Sam Kass
White House Assistant Chef and the Food Initiative Coordinator
Sam Kass serves as Assistant Chef and Senior Policy Advisor for Healthy Food Initiatives at the White House. A Chicago native, Sam graduated from the University of Chicago with a degree in U.S. History. During college, he took a job cooking at the restaurant 312 Chicago under Chef Dean Zanella, an experience that set him on his current path. While finishing his final college year abroad Sam was trained as a chef by one of Austria’s greatest chefs, Chef Christian Domschitz in Vienna.
In 2009, Sam joined the White House Kitchen staff under Executive Chef Cris Comerford’s leadership as Assistant Chef and, in 2010, became a Senior Policy Advisor for Healthy Food Initiatives. In this role, he advises the Let’s Move! initiative on food policy issues and overall program strategy.
Sam has had a long interest in sustainable and nutritious ingredients and helped First Lady Michelle Obama create the first major vegetable garden at the White House since the 1890’s. To date, the garden has yielded nearly 2,000 pounds of produce that has been used to feed event guests, staff and the First Family at the White House, with further harvests donated to local food shelters.
