Chorizo Pozole, Pepita Bison and No Extra Seats

An invitation to a state dinner is always the hottest ticket in town. But that was especially so for the gala event President Bush hosted Wednesday night for Mexican President Vicente Fox.

So coveted was the event that, even though the hand-lettered invitations went out weeks ago, the official guest list was not announced until late Wednesday afternoon--allowing harried aides little time to deal with last-minute jockeying for the final places in the State Dining Room.

Watching with an experienced eye, former Clinton White House social secretary Ann Stock said on the eve of the dinner, “My guess is that it’s still going on, that right now they’re still trying to find a few extra seats.”

For Washington insiders, there was something extra-precious about attending the Fox event, which began with a brilliantly lighted receiving line in the White House lobby, featured a main course of pepita-crusted bison steaks with poblano mashed potatoes on gold-trimmed china, and ended with late-night dancing in the East Room.

It was, after all, Bush’s first state dinner. While it is not expected to be his last, many think he and First Lady Laura Bush won’t hold all that many.

The president’s father, President George Bush, crammed five state dinners into his first year in the Oval Office, plus four formal “working dinners.” But his son waited almost nine months to break the ice, and some suspect that formal entertaining holds limited appeal for the laid-back, ranch-loving president.

Washington, meanwhile, has pricked up its ears at the tall, charismatic Fox. “He certainly is from quite a different mold than his predecessors,” said Joseph Klesner, a specialist in Mexican politics at Kenyon College in Ohio.

“He seems to exude a kind of openness” compared with Mexican presidents who had seemed “a little gray--more bureaucrat-politicians,” Klesner said.

For Mexico, the dinner and the entire Fox visit are “a very important opportunity,” said Miguel Monterrubio, the Mexican Embassy’s press attache.

In his toast Wednesday night, Fox said the close relationship he has developed with Bush will enable the two men to “enrich both our societies” and--by dealing with poverty, drugs, crime and immigration issues--”write this success story that we both have in our minds.”

Bush, meanwhile, said that “the long border lies between us, but it does not divide us.” Together, he declared, he and Fox can usher in “an era of prosperity in a hemisphere of liberty.”

Also adding to the dinner’s allure was the law of supply and demand. The State Dining Room is the smallest of the venues for formal White House entertaining.

“It seats only about 130 people--134 if you squeeze it,” said Stock, now a vice president of the Kennedy Center in Washington. “There are usually about 60 people in the two official parties. You end up with 30 to 35 discretionary couples you can invite. That’s why that invitation is so special.”

The Bush staff shoehorned in 136 people, and small wonder that few invitees sent their regrets.

One who did was Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn. Deputy Mayor Matt Middlebrook said the mayoral schedule was just too crowded.

Hahn’s absence underscored a geographic shift: a lot more Texas and less California compared with the guest list for the state dinner President Clinton hosted for Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo.

Guests last night included Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, archbishop of Los Angeles, who delivered the blessing, and Thomas Chabolla, director for pastoral and community services for the archdiocese.

Other Californians included Assemblyman Abel Maldonado (R-Santa Maria); Norman Y. Mineta, the former Democratic congressman from San Jose who now serves as secretary of transportation; and actor Clint Eastwood.

The California contingent, though, was heavily outnumbered by the likes of Texas Gov. Rick Perry; Anne Armstrong, a Texan who served as U.S. ambassador to Britain in the Reagan administration; Rep. Henry Bonilla (R-Texas); Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas); Commerce Secretary Don Evans, a longtime Bush friend from Texas; and El Paso businessman D. R. “Dee” Margo.

As always, the menu was designed with the guest of honor in mind. There was chorizo pozole in the first course, apple chipotle sauce with the pepita bison main course, and red chile pepper sauce and tequila sabayon in the dessert.

The menu grew out of tasting parties given by the U.S. president and first lady for friends in July.

Each of the 13 tables was decorated with massive arrangements of white flowers--10 stems of hydrangeas, 15 roses and several Casablanca lilies. For contrast, each centerpiece included a sprinkling of tiny green key limes--imported from Mexico, as Laura Bush pointed out during an afternoon news briefing.

The first lady said the dinner would be served on the Millennium china purchased by “the previous administration.”

The china may have been from the Clinton era, but to some observers, the decision to use the State Dining Room marked a turning away from the previous style of doing things.

“The Clintons figured out that if they put a large tent on the South Lawn and called it a pavilion, they could cram 500 or 600 people in there and stroke a lot more constituents,” said Annie Groer, a former gossip columnist and White House watcher for the Washington Post.

That wasn’t the Bush style.

“More stately” was how White House spokesman Ari Fleischer described the new way of doing things.

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State Dinner Menu

Maryland Crab and Chorizo Pozole

Summer Vegetables

Mi Sueno Chardonnay

“Carneros” 1999

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Pepita-Crusted Bison

Poblano Whipped Potatoes

Fava Bean and Chanterelle Ragout

Apple Chipolte Sauce

Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon

“Hillside Select” 1994

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Salad of Gold and Red Tomatoes

Mache and Micro Greens

Sherry Dressing

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Mango and Coconut Ice Cream Dome

Peaches

Red Chile Pepper Sauce

Tequila Sabayon

Schramsber “Cremant” 1997