Recently the White House made the exciting announcement that Susan “Susie” Morrison is the new White House Executive Pastry Chef. I can not tell you how excited I was to hear the announcement. Chef Morrison is no stranger to the White House, as she has been working at the White House since 1995 and began full-time employment at the Executive Residence when she was appointed to Assistant Pastry Chef in 2002. She has worked with Executive Pastry Chefs Roland Mesnier, Thaddeus Dubois, and Bill Yosses – and of course works closely with Executive Chef Cristeta Comerford.
As the first ever female Executive Pastry Chef, Ms. Morrison will be in charge of planning, creating and supervising the dessert menus for all social events at the White House. This includes management of all of the desserts for state dinners, receptions, luncheons and other day-to-day events that happen at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, as well as the White House bee hive. Of course the most notable item she will be in charge of is the annual Gingerbread House, a White House Christmas tradition since the Nixon Administration.
For her first Gingerbread House Chef Morrison did not hold anything back & this year’s house is a replica of the White House complete with marzipan creations of First Dogs Bo and Sunny out front and on top of the roof is Santa with all of his reindeer. (Historical note: since First Lady Laura Bush took office the annual Gingerbread House has always been a version or replica of the White House.) Morrison’s Gingerbread House this year contains 250 pounds of pastillage, 40 pounds of marzipan, 25 pounds of gum paste, 80 pounds of gingerbread dough and 25 pounds of sugar work.
GOOD LUCK EXECUTIVE CHEF MORRISON – WE KNOW YOU ARE GOING TO DO GREAT THINGS !
