The White House: Someone's in the Kitchen

An invitation to dinner at the French embassy in London is the dream of any true gourmet. Ambassador Jean Chauvel's chef is one of the world's great cooks. A tiny (5 ft.) Tonkinese, Bui Van Han, 50, has presided over the Chauvel kitchen for 22 years, is a graduate of Paris' famed Cordon Bleu school, a master of haute cuisine. In the posts where he has cooked for the Chauvels—Paris, Bern, New York —the mere memory of his Pauppiette de Sole à la Richelieu or Cotelettes de Pigeone à l'Espagnole is enough to make taste buds quiver and eyes...

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