Culinary historians and food bloggers already are poring over the menus of White House functions to draw conclusions about the First Family's tastes and discern the social and political meaning encoded in their food choices. Rather than the French-named clichés of 40 years ago, they are finding American dishes informed by a global sensibility that draw substance from the farm-to-table movement.

It is my hope that the menu I created for Fiesta Latina, a celebration of Latin American music for 400 guests at the White House last week, will convey that the allure of Latin food is as irresistible as the rhythms that pulled President Obama out of his chair to dance a few steps with Mexican performer Thalia that evening.

Just how I came to be chosen to pull off this feat with two weeks' notice is a mystery. It seems fitting that the news reached me by cellphone at one the most revered sites of Inca civilization, the ruins of their Temple of the Sun at Cusco, a stop on a research trip to the Peruvian Andes.

Two days later, after catching my breath and calming my nerves, I began to focus on the extraordinary opportunity I had been given to present Latin food in its true richness and complexity to an influential audience.

Several goals became clear: I wanted to tell the story of Latin American cooking through its signature flavors and great staple ingredients such as corn, beans, peppers, pork and chocolate. And I wanted to convey some of the national as well as trans-national influences that have shaped it.

I felt it my responsibility to create a menu that would please President and Mrs. Obama and their guests and also convey to future historians the kinds of insights I have found as a scholar of medieval Spanish history in the records of great feasts of earlier times.

And there was an added challenge: I had been asked to produce a menu that could be served entirely as finger food, a departure from my usual, multilayered dishes that require more than two bites for true enjoyment.

Naturally, I found inspiration in my own Cuban heritage, and could not resist including the creamy fresh corn polenta we call tamal en cazuela along with our quintessential feast food, roast pork in a cumin-allspice adobo typical of my family, to be served on crisp malanga chips. The remainder of the menu ranged the region, from Mexico, Central America and the Hispanic Caribbean to Peru, Brazil and Argentina.

I arrived at the White House kitchen three days before the event to find a relatively small space with 12 burners, a grill, a salamander, a very useful steamer and comfortable work surfaces. With cooks from Trinidad, Barbados and El Salvador and a dynamic executive chef, Cristeta ``Cris'' Comerford, whose Filipino heritage had much in common with my own, I felt right at home.

We quickly achieved a smooth work rhythm, and I soon saw that Cris faced the same kinds of challenges that can arise in any kitchen. When we discovered that we had received fresh pork belly instead of the slab bacon we had ordered, for example, she did not miss a beat. On the spot she taught me how to cure the pork by brining it in a sweet and salty spiced infusion and improvise a smoker out of the steamer to turn it into applewood-smoked bacon.

TARO VS. MALANGA

Convincing her that taro and malanga were not interchangeable for my purposes was something else again. In the end we were able to get the requisite malanga for some of the chips and for the Puerto Rican pasteles (a type of tamal) I served in honor of newly confirmed Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

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