"WhiteHouseGarden" news and stories

Michelle Obama will make a cameo appearance on an episode of "Iron Chef America" filmed at the White House, the Food Network announced Wednesday.

The first lady introduces the secret ingredient for the challenge, which pits White House Chef Cristeta Comerford and Iron Chef Bobby Flay against Iron Chef Mario Batali and Emeril Lagasse.

The White House approached the Food Network about filming "Iron Chef America" at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. as a way to reach those people who haven't heard yet about the first lady's efforts to curb childhood obesity through healthy eating and exercise, the New York Times reports.

During their trip to New York this weekend, the Obamas dined at Blue Hill. To gastronomes in the New York metropolitan area, Blue Hill has long been synonymous with all things local, organic, humane, refined and good in the dining world.

So it was little surprise that bloggers and commentators jumped all over the Obama's choice of venue, analyzing the meaning and the message of their meal. Frank Bruni opined on the New York Times' Diner's Journal blog that Blue Hill was "the proper ethical call, the proper message to send, the proper restaurant segue from the planting of the White House garden."

But Blue Hill, as Bruni also pointed out, happens to be one of New York's most critically lauded restaurants, so it's not as if the Obamas were exactly sacrificing pleasure for politics.

Still, out of the many, many high-end restaurants that the Obamas could have chosen to patronize, there are relatively few that are so closely associated with the kind of sustainable and progressive eating that the First Lady championed with the planting of the White House garden.

The pick appears to be further evidence of the research that the Obamas have seemingly put into their food choices -- and further evidence of the food world's willingness to analyze the President's every bite, be it of hamburger, chili, or, yes, an impeccably fresh and impeccably local carrot.