Sam Kass Gets A White House Profile

Three years after starting his job, the history-making Senior Policy Advisor has an official bio...
It took three years, but Senior Policy Advisor for Healthy Food Initiatives Sam Kass now has an official bio on WhiteHouse.gov. The White House blog recently changed format, and Kass has a new profile that appears alongside those of other Administration officials and employees, primarily those who have written posts for the White House blog. Exactly three years ago today, on Jan. 20, 2009, Kass arrived at the White House with President Obama and First Lady Obama, though his presence wasn't revealed until eight days later, when Mrs. Obama's spokesman announced that Executive Chef Cris Comerford would remain in her role, and Kass, the Obamas' personal chef in Chicago, would be an assistant chef. (Above: A screenshot of Kass' bio)

Kass is the only individual in the White House who does double duty as a member of the residence staff and as a policy advisor, and his position is unique in White House history. He is also the only member of the kitchen staff to have an official bio on WhiteHouse.gov; though Comerford has had a post on the White House blog, she does not have a profile posted. A full Obama Foodorama bio of Kass is here, first posted in January of 2009 and last updated in December of 2011. It is more detailed than Kass' White House bio, reprinted below.

Despite being a Policy Advisor, Kass has never been listed in the annual salary report for White House employees, which covers Executive staff. Click here for links to all posts about Kass.

Kass's official White House bio reads:

Sam Kass
White House Assistant Chef and the Food Initiative Coordinator

Sam Kass serves as Assistant Chef and Senior Policy Advisory for Healthy Food Initiatives at the White House. A Chicago native, Sam graduated from the University of Chicago with a degree in U.S. History. During college, he took a job cooking at the restaurant 312 Chicago under Chef Dean Zanella, an experience that set him on his current path. While finishing his final college year abroad Sam was trained as a chef by one of Austria’s greatest chefs, Chef Christian Domschitz in Vienna.

In 2009, Sam joined the White House Kitchen staff under Executive Chef Cris Comerford’s leadership as Assistant Chef and, in 2010, became a Senior Policy Advisor for Healthy Food Initiatives. In this role, he advises the Let’s Move! initiative on food policy issues and overall program strategy.

Sam has had a long interest in sustainable and nutritious ingredients and helped First Lady Michelle Obama create the first major vegetable garden at the White House since the 1890’s. To date, the garden has yielded nearly 2,000 pounds of produce that has been used to feed event guests, staff and the First Family at the White House, with further harvests donated to local food shelters.
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*Photo by Eddie Gehman Kohan/Obama Foodorama