White House Chefs Affected By Shutdown

More than 800,000 federal workers are furloughed today as the federal government shuts down, the Wall Street Journal reports. And of the 90 people on the executive residence staff, only 15 people are staying on during the shutdown.

Whether this affects White House chef Sam Kass has yet to be seen, Obama Foodorama reports, but the furloughs do include chefs. As reported by Politico, back in 1995 (the most recent shutdown), resident staff was limited to one daytime chef and one evening chef who left right after dinner; one butler and one usher were kept during the day, one of each at night, and two daytime housekeepers and one evening housekeeper.

Kass, Obama Foodorama reports, is a unique character because he not only cooks dinner five nights a week for the Obamas, but also serves as the Let's Move! executive director and senior policy advisor for Nutrition Policy. The Let's Move website has yet to be shutdown, unlike the USDA.

Kass has, however, been furloughed before; he was subjected to sequester-related furloughs for one day last June. Still, Kass has yet to cancel a keynote at a policy conference on Wednesday, which might be a good sign.