A Saskatoon chef had the honour of a lifetime, when he cooked for U.S. president Joe Biden, during his recent state visit to Canada.
Born and raised in Saskatoon, Chef Kenton Leier and his team at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa handled the catering for Biden, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and 400 other international guests.
The gala dinner concluded President Biden’s state visit and was hosted in the Canadian Aviation and Space Musuem in Ottawa. The menu included yellowfin tuna from the East Coast, Alberta beef braised short rib, Quebec maple mousse cake and cabernet from an Ontario winery.
It wasn’t the first time Chef Leier catered for Joe Biden. He previously cooked for Biden when he was still vice-president during the Obama administration in 2016 — which, coincidentally, was Biden’s previous official visit to Canada.
Leier is no stranger to cooking for high-level events with foreign dignitaries. In January, he cooked for the prime minister of Japan and he will provide the meals during the upcoming visit of the German chancellor, but he said that cooking for the U.S. president was special.
“My staff and I were all a bit starstruck. It was such a great honour to cook for the U.S. president and everyone else,” Leier said.
“The venue of the Aviation Museum was also amazing. Having dinner surrounded by all these historic planes was very unique. My staff took home the menus with the official stamps on them as a souvenir.”
Leier, unfortunately, was not able to meet President Biden himself.
“I saw him at his table with the prime minister and his wife, but there was no way they were letting me get close to him. I couldn’t walk up to his table and ask him how his dinner was, but the servers told me he enjoyed it, so I am satisfied with that,” Leier said.
To be able to cook for the U.S. president, the Saskatoon chef had to jump through a lot of extra hoops. He had to submit the menu months in advance and kept making changes until days before the actual dinner. Most impressive for Leier were all the extra security measures that had to be taken.
“I know the Americans take the security around their president very seriously, but it still went beyond my expectations,” Leier said.
Before his team was even allowed to start cooking, the RCMP had dogs sniff their entire kitchen to check for bombs. When Leier arrived at work that day, he had to go through metal detectors, before getting shuttled to his kitchen.
While preparing the food, the U.S. security personnel took measurements and samples of everything to ensure they could find out in case anything happened. Leier said that when the president arrived on-site, nobody was allowed to move or leave the room.
“I think there was more security than there were guests at the venue,” Leier said.
Being from Saskatchewan, but working in Ottawa, Leier is trying his best to represent his hometown of Saskatoon.
“I am proud to be from Saskatoon and I try to use Saskatchewan ingredients whenever I can. This menu had flax seed from the province on the appetizers and the vegetarian option had Saskatchewan-grown lentils. I use things like Saskatoon berries and chokecherries in my cooking,” Leier said.
Leier said the whole dinner was a long and exhausting day for him and his team, but he was happy to do it.
“We went through all that trouble, but I think it was all worth it in the end. For my staff and I, this was a highlight in our career and I don’t think anyone is going to ever forget that day.”
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