The existing White House chef is great. This is even better, and comes close enough I’d think to say that Alice Waters (and all of us greenies, we got her back) got her wish for the Obamas to set an example three times a day by showing America the way back to healthy, local, organic. Excerpt:

“…he knows what they like and he happens to have a particular interest in healthy food and local food.” He will work alongside the White House executive chef, Cristeta Comerford, who was promoted to that job by the Bushes and is being kept on in that role by the Obamas.

Mr. Kass’s appointment signals changes at the White House that should please chefs like Alice Waters, who have lobbied the Obamas to set an example for the rest of the country by emphasizing food that is healthy, local and sustainable. It further suggests that a vegetable garden on the White House grounds, another of Ms. Waters’ dreams, could be on the horizon.

Mr. Kass, one of the new breed of chefs who are concerned about the environment and about poor eating habits in this country, has been quoted as saying people in his profession should take the lead in tackling public health issues. “Not only is there an unconscionable amount of people who remain hungry,” he told “In These Times” magazine last year, said, “there’s even a larger population, mostly poor, who are faced with obesity, diabetes and various other problems from overabundance.”

A Chicago native, he graduated from the University of Chicago and received his formal training at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Europe, then went to work at Avec, a highly regarded Chicago wine bar serving Mediterranean food.

After he left the restaurant Mr. Kass, who is 28, founded Inevitable Table, a private chef service in Chicago, according to its Web site, that is the client’s “link to clean, healthy food.” In addition to cooking and shopping “mainly from local farms,” and purchasing wines from “small sustainable wineries,”

…Read the rest of the NY Times‘s article. Oh, and if you want to read bad writing, read about it at Gawker.