White House executive pastry chef Roland Mesnier, who frequently produced wonderful sweets for five presidents and their visitors, passed away at the age of 78.
The White House Historical Association, which reported that he passed away on Friday after a brief illness, verified his passing on Saturday.
Rosalynn Carter, the first lady at the time, hired Mesnier, one of the chefs who worked at the White House for the longest, and he retired during the George W. Bush administration.
Roland Mesnier’s cause of death
The White House Historical Association acknowledged his passing on Saturday, stating that he passed away on Friday after a short illness.
White house statement on Roland Mesnier’s death
In 2004, when responding to inquiries in an online “Ask the White House” forum, he revealed that he frequently had to make thousands of pastries when making desserts not only for the first family but also for parties, receptions, and dinners. According to him, he planned the quantity of pastries based on the number of guests.
In the 25 years that Mesnier has worked here, he has discovered that Democrats typically consume more food than Republicans. I’ve also noticed that when there are predominantly female guests, they seem to consume more pastries than men.
He became well-known for the beautiful gingerbread houses he created to help adorn the White House over the Christmas season. Additionally, he claimed that he needed to prepare more pastries than usual for holiday gatherings because some of them had a propensity to “slip into pocketbooks or pockets” and frequently turned up as Christmas tree decorations in people’s houses.
About Roland Mesnier life
With nine siblings, Mesnier was raised in the commune of Bonnay in eastern France. At the age of 14, he started working as an apprentice. He reportedly left home with a cardboard suitcase and five francs to start his apprenticeship at the Patisserie Maurivard in Besançon, France, according to White House records.
Before earning a position at the Savoy hotel in London, he later worked in Paris and the German cities of Hanover and Hamburg.
He took a job as a pastry chef at a Bermudan hotel in 1967, when he met his future wife, a West Virginia schoolteacher who was on vacation. He learned that the White House was looking for a new pastry chef ten years later while he was employed at The Homestead resort in Virginia.
Roland Mesnier was very faithful toward his duty of chef in white house.
He responded, “You don’t think about free time, spare time, etc.,” when questioned about working at the White House in 2004. as you are now at the White House.
You must be available whenever you are needed. “You are going to be at the White House if you are needed,” he stated. “It might be Christmas day, Easter, your birthday, your mother’s birthday, your child’s birthday.”
“The White House comes first, always.”
George Mesnier, his son, is the only heir.
Roland Mesnier career
In the French village of Bonnay, Mesnier was born into a large family of nine children. When he first visited his brother’s pastry store in a nearby city, he was inspired to pursue a career in cooking by the aroma of fresh fruit wafting from the kitchen.
His mother obtained an apprenticeship for him at a pastry store in Besançon when he was fourteen. Six days a week, from 6 am to 8 pm, he worked for 300 francs, which included included lodging and board and cooking classes.
Like the majority of new apprentices, Mesnier was first only assigned mundane jobs like grocery shopping to gauge his level of interest in learning the trade. Mesnier continued working there and finally learned how to create brioche, croissants, and cakes.
Puff pastry and chocolate moulding were also introduced to him for the first time, laying the foundation for his future specialty. He passed the apprenticeship exam when he was 17 and then started looking for jobs that would advance both his reputation and his skill set.
Roland Mesnier as a chef
He eventually made it to Paris, where he worked in a bakery and café close to the Opéra Garnier. He quickly learned everything there was to know in Paris and, on the recommendation of his employer, moved to West Germany to use the country’s more sophisticated skills.
Mesnier studied marzipan modelling, cake, cookie, and fondant making, as well as the German and English languages while residing in Hamburg and Hanover.
Rosalynn Carter, the first lady, hired Mesnier as the White House’s pastry chef in 1979. Mesnier retired on July 30, 2004.
Mesnier wrote All the President’s Pastries, a book about his time in the White House, after he retired (2007).
Tribute to Roland Mesnier
I remember Chef Mesnier with great affection. He enjoyed producing lovely masterpieces, such as his well-known gingerbread houses for Christmas, that would make people smile. He will be missed!
We will miss him!
Mesnier’s “passion, commitment, and love for his job will always be recognised,” according to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute.
Mesnier claimed he wanted to offer those residing in the White House a moment of fleeting solace.
He once told the Canadian Press, “If I could take away that pressure for five minutes, then I done my job. “To make the first family smile was my job in the White House,” the speaker said.
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