Nixon, a birthday cake and C-SPAN

Nixon, a birthday cake and C-SPAN

 

Henry Kissinger, Pat Buchanan, Ben Stein, and former first daughters Tricia Nixon Cox and Julie Nixon Eisenhower are among luminaries gathering Wednesday night in the nation's capital to affectionately celebrate what would have been Richard Nixon's 100th birthday.

It is a very swell affair, staged in the Grand Ballroom of the Mayflower Renaissance Hotel, site of Nixon's two inaugural galas back in the day. The event will be carried live on C-SPAN 2 at 8:30 p.m. EST.

Nixon Foundation spokesman Jonathan Movroydis  tells Water Cooler that the evening's menu includes a combination entree of seared beef filet mignon with port demiglace, salmon, au gratin potatoes and asparagus.

"The beef filet is inspired by the first family's first meal at the White House following the inauguration in January 1969," he says. "The president really enjoyed steak."

That famous kitchen, in fact, had assembled a formidable array of prime cuts just for the occasion.

Then there is the 2-foot-high birthday cake: a replica of Nixon's birthplace home — a little white farmhouse — in Yorba Linda, Calif. Local pastry wizards at Fluffy Thoughts Cakes in McLean used 30 pounds of fondant to create the cake — complete with green butter cream grass and bushes, trees and flowers in royal icing.

"All in all, it took four days to complete this 18" x 24" x 22" masterpiece," Mr. Movroydis observes.