Pedro Udo
Cite this Page
"Pedro Udo," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/1061.
- Position
- Chef
- Years in President's House
- 1957 – circa 1972
- Legal Status
- Free Person
- Gender
- Male
- Race/Ethnicity
- Asian
- Biography
- Pedro Udo was born in the Philippines on May 28, 1910. (1) As the Philippines was a U.S. territory at the time, Udo joined the U.S. Navy and served for twenty-eight years, retiring as a chief steward aboard the USS Yosemite. This role involved both preparing meals and serving soldiers and officers aboard the ship. (2) Udo joined the White House kitchen staff in 1957, recruited by members of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s staff seeking a new chef from the U.S. Navy. Impressed by his stellar record, Udo was initially hired as a meat chef but was quickly promoted to head chef that same year. (3)
As head chef, he oversaw many important historical meals. Notably, he prepared food for Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev and his wife, Nina, during their 1959 State Visit, the first by a Soviet leader to the United States. (4) He stepped down from the head chef role when First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy appointed Executive Chef René Verdon. (5) Udo continued to work in the White House Kitchen. (6) The last newspaper reference to him working there appeared in 1965. (7) Obituaries indicate that he worked at the White House for fifteen years, placing his retirement around 1972. Udo moved to Casselberry, Florida, from Alexandria, Virginia, in 1976. He died on March 19, 1981. (8) He is buried at Highland Memory Gardens in Forest City, Florida. (9) - (1) Adrian Miller and Deborah Chang, Asian Heritage Chefs in White House History: Cooking to the President’s Taste (Washington, DC: White House Historical Association, 2025) [39]; “Pedro Udo,” Ancestry.com, accessed July 1, 2025, https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/14756610/person/420017028667/facts?_phsrc=fQN70&_phstart=successSource.
(2) At the time Udo served in the U.S. Navy, only one thousand Filipino citizens were permitted to enlist each year. While he was among the few who qualified, he still faced racism once he was enlisted. One manifestation of this discrimination was the frequent restriction of Filipino servicemen to steward roles; see “Filipinos in the United States Navy,” Naval History and Heritage Command, U.S. Department of the Navy, November 23, 2020, https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/f/filipinos-in-the-united-states-navy.html. Adrian Miller and Deborah Chang, Asian Heritage Chefs in White House History: Cooking to the President’s Taste (Washington, DC: White House Historical Association, 2025), 39; Lee Walsh, “L’Affaire Bui’ Quieting,” Evening Star (Washington, DC), February 23, 1961, 24, https://www.newspapers.com/image/871117408/?match=1&terms=%22pedro%20udo%22.
(3) Adrian Miller and Deborah Chang, Asian Heritage Chefs in White House History: Cooking to the President’s Taste (Washington, DC: White House Historical Association, 2025) [39]; Lee Walsh, “L’Affaire Bui’ Quieting,” Evening Star (Washington, DC), February 23, 1961, 24, https://www.newspapers.com/image/871117408/?match=1&terms=%22pedro%20udo%22.
(4) “White House Dinner Menu,” The Buffalo News (Buffalo, NY), September 16, 1959 [16] https://www.newspapers.com/image/868291969/?match=1&terms=%22white%20house%20dinner%20menu%22.
(5) Adrian Miller and Deborah Chang, Asian Heritage Chefs in White House History: Cooking to the President’s Taste (Washington, DC: White House Historical Association, 2025) [41].
(6) J. B. West, Upstairs at the White House: My Life with the First Ladies (New York: Open Road Integrated Media, 1973) [296].
(7) “Elsbeth R. Moss, Richard Wakefield Married at Fort Myers, Va., Chapel,” Morning Sentinel (Waterville, ME), February 12, 1965 [3] https://www.newspapers.com/image/854913471/?terms=morning%20sentinel.
(8) “Obituaries,” Orlando Sentinel (Orlando, FL), March 31, 1981 [103] https://www.newspapers.com/image/303893063/?match=1&terms=obituaries.
(9) “Pedro Udo,” Ancestry.com, record from “U.S., World War II Navy Muster Rolls, 1938–1949,” accessed July 1, 2025, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/60525/records/125659952?tid=14756610&pid=420017028667&ssrc=pt. - Birthplace
- Philippines