Black Chefs, White House

"It was Hercules who really began this long connection of presidents and African- American cooks," says Sharron Conrad, historian of African-American cuisine. She began researching this connection for her article The President's Kitchen: African American Cooks in the White House. Hercules, one of George Washington's slaves, came to be the chef of Washington's kitchen at Mt. Vernon and later in the nation's early capital in Philadelphia. Hercules, Cesar — names of Rome and antiquity were often bestowed upon slaves along with the last names of their owners.