Luncheon for Deesha

We social secretaries stick together, and whenever there’s a new White House Social Secretary, we all want to meet her, give lots of unasked-for advice, and offer our support. The newest White House Social Secretary, Deesha Dyer, is an extraordinary woman who won’t need help because she’s already accomplished so much in her young life. I recently threw a small luncheon in her honor to introduce her to other Washingtonians whose paths she is likely to cross in her work, and we had a raucously good time getting to know each other.

Deesha and I

Tablescape

Lunch was golden gazpacho, a halibut nicoise salad, and a trio of summer sorbets, but the highlight of the meal was the perfectly-rendered White House cookies created by Roxanne Roberts, whose work you’ve seen before if you’re an America’s Table regular. She made a cookie-sized template of the White House and decorated each one with meticulous attention to detail – every window and pillar perfectly outlined in tiny threads of icing. Instead of flowers for the centerpiece, I had a mélange of vegetables and fruits in all their summery bounty, a crisp and cool way to create visual interest – some of which we recycled for dinner that evening.

With special thanks to Roxanne Roberts for her White House Cookies

Here are photos from the luncheon, with very best wishes to Deesha, who is already in the thick of things at the White House, with a papal visit in the fall, followed by a state visit two days later – in addition to every other event that goes on at the White House every day. A very busy woman…

Getting ready for lunch