Male on Monday: White House Chef Sam Kass

By Jeannie Watt

I love watching food reality shows—Top Chef, The Next Food Network Star, Chopped—and it was on Chopped that I discovered this week’s Male on Monday—Sam Kass. Sam was one of the judges for the Lunch Ladies episode  and I was instantly taken by his intense, no-nonsense approach to the very important issue of child obesity and providing healthy yet tasty food options to children. His killer smile didn't hurt none either.

Sam is the Assistant White House Chef and also the Senior Policy Adviser for the Healthy Foods Initiatives.  When not cooking for the Obamas, he deals with child nutrition, school lunch programs and policy.  

Sam hails from Chicago, where he got a history degree from the University of Chicago.  He also played college baseball there.  During his last year of college he went to work for a restaurant and thus began his path to the White House.  Although he has no formal culinary training, he has worked in restaurants around the world and trained with a top chef in Austria.  He became personal chef to the Obamas in Illinois and followed them to the White House.

During his time at the White House he helped the First Lady establish the first major vegetable garden since the 1890s. The harvests are used to make White House meals and are also donated to food shelters. His goal is to slow childhood obesity by educating people about the benefits of eating healthy foods. He also notes that the foods have to be more than healthy—they have to taste good so that the kids want to eat them.

Sam was named to People magazine's Top 100 Beautiful People list in 2009. Apparently I'm not the only one who's a sucker for a shaved head.