State Department fete for 200 guests: The toasts, Chef Ming Tasai's menu, and the guest list...Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton co-hosted a luncheon at the State Department on Wednesday for Vice President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China. The visit from China's next president is the second of the planned reciprocal visits between the Vice Presidents announced by President Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao during President Hu’s State Visit to Washington in 2011; Biden visited China last August. About 200 guests were invited to toast US-China relations in the State Department's ornate Benjamin Franklin Dining Room, decorated in reds and pinks in honor of both Valentine's Day and the Year of the Dragon. (Above: The two Vice Presidents; Dr. Henry Kissinger is at left)
“I hope we can match the extraordinary hospitality that the vice president showed me for four days in August,” Biden said. “The U.S. and china have much to do together…our relationship is literally going to help shape the 21st century."
2012 marks the 4oth anniversary of President Richard Nixon's historic visit to China, and Nixon's Secretary of State, Dr. Henry Kissinger, was seated with the two Vice Presidents and Secretary Clinton at the Head Table. The three-course menu was created by acclaimed Chinese American chef Ming Tsai, executive chef and owner of Blue Ginger restaurant in Wellesley, MA, and featured Alasakan Butterfish. Iron Horse Year of the Dragon Chinese Cuvée from California was served for the toasts. (Above: The Secretary and Vice Presidents toast)Guests began their arrivals shortly after 12:37, and were entertained by a string quartet. Invitees included Chevron Chairman and CEO John Watson, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, Walt Disney CEO Robert Iger, Dreamworks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent, Georgetown President John DeGioia, former Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe, former Senator Chris Dodd chair of the Motion Picture Association of America, Human Rights Watch Executive Director Ken Roth, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, NBC's Andrea Mitchell and her husband Alan Greenspan, US Sens. John Kerry, Max Baucus, Dianne Feinstein, Lindsey Graham, Carl Levin, Daniel Akaka, and John Kerry, and members of the Chinese delegation. The other guests were leaders in foreign policy, academia and business, cultural and media figures, and Administration officials, according to the Vice President's office.
Xi, 58, first visited the US in 1985 as a communist party agricultural official on an exchange program, and stayed in Iowa. He will visit there later this week, and continue on to Los Angeles, accompanied by Biden, where they will be hosted by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. On Wednesday afternoon, Xi visited the Pentagon and attended a meeting with Biden at the US Chamber of Commerce. In the evening, the Vice President and Dr. Jill Biden hosted a dinner for Xi at the Naval Observatory, also attended by Secretary Clinton, top Administration officials, and the Chinese Delegation.
For the luncheon, the eighteen tables, in addition to to the head table, were decorated in hot pink, red and gold hues. Each table had a center bouquet of red and pink roses and/or tulips, and three tall glass vases, each with a floating red candle. The wine and water glasses were rimmed with gold, and the menu at each plate was embossed with a gold eagle and a wax seal.
Luncheon Menu in Honor of Vice President XiRoasted Sweet Potato Soup
with a Crispy Duck Confit Roulade and Micro Greens
Soy Marinated Alaskan Butterfish
with black garlic sauce
Eight Treasured Rice Packet
with dried fruit and pork sausage
Gingered Swiss Chard
Flourless Bittersweet Chocolate Cake
with Cardamom Ice Cream
with a Crispy Duck Confit Roulade and Micro Greens
Soy Marinated Alaskan Butterfish
with black garlic sauce
Eight Treasured Rice Packet
with dried fruit and pork sausage
Gingered Swiss Chard
Flourless Bittersweet Chocolate Cake
with Cardamom Ice Cream
Newton Unfiltered Chardonnay 2008 was served during the lunch. The Iron Horse vineyard, located in northern California's Green Valley, has had its sparkling wines served at the White House during the past five Administrations, beginning with the historic Reagan-Gorbachev Summit Meetings. Vineyard co-owner Joy Sterling attended the luncheon. (Above: Xi's placesetting)
The Head Table...
Seated in the center of the head table: Vice President Xi on the left and Vice President Biden on the right. Seated to Xi's left was Kissinger, Friedman, and Watson. To the right of Biden: Iger, China's Minister of Agriculture Changfu Han, and Katzenberg. On the left end of the table: Sen. Graham, on the right side of the table: Sen. Baucus, Democrat from Montana and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. Seated on the other side of the table from Biden and Xi from left to right were: Mitchell, Blankfein, Secretary Clinton, China's Minister of Foreign Affairs Jiechi Yang, Sen. Kerry, Kent and DeGioia.
Chef Ming Tsai's bio, provided by the Vice President's office: Ming Tsai, a Chinese-American, was raised in Ohio where he grew up cooking alongside his mother and father at their family-owned restaurant. (Above: Ming at the luncheon with Joy Sterling)
After graduating from Yale University, Ming trained and worked in kitchens around the globe. In 1998, he opened the critically-acclaimed restaurant Blue Ginger in Wellesley, MA and went on to receive a James Beard Foundation Award. He also received an Emmy Award for the Food Network show he hosted, East Meets West with Ming Tsai and has authored four cookbooks. He is currently the host and executive producer of Simply Ming, an Emmy-nominated cooking show, is proud to serve as the national spokesperson for the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network, and is a founding member of Chefs For Humanity.
*Top photo by David Lienemann/White House; others courtesy of Joy Sterling
