Product Description

"The atmosphere crackled with excitement as JFK and his beautiful lady presided over the receiving line. Jack and Jackie actually shimmered....They were truly the golden couple...." --William Styron

The Kennedy White House years are becoming ever-more recognized as a legendary time. This book re-creates the most memorable evenings of that storied era--from the outdoor dinner at Mount Vernon to the Pablo Casals gala--with guest lists, menus, recipes, china, table settings, anecdotes from those who attended, and more. Edited by Letitia Baldrige, Jacqueline Kennedy's Social Secretary during the White House years, In the Kennedy Style is an uniquely personal and intimate tribute.

The pages of this elegant gift book are strikingly designed to combine text, quotes, photographs, anecdotes, guest lists, recipes and menus in a highly evocative way. Featured are six of the most remarkable social occasions from the Kennedy era: the outdoor dinner at Mount Vernon, the Pablo Casals gala, the André Malraux dinner, the Nobel Prize winners evening, dinner for the Grand Duchess and Prince of Luxembourg, and dinner for the Shah of Iran. In addition to photographs, recollections, and memorabilia are menus with recipes, allowing readers to re-create some of the atmosphere of those unforgettable evenings.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #330616 in Books
• Published on: 1998-04-13
• Released on: 1998-04-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 144 pages

Amazon.com Review
Letitia Baldrige's dedication reads, "For all those who have heard about the grace and charm of the Kennedy White House and wondered, was it really that extraordinary? The answer is 'Yes.'" The vibrant couple who moved into the White House in January 1961 were unlike anything that venerable home had ever seen. They were young, attractive, and cosmopolitan, and they were intent on putting their own indelible stamp on American culture. During the next three years, John and Jacqueline Kennedy wrote an entirely new chapter in the annals of presidential entertaining. Baldrige, Jackie's social secretary, and René Verdon, the White House chef, worked with them behind the scenes to bring off state dinners that are still talked about today (like the famous "Nobel Laureate Dinner"). Alas, the Kennedy days are over, but Baldrige and Verdon bring back the memories in this marvelous book, which pairs Baldrige's fun, gossipy recollections of each star-studded social occasion with Verdon's sophisticated pre-nouvelle cuisine menus (including recipes simple enough for today's home cook). It's the photographs of the glittering guests, Jackie's ravishing gowns and perfect collarbone, and Kennedy--tan and handsome in black tie--that invoke the most wistfulness for that "one brief shining moment" that for some represented the pinnacle of American cultural history. After all the dirt, this book is like a long drink of cool water. END

From Booklist
Written in an informal style, this memoir that Baldridge and Verdon have collaborated on draws from the heady years they spent in the Kennedy White House. That time seems so far away, a time when the country seemed full of a new promise; and it is that sense that Baldridge captures in the chapters of this engaging book. With reproductions of menus, formal invitations, and plenty of photographs, evenings that are now a part of our nation's history are presented in intimate detail. Each chapter takes on a particular event--the entertaining of a world figure, from Princess Grace to AndreMalraux; but there are few glimpses behind the veneer of power. The recipes are detailed, and in these delicious creations, Verdon shows why he has earned all his honors. At a time when so much has been published about what was wrong with the Kennedy White House, it is refreshing to be reminded of something that was very right about those tragically few years. Raul Nino

Customer Reviews

A Welcome Antidote To Those OTHER Kennedy Books...
This is a marvellous, beautifully presented look at the entertaining done by President and Mrs. Kennedy during their too-brief thousand days in the White House. Letitia Baldrige was Mrs. Kennedy's Social Secretary, and she has collaborated with Kennedy White House Chef Rene Verdon on reminiscences and recipes that really do evoke that very special time and place. Baldrige's anecdotes give glimpses behind the scenes that help us all understand how distinguished the hosts, guests, and entertaining really were- and her comments are often very funny indeed. Verdon's recipes are drawn from menus actually served at the White House on historic occasions, such as the famed evening when cellist Pablo Casals played for the Kennedys and their guests. The book is incredibly generous with its illustrations, which range from White House photos, to pictures of actual invitations for the events described, to fashion designer Oleg Cassini's original sketches for Mrs. Kennedy's clothes. For Jackie devotees, the book is a bonanza, with many photos showing her in her full splendour as First Lady; one 1954 photo of her lighting the candles on her dinner table may be the single most beautiful ever taken of her. I have one small, gentle caveat: Verdon's recipes have been given before, in different form, in his 1967 "The White House Chef Cookbook". The versions of the recipes in this new book have been changed a bit from the 1967 incarnations, mainly with an eye to increasing the strength of flavour; today's palates are evidently more demanding than those of the Sixties. Still, you're getting a look at the Kennedy White House from the people who made it HAPPEN- no gossip, no hearsay, no errors of research. Baldrige and Verdon were indisputably THERE, and you could do much worse than to buy their book. Come to think of it, if you've been reading some of the other Kennedy books issued recently, you have.

An excellent representation of the magic that was Camelot!
True to her impeccable style, manners maven Letitia Baldridge gives us a glimpse inside what was surely the most magical White House of the 20th Century.

And while it is a delight to peruse, this tome only hints at the style and panache of a woman who was -- and is -- without peer in style and manners: First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy.

I heartily recommend this book to anyone who appreciates how dignified a lady was Jacqueline Kennedy, to everyone who remembers the cache' that surrounded the Kennedy White House, and to all who would like to be transported -- however briefly -- to a time which was at once more simple and more elegant than today.

Kennedy Magic Transforms The White House
The Kennedy administration was before my time--but just barely, and I grew up interested in Jackie and her kids, but never really understood the mystique until I read this book. Tish Baldrige's book lays out the effort to update The White House for two young, modern parents who inhabited it. She also makes a case for the art of entertaining--a dying or even lost art--and makes me want to throw a dinner party. The Kennedy's lived like royality, it's true. I don't know if The White House would ever get away with the extravagance and glamour today (now that we spend all our money on defense and security), but the more innocent time of the Kennedy administration was ripe for the kind of magic a handsome rancouteur and his well-bred wife could generate. Every page of this book is fascinating, and it's the most delicious slice of history I've ever read. And with the recipes, you too can throw the same luncheon the Kennedys served Prince Ranier and Princess Grace!