STATE DINNER FOR HIS EXCELLENCY HU JINTAO

( yes, I am that kind of nerd...)
 to be updated for a while, keep checking back

47˙at the White House.

The Chinese asked for a 

quintessential American Evening.

FULL GUEST LIST

( and DAMN, there are some good ones! )

The Highlights!:

The President and First Lady

President and Secretary Clinton

President and Mrs. CARTER ( !!! )

Christiane Amanpour

a whole mess of Bidens ( we ♥ Beau Biden )

The Brezezinski's ( Mika's Parents )

Mutar Kent  ( Coca Cola's grand poobah! )

The Kerry-Heinz's

Henry and Nancy ( going old school on the Chinese! )

Michele Kwan ( really? )

The Yo-Yo Ma's ( and he does not have to work!  )

The Pelosi's ( but NOT the Boehner's because he is a juvenile buffoon )

BARBRA!!!!! and James Brolin, but BARBRA ( she is not working either )

The Vera Wangs !!!  ( wonder who she will wear ? )

The Anna Wintour's

B.D. Wong ( who is openly gay.. and I guess his mother...)

THE MENU

D'Anjou Pear Salad with Farmstead Goat Cheese
Fennel, black walnuts and white balsamic

Poached Maine Lobster, Orange glaze carrots and black trumpet mushrooms
wine--Dumul Chardonnay "Russian River" 2008

Lemon sorbet

Dry aged rib eye with buttermilk crisp onions
Double stuffed potatoes and creamed spinach
wine--Quilceda Creek Cabernet "Columbia Valley" 2005

Old fashioned apple pie with vanilla ice cream
wine-- Poet's Leap Riesling "botrytis" 2008


( from AP  )  WASHINGTON--President Obama and First Lady Michelle honor Hu Jintao, president of the People's Republic of China at a State Dinner on Wednesday night with 225 guests held entirely in the White House--not in bigger tents on the South Lawn used for the leaders of Mexico and India. The entertainment is jazz, as American as apple pie--which is one of the deserts.
Guests will be scattered in three rooms in the White House: Blue, Red, State, with the presidents eating in the State Dining room seated in a long table seating 20. Television monitors are in each room so the guests can see the toasts and the rest of the State Dining room action.
Unlike the other state dinners in the Obama White House, this time there is no guest chef: overseeing the fine dining is White House executive chef Cristeta Comerford, a native of Manilla, Phillippines, appointed to the position by former First Lady Laura Bush in 2005, joined by William Yosses, the White House executive pastry chef. Rafenelli Events were the event planners--the same firm that planned Chelsea Clinton's wedding.

The Official program for the 

Chinese State Dinner

at the White House 

( menu, music, notes )

Global trade, National Debt, Currencies, blah, blah, blah, the important stuff : 
MICHELE LOOKS FANTASTIC in 
Alexander McQueen !

BIG pic of dress HERE

 The setting in the State or Main Dining room

 Setting in the Red Room

 close up of the Red Room setting,
CRAZY about the mix of the colored crystal!!!

 setting in the Blue Room

Looks like they are all three using the Clinton China.

I'm not really feeling the three different dining rooms, all hooked up by television, There are three Presidents there, BUT only one Barbra. The Chinese did not want to be in a large , one room, tent for the state dinner, like the White House used for the others they have held.

Guests

 Barbra

 Vera in Vera

Anna in Chanel

Bill

Hillary
( looking SO pretty ! )

There was a big to do on exactly how to invite the Clintons to  the White House.

From the NYT : "The official guest list for Wednesday’s state dinner is out, offering a peek at those invited and their spouses.

But what to do with the Clintons, Bill and Hillary?
Mandel Ngan/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived for the State Dinner.
Should the secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton, be listed as the invited guest, with Mr. Clinton as her “plus one”?
Or does that honor automatically go to former presidents, with Mrs. Clinton as the tag-along?
Alas, neither would do. And so the pair are simply listed separately:
The Honorable Hillary R. Clinton, Secretary of State; the Honorable William J. Clinton, former President of the United States.
Ah, diplomacy."


I was thinking that each of the three rooms would get a President, but, the Clintons are sitting there in the Main dining room with the President and First Lady. I guess as Secretary of State. Hillary had to be there.... Maybe its the Carters in the Blue room and Barbra in the red.... Sophie's Choice for sure!

BEST. CHAIRS. EVER.

SEATING CHART


Click on " seating chart " above to see who is sitting where in the main dining  room.

The Main Table

Ok, I am going to make too big of a deal about this. India is important. Mexico is going next door for a cup of sugar. This is China... the big deal. The world wants to be at this dinner, every big business guy on the planet is there. Barbra for crying out loud. As far as I know there is ONE openly gay man at this dinner, there are three different dining rooms..... BD WONG IS SITTING AT THE MAIN TABLE!!!  LOOK : he is between Teresa Heinz Kerry and Roslyn Carter , ACROSS from The FIRST LADY! 

The last State Dinner ( or the one before that ) the left of The First Lady was , again, an openly gay man,  David Geffen. Again, I am making a big deal out of this, but come on, like I said, the WORLD wants to be at this dinner, and at the table are THREE Presidents, three First Ladies, the head of G freaking E... the President of Coca Cola... some Chinese folk, and B.D. Wong, and his mother....

MORE PICTURES

• Washington Post
• San Francisco Chronicle
• Huffington Post
• New York Times