There may be some out there who say George W. Bush's presidency was not marked by diplomacy. But if you talk to former Bush family cook Matthew Wendel, he'd give you a different perspective.
Wendel did not cook for the Bush family in the White House. That was handled by White House chefs. But when the president and his family visited or brought world leaders to Camp David or Prairie Chapel Ranch, it was his cheeseburgers the Bush family most loved to serve to the likes of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Saudi Arabian Ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan, and Mexican President Vicente Fox.
Though he cooked for the Bushes at many important occasions, he would never call himself a "chef," he writes in a new book from the White House Historical Association. Chefs are classically trained. Matthew Wendel just makes food people like to eat -- which is part of the book's title, "Recipes from the President's Ranch: Food People Like to Eat."
They're also easy to make, like his "Sunday Night Stacked Cheese Enchiladas," a Bush family favorite.
Before he was cooking up Gulf Shrimp for President Fox or teaching Chancellor Merkel how a Texas BBQ pit works, he was just a regular caterer from the heart of Midland, Texas. The Bush family loved his work so much, which he first did for George W. Bush's 1995 gubernatorial campaign events in Texas, they asked him to work for them. He was with the family through the 2000 election and declined to work at the White House itself.
"Food people like to eat," is taken from how former First Lady Laura Bush's mother described Wendel's cooking. So while he would be on hand to cook for the first family at their ranch or at Camp David, he wasn't cooking up formal state dinners.
In 2007, President Bush hosted Queen Elizabeth II for a formal state dinner, with a menu that included spring pea soup with American caviar, Dover sole almondine, saddle of spring lamb with chanterelle sauce, arugula salad with champagne dressing and farmhouse cheese, and for dessert, meringue and spun-sugar rose blossoms.
This is not how the menu went for Matthew Wendel at the family's Prairie Chapel Ranch northwest of Crawford,Texas.
There, the Bushes were more likely to serve sweet and spicy mashed sweet potatoes, green chili mac and cheese and Matty's fried chicken -- a recipe Wendel received from his mother and served to French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
As for the diplomatic cheeseburger, nothing could be simpler. Just add 3.5 tablespoons of your favorite sweet and smoky barbecue sauce to lean ground beef and serve with extra-sharp cheddar on a toasted bun, just how the former First Lady likes it. Just don't make it too thick, she'd caution.
Wendel's cheeseburger was at the first official meeting between President Bush and former U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown at Camp David in July 2007, so it will probably work for your home functions as well.
-- Blake Stilwell can be reached at blake.stilwell@military.com. He can also be found on Twitter @blakestilwell or on Facebook.
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