care of you.
































And by the way, big thanks to AJ Aguado (outgoing president of Kaibigan) for inviting me to the event (and for snapping the last pic of me and Cristeta Comerford, haha) - you guys did a great job putting the event together!