bodyType

customContents

entityId

printArticlePageQuery

filter

article

body

urlAlias

articleSectionsContent

articleSeoArticle

articleSourceHeaderArticle

contentSchemaRenderContent

contentSubHeadlineContent

contentHeadlineContent

mainImagePrintArticleArticle

authorBlockPrintArticleArticle

contentSponsorTagContent

articlePianoPaywallContent

scmpYoutubeContent

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

query printArticlePageQuery(
  $entityId: String!
  $customContents: [CustomContentInput]
  $bodyType: BodyFormatTypeEnum
) {
  article(filter: {entityId: $entityId}) {
    entityId
    body(customContents: $customContents, type: $bodyType) {
      json
    }
    urlAlias
    ...articleSectionsContent
    ...articleSeoArticle_3o8td4
    ...articleSourceHeaderArticle
    ...contentSchemaRenderContent
    ...contentSubHeadlineContent
    ...contentHeadlineContent
    ...mainImagePrintArticleArticle
    ...authorBlockPrintArticleArticle
    ...contentSponsorTagContent
    ...articlePianoPaywallContent
    ...scmpYoutubeContent
    ...hooksTrackPageViewArticle
    id
  }
}

fragment articlePianoPaywallContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksPaywallPromiseContent
}

fragment articleSectionsContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  sectionsV2 {
    value {
      __typename
      ... on Section {
        name
        published
      }
      ... on VideoSection {
        name
        published
      }
      ...helpersCheckIfNewsSectionInFirstIndexSection
      ...entityLink
      ... on Node {
        __isNode: __typename
        id
      }
    }
  }
}

fragment articleSeoArticle_3o8td4 on Article {
  ...hooksArticleSeoArticle
  ...helpersGetArticleTypeArticle
  entityId
  publishedDate
  updatedDate
  summary {
    text
  }
  subHeadline {
    text
  }
  body(customContents: $customContents, type: $bodyType) {
    text
  }
  keywords
  sectionsV2 {
    value {
      __typename
      ... on Section {
        name
      }
      ... on Node {
        __isNode: __typename
        id
      }
    }
  }
  topics {
    name
    entityId
    id
  }
  urlAlias
  authors {
    name
    id
  }
  images {
    style(filter: {style: "768x768"}) {
      url
    }
  }
  readingTime
}

fragment articleSourceHeaderArticle on Article {
  urlAlias
  ...entityLink
}

fragment authorBlockPrintArticleArticle on Article {
  ...defaultArticleDateContent
  ...authorNamesArticle
}

fragment authorNameAuthor on Author {
  ...entityLink
  name
  entityUuid
}

fragment authorNamesArticle on Article {
  authorLocations
  authors {
    entityId
    location
    ...authorNameAuthor
    id
  }
}

fragment blockquoteQuoteContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...contentShareWidgetContent
}

fragment checkersCheckContentContainsStarlingImageContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment contentHeadlineContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  headline
  socialHeadline
  ...contentHeadlineTagContent
  ...helpersUseContentSponsorContent
}

fragment contentHeadlineTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksContentHeadlineTagContent
}

fragment contentNewsletterWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    relatedNewsletters {
      ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
      id
    }
    id
  }
  sectionsV2 {
    value {
      __typename
      ... on Section {
        relatedNewsletters {
          ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
          id
        }
      }
      ... on Node {
        __isNode: __typename
        id
      }
    }
  }
  ... on Article {
    relatedNewsletters {
      ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment contentSchemaRenderContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...blockquoteQuoteContent
  ...hooksInlinePlusWidgetContent
  ...imageContent
  ...inlineWidgetContent
  ...photoGalleryWidgetContent
  ...scmpYoutubeContent
}

fragment contentShareWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  __typename
  entityId
  urlAlias
  shortUrl
  socialHeadline
  headline
  ... on Video {
    youtubeId
  }
}

fragment contentSponsorTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...helpersUseContentSponsorContent
}

fragment contentSubHeadlineContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  subHeadline {
    json
  }
  summary {
    json
  }
  ...contentSchemaRenderContent
}

fragment defaultArticleDateContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksArticleDateUtilsContent
}

fragment entityLink on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  __typename
  entityId
  entityUuid
  urlAlias
  urlRedirect {
    toUrl
    id
  }
  application {
    entityId
    id
  }
  ... on Section {
    fullSectionPath {
      entityId
      id
    }
    parentSection
  }
  ...helpersAppBarVariantBase
  ...helpersApplicationBase
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusArticle
  ...helpersStyleSectionContent
}

fragment helpersAppBarVariantBase on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  ...helpersCheckIsLiveArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  ...helpersSectionContent
  ...helpersStyleSectionContent
}

fragment helpersApplicationBase on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusPage
}

fragment helpersCheckIfNewsSectionInFirstIndexSection on SectionUnion {
  __isSectionUnion: __typename
  ... on Section {
    name
  }
  ... on VideoSection {
    name
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsAmpEnabledArticle on Article {
  entityId
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  sectionsV2 {
    value {
      __typename
      ... on Section {
        entityId
      }
      ... on Node {
        __isNode: __typename
        id
      }
    }
  }
  disableOffPlatformContent
  sponsorType
  published
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusArticle
}

fragment helpersCheckIsLiveArticle on Article {
  flattenTypeIds
  liveArticle {
    status
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsMainTopicContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPlusArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ... on Article {
    paywallTypes {
      entityUuid
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPlusPage on Page {
  urlAlias
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  sectionsV2 {
    value {
      __typename
      ... on Section {
        entityId
      }
      ... on Node {
        __isNode: __typename
        id
      }
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsStyleArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  sectionsV2 {
    value {
      __typename
      ... on Section {
        entityId
      }
      ... on VideoSection {
        entityId
      }
      ... on Node {
        __isNode: __typename
        id
      }
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersGetArticleTypeArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ... on Article {
    types {
      value {
        entityId
        id
      }
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter on Newsletter {
  entityId
  name
  alternativeName
  description {
    text
  }
  summary {
    text
  }
  homepageDescription {
    text
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizeArticleTypeEntityIdsArticle on Article {
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizeAuthorTypesArticle on Article {
  authors {
    types
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizedAuthorEntityIdsArticle on Article {
  authors {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersSectionContent on Section {
  fullSectionPath {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersStyleSectionContent on Section {
  fullSectionPath {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersUseContentSponsorContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    sponsor {
      ...sponsorTagSponsor
      name
      type
      id
    }
    id
  }
  ... on Article {
    sponsorType
  }
  ...helpersCheckIsMainTopicContent
}

fragment hooksArticleDateUtilsContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  createdDate
  publishedDate
  updatedDate
}

fragment hooksArticleSeoArticle on Article {
  ...helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  ...hooksContentHeadlineTagContent
  ...helpersCheckIsAmpEnabledArticle
  entityId
  headline
  socialHeadline
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  authors {
    entityId
    id
  }
  images {
    generic_og: style(filter: {style: "og_image_scmp_generic"}) {
      url
    }
    styles(filter: {styles: ["og_postmag", "og_image_style", "og_image_scmp_analysis", "og_image_scmp_explainer", "og_image_scmp_editorial", "og_image_scmp_fact_check", "og_image_scmp_debate", "og_image_scmp_live", "og_image_scmp_obituary", "og_image_scmp_opinion", "og_image_scmp_review", "og_image_scmp_series", "og_image_scmp_generic"]}) {
      url
      style
    }
    type
  }
  urlAlias
}

fragment hooksContentHeadlineTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  __typename
  ... on Article {
    types {
      value {
        name
        entityId
        description {
          text
        }
        id
      }
    }
    ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  }
  flag
  sectionsV2 {
    value {
      __typename
      ... on Section {
        name
      }
      ... on VideoSection {
        name
      }
      ... on Node {
        __isNode: __typename
        id
      }
    }
  }
  ...hooksContentHelperContent
}

fragment hooksContentHelperContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...helpersSanitizeArticleTypeEntityIdsArticle
  ...helpersSanitizeAuthorTypesArticle
  ...helpersSanitizedAuthorEntityIdsArticle
  flag
}

fragment hooksInlinePlusWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment hooksPaywallPromiseContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
}

fragment hooksTrackPageViewArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  publishedDate
  headline
  sectionsV2 {
    value {
      __typename
      ... on Section {
        name
      }
      ... on Node {
        __isNode: __typename
        id
      }
    }
  }
  urlAlias
  authors {
    name
    id
  }
  entityUuid
}

fragment imageContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  headline
  ...checkersCheckContentContainsStarlingImageContent
}

fragment inlineWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...contentNewsletterWidgetContent
}

fragment mainImagePrintArticleArticle on Article {
  images {
    title
    url
    isSlideshow
    size_652x446: style(filter: {style: "652x446"}) {
      url
    }
  }
}

fragment photoGalleryDialogContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  __typename
  ...contentShareWidgetContent
}

fragment photoGalleryWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...photoGalleryDialogContent
}

fragment scmpYoutubeContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  urlAlias
  publishedDate
}

fragment sponsorTagSponsor on Sponsor {
  name
  type
  images {
    url
  }
}


types

sectionsV2

disableOffPlatformContent

sponsorType

published

headline

socialHeadline

authors

images

publishedDate

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

keywords

topics

readingTime

authorLocations

Bernice Chan

A decade ago, while he was researching his book on African-American cooks in the White House, Adrian Miller came across an intriguing title in the University of Denver library’s special-collection catalogue.
The book, published in 1939, was called To a President’s Taste: Being the Reminiscences and Recipes of Lee Ping Quan, Ex-President’s Steward on the Presidential Yacht, USS Mayflower, as told to Jim Miller.
“[When] I finally got to look at that book, I almost fell out of my chair. It’s a memoir cookbook. It was the most complete telling of a chef’s story that we’ve ever had in presidential history up to that point. The fact that it was by a person of colour, too, was also noteworthy,” Miller said recently.
“So it wasn’t really germane to the book I was writing about African-American chefs, but I just made a mental note that at some point this book needs to be reintroduced to folks, because it was printed in 1939 and it just seems like it fell into obscurity.”


When Miller, a former lawyer who worked in the White House during Bill Clinton’s administration, finished writing his book, he talked to a few publishers, asking if they were interested in reprinting Quan’s book, but they all declined.
Then Miller contacted the White House Historical Association about Quan. The non-profit group was interested in the Chinese chef and other Asians who may have cooked for US presidents.
That led to Miller writing Asian Heritage Chefs in White House History: Cooking to the President’s Taste, featuring Quan as well as chefs from China, Japan, the Philippines, South Korea and Thailand.
The book, which was published in May, features profiles as well as recipes from Quan, Ariel De Guzman (who served George H.W. Bush and his son George W. Bush), Anita Lo (who cooked President Barack Obama’s state dinner for Xi Jinping in 2015) and Cristeta Comerford, the executive chef at the White House who retired in 2024.

Poring over ship logs as part of his research, Miller found that, as far back as the late 1800s, US naval officers preferred to employ Asian labour, particularly Chinese – they worked on the presidential yacht as chefs, stewards and dishwashers.
The earliest known Chinese chef who prepared food for a US president was Ah Loy, who served President Theodore Roosevelt on the USS Mayflower during the Russian-Japanese War in July 1905. The president was trying to broker peace between his Japanese and Russian counterparts while on board the ship, and the chef had the stressful task of ensuring they all had a good lunch.
Ah Loy’s menu included clam chowder, grilled spring chicken on toast, shoofly potatoes, cantaloupes and coffee, and was delicious enough to seal the deal. Roosevelt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize the following year.
Meanwhile, Quan was the presidential chef on the USS Mayflower for Presidents William Harding and Calvin Coolidge, from 1922 to 1929.
Originally from Longmen county in Guangdong province (then called Kwangtung), Quan grew up in Canton – now Guangzhou – where his uncle, Li Wan Sun, was a well-known chef and restaurateur, according to Quan’s memoirs.

Quan began apprenticing under him at a young age, and moved with his family to the Philippines, where he attended culinary school and worked with his uncle in a hotel. When Quan was 20 years old, he joined the US Navy as an officer's steward on the USS Barry.
By the time Quan joined the USS Mayflower in 1922, he was already known for his culinary skill, and exclusively prepared meals for the first family and their guests. His dishes for the Harding family included fish à la king, sweet potato croquettes, spinach rolls stuffed with avocado, and almond cookies, while the Coolidges tucked into plates of curried veal, caviar stuffed in egg on toast, and Swiss rolls.
Quan retired from the US Navy in 1929 and tried his hand at being a restaurateur.
“He ran high-end restaurants, not only in New York City, but also in Maine. And the interesting thing was, chef Quan tried to make the restaurant look like you were on the USS Mayflower,” Miller says.
“In their time, newspapers and some magazines actually profiled chefs like Quan and told their story to the American public, and there was a lot of fascination about their experiences and how they pleased the palates of the presidents they served.”

Despite the media coverage, Quan’s dishes were too expensive and he declared bankruptcy soon after the 1929 stock market crash. He tried again in Maine in 1932, but people did not have the appetite for expensive meals during the Great Depression.
When it came to editing Quan’s recipes and those of chefs in recent decades, Miller turned to his friend, former lawyer Deborah Chang, who went to culinary school, worked in restaurants and had her own catering company. She tested and edited Quan’s recipes – there were over 400 in the original book – and dishes from other Asian chefs.
She whittled them down to 60 dishes that people today would eat, and adapted the recipes for modern appliances.

Quan’s recipe for President Harding’s filet mignon is similar to what restaurant chefs would do today: sear the meat at a high temperature, then cook it in the oven. Chang finishes it with a mushroom sauce.
“What we’ve seen more recently is wrapping the bacon around a little nice piece of filet mignon,” she says. “Chef Quan had laid the bacon on the top. If he were alive today, I would ask him if he used a long piece of filet. So we adapted it by wrapping the bacon around the side, because that’s easier for the home cook.”
In general, Chang says, savoury recipes were more forgiving, whereas baking ones had to be tested multiple times. When it came to using the oven, Quan did not give temperature settings.
“The original recipe for London pound cake was to bake in a slow oven for two hours. So I had to figure out, what is a slow oven? So I took a guess at 300 degrees Fahrenheit [148 degrees Celsius], and it really was for two hours. Two hours is a long time to bake a pound cake, but that’s exactly what it was,” she says, adding the dessert is absolutely delicious.


In Quan’s recipe for chop suey, the noodles were made fresh. And when it came to vegetables for this Americanised dish, Quan only used onion, celery, “Chinese beans” and bean sprouts. Chang guessed “Chinese beans” might be edamame or fava beans.
Today, with the choice of vegetables available, Chang says it is up to the home cook to decide which to add, though she recommends adding fresh bamboo shoots and water chestnuts.
“Chef Quan had so many recipes, and it was amazing to get into his brain with the sheer number of his recipes,” she says.
“I could feel his presence while I was cooking his recipes, like I knew what he meant.”


Chinese chefs who served US presidents, and the delicious dishes they cooked

During his time in the US Navy, Chinese chef Lee-ping Quan served filet mignon to US President William Harding aboard the USS Mayflower.

Lee-ping Quan cooked for two US presidents: William Harding and Calvin Coolidge. Photo: White House Historical Association

A hard copy of Quan’s memoir cookbook, detailing his time as a chef for US presidents.

Adrian Miller has written two books about minority chefs who served US presidents. Photo: Ryan Fila

The cover of Adrian Miller and Deborah Chang’s book. Photo: White House Historical Association

Quan made Swiss rolls for US President Calvin Coolidge on the USS Mayflower. The recipe has been adapted by Deborah Chang. Photo: Bruce M. White

Deborah Chang tested and edited Quan’s recipes for Adrian Miller’s book. Photo: Deborah Chang

In Quan’s recipe for the chop suey he served on the USS Mayflower, the noodles were made fresh. Photo: White House Historical Association

Quan’s original recipe for London pound cake involved baking it in a slow oven for two hours. Photo: Bruce M. White

Lifestyle

Food & Drink

Two Chinese chefs are among Asians who cooked for US presidents like Theodore Roosevelt and William Harding who are celebrated in a new book


Two Chinese chefs are among Asians who cooked for US presidents like Theodore Roosevelt and William Harding who are celebrated in a new book.


Food and Drinks

Asian diaspora

United States

Books and literature

Chinese chefs who served US presidents, and the delicious dishes they cooked

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Two Chinese chefs are among Asians who cooked for US presidents like Theodore Roosevelt and William Harding who are celebrated in a new book

Two Chinese chefs are among Asians who cooked for US presidents like Theodore Roosevelt and William Harding who are celebrated in a new book