| | |  Americas & Beyond 
Obama Turns on Glamour for Mexico State Dinner
 Agence France-Presse
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May 19, 2010
| | The entertainment tent at the White House in Washington, DC is ready for the State Dinner for Mexican President Felipe Calderon. (AFP/Tim Sloan) | |
Washington – President Barack Obama Wednesday deployed the full pomp of a White House state dinner for only the second time, honoring Mexico's President Felipe Calderon with a sumptuous menu and elaborate decor.
The White House was also road testing unspecified extra security measures, after the inaugural Obama state dinner last year for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was marred when a socialite couple gatecrashed the festivities.
Key members of the US-Mexico community were expected among 200 guests at the glamorous black-tie gala evening at the White House, as well as actresses Whoopi Goldberg and Eva Longoria, and Mexican billionaire business mogul Carlos Slim.
R&B Diva Beyonce topped the entertainment bill for the dinner, taking place in the East Room of the White House, with the action later moving to a luxury marquee on the South Lawn of the presidential mansion.
The marquee, the size of two-thirds of a football field, decked out in elaborate black decor and nightclub-style lighting, featured a stage and baskets of flowers and models of Monarch butterflies dangling from the ceiling.
The Monarch butterfly migrates from Canada, across the United States each year to Calderon's home state of Michoacan in Mexico.
Beyonce was to be supported by Rodrigo y Gabriela, a flamenco-celtic rock band famed for cover versions of heavy rock bands like Led Zeppelin, and the US Marines Band.
The menu mixed Mexican flavors -- with a starter made of Jicama, a turnip-like vegetable popular in Mexico served with oranges, grapefruit and pineapple -- with Obama's own heritage -- a Hawaiian Opah fish from his home state.
Tables in the East Room were decorated in natural shades of orange and green with the centerpiece featuring a bouquet of marzipan and chocolate flowers.
Also on the menu prepared by celebrity chef Rick Bayless and White House Executive Chef Cristeta Comerford: Oregon wagyu beef, black bean tamalon, and grilled green beans.
Herbs, radishes and lettuce used in the preparation of the dinner came from the White House kitchen garden, the centerpiece of Michelle Obama's campaign against child obesity.
Guests will eat from the china donated to the White House by former president Bill Clinton, and use the 1955 porcelain from former president Dwight Eisenhower.
At the first state dinner last year, socialites Michaele and Tareq Salahi gatecrashed the evening despite not being on the guest list, setting off a major political row and raising fears about White House security.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said this week that the administration was certain its new security procedures would head off any such embarrassments this time.
"I?m not going to elaborate on increased security procedures. That would invite people to try to figure out how to evade them," he said.
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