As the holiday baking season approaches, the Whole Grains Council is making sure that the Pastry Chef in Chief has the resources he needs to offer the health-conscious Obamas plenty of whole grain sugarplums. We’re sending White House Pastry Chef Bill Yosses a copy of The King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking Book, the definitive guide to using whole grain in cookies, cakes, pies and other baked goods.

“We heard that President Obama loves Chef Bill’s pies, but that the Obamas have told the chef to limit less-healthy desserts to once a week,” said K. Dun Gifford, Founder and President of Oldways, the parent organization of the Whole Grains Council. “We teamed up with Michael Bittel at the King Arthur Flour Company to overnight this wonderful encyclopedia of a book, so the president can have his whole grain cake and his health.”  That’s Dun with me, here, packing up the book to send it on its way to D.C.

The White House has displayed its support for whole grains throughout the past year. Chefs demonstrated grilled-cheese-and-tomato sandwiches on whole wheat bread to kids at the Easter Egg Roll in April, for instance, and gave away “Sweet and Zesty Popcorn” and baked apple crisp with oatmeal at October’s Healthy Kids Fair. The Whole Grains Council’s gift is intended both as a recognition of these efforts – and as an inspiration to the White House to be even more creative in its use of healthy, delicious whole grains.

If you want to keep an eye on food initiatives at the White House or otherwise involving the Obama administration, one great source is the blog Obamafoodorama. No matter what your political party, if you love good food it’s heartening to see food issues getting new attention in Washington. (Cindy)