Vivart
Cite this Page
"Vivart," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/226.
- Position
- Chef
- Years in President's House
- circa 1835
- Legal Status
- Free Person
- Gender
- Male
- Race/Ethnicity
- White
- Presidency
- Andrew Jackson
- Biography
- Vivart was a French chef that worked in Andrew Jackson’s White House. His name appears in only one known source about Jackson’s household. A recollection of Christmas at the White House in 1835 by Mary Emily Donelson Wilcox, the daughter of President Jackson’s niece and nephew Andrew and Emily Donelson, states: “Vivart, the French cook, whose toothsome sweets invested him with great importance in our hungry eyes and whom we waylaid on his morning visit to my mother, said: ‘I no acquaint with Monsieur Sancta Claus; he no live in Paris…’”
She goes on to describe his holiday meal in vivid detail: “Vivart, hailed as Napoleon of Cooks, Master Chef de Cuisine, Wizard, Magician, receiving hearty congratulations on all sides. In the center of a maltese-cross-shaped table towered a pyramid of snow-balls, interspersed with colored icicles and surmounted by a gilt game cock, head erect, wings outspread. At the upright ends of the cross were dishes of frozen marvels, at the top one representing iced fruits—oranges, apples, pears, peaches, grapes; at the bottom one representing iced vegetables—corn, carrots, beans, squashes. At one transverse end was a tiny frosted pine tree, beneath which huddled a group of toy animals; at the other a miniature rein-deer stood in a plateau of water in which disported a number of gold-fish. There were candies, cakes, confections of every conceivable design; delicious viands, relishes and beverages.” (1)
Beyond this recollection that was published decades later, Vivart does not appear by name in any known White House records, and it is unclear how long he worked there. Letters sent in the summer of 1835 indicate that Jackson was looking for a cook due to frequent turnover in the White House kitchen. Vivart could be the person Jackson hired. (2) - (1) This recollection was published by Mary Emily Donelson Wilcox in 1900, when she was an adult. She was born in 1829, and would have been about six years old in 1835. Therefore, her recollections may not be entirely accurate. Mary Emily Donelson Wilcox, Christmas Under Three Flags, (Washington, D.C.: The Neale Company, 1900), 20, 43.
(2) Letter in Pauline Wilcox Burke, Emily Donelson of Tennessee Volume II, (Richmond, Virginia: Garrett and Massie, Incorporated, 1941), 87, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$b538591&seq=10&q1=Augusta. - Birthplace
- France