Capital culture: Obama calls pastry chef 'Crustmaster'

WASHINGTON — Poor Bill Yosses. He's the White House pastry chef. He makes desserts for a living.

He works for Barack and Michelle Obama. They talk about healthy eating. All the time.

Sounds like a recipe for disaster, right?

Not at all.

Yosses' creations — especially his pies — have won over even the Obamas.

The president calls him "The Crustmaster."

The first lady points to pie-on-demand as one of the big plusses of life at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

"I'm the dark side," Yosses joked in an AP interview. "They love our pies."

In truth, Yosses says, there's no contradiction to being the pastry chef for such an avowedly health-conscious first family.

"They did reassure me that they love dessert," Yosses says of his first days in the Obama White House. "But they don't want it there for themselves or their children every day."

Yosses, 56, doesn't cook just for the Obamas. His team whips up treats for dozens, hundreds and thousands of guests attending a never-ending stream of parties, receptions and other special events at the White House.

On a recent visit to the pastry kitchen, Yosses offered a rare insider's view of the operation.

Menus for close to a dozen upcoming events were taped to metal shelves. A freshly baked pie shell sat on the marble counter, awaiting its filling. A tray held dried sugar pieces destined to become part of a circus centerpiece for a still-to-be determined event.

Yosses, in his white jacket and apron, was just back from the South Lawn, where he helped Michelle Obama and schoolchildren harvest vegetables from the first lady's kitchen garden. Earlier, he'd baked oatmeal raisin cookies for the youngsters, the snacks sweetened with maple syrup to avoid refined sugar.

For all that's going on, Yosses, bald and bespectacled, never seems to lose his easy manner and broad grin.

"We're kind of used to the idea that, oh, there's going to be 1,200 guests tomorrow," he deadpans.

Yosses says there's a set rhythm to the start of each day — a quick 7:30 a.m. meeting where all the White House departments coordinate the day's plans. Then structure gives way to the varying demands of the day, with Yosses shuttling between the main pastry kitchen and a smaller chocolate shop and decorating area tucked into White House nooks. About 6:30 p.m., he heads home — to fix a quick salad for dinner.