Denver native Adrian Miller started thinking about a book on White House chefs in 2009, the day he gave a speech in Michigan for the Southern Foodways Alliance on the same day President Obama was inaugurated.

The idea became the book “The President’s Kitchen Cabinet, The Story of African Americans Who Fed Our First Families, From the Washingtons to the Obamas.” It officially goes on sale Monday, which, not coincidentally, is President’s Day, and is available online.

But instead of the nation’s first woman president taking office – one of Miller’s former employers, Hillary Clinton – it is Donald Trump’s America, one of walls and executive orders.

The context of the book about black people in American political history was rewritten outside its pages.

“There actually might be more intense interest in this book for at least half of the country, who say, ‘Oh, this may be some good news about the White House,”‘ Miller said in the brown faux leather chairs in the lobby of the History Colorado Museum Saturday afternoon, before the launch party for his book on White House chefs.

“For others, it’s a unique perspective on the presidency we’ve just never really had … there’s never been a real narrative that looks at the role of the chef in the overall arc of White House history, viewed from the kitchen up.”

His book has three narratives. One, that these chefs were culinary geniuses. Secondly, in many cases, they were family confidants, which was often difficult in their times’ racial dynamics and, as such, they were often passive but effective civil rights activists.

That came with burden, when their friends and black activists pressured White House servants from one side, and their sense of patriotism and deep loyalty to the presidential family was an immovable object on the other.

Chefs live history in an apron.

Charlie Redden was a White House executive chef from 1995 to 2001 during the Clinton administration. He lives in Upper Marlboro, Md., and has a business, Chef Charlie Catering, that creates White House-caliber dining experiences, he said.

He called it a wonderful experience, but with no room for mistakes.

“I never messed anything up, but I had a lot of opportunities,” Redden said.

Bill Clinton was friendly and warm, like a big brother, or a father figure, Redden said. The president wasn’t crazy about eating healthy, his chef conceded, but Hillary Clinton kept a close watch.

“She kept him in line,” the chef said.

The president wasn’t picky, or “versatile,” as Redden put it. “A lot of Mexican food, different health foods, in the morning granola bagels.

His path to become White House chef ran through the military.

“It was a Navy gig,” Redden said. He cooked for captains, admirals and visiting dignitaries. The White House looked at 700 military cooks, and he got the “gig.”

Before he joined the Navy, Redden went to a vocational high school, Howard Career Center in Wilmington, Del., where his instructor was successful airport restaurant operator Lucian Dillingham.

“If it hadn’t been for him, I probably wouldn’t have gotten anywhere,” Redden said.

Another speaker at Miller’s book launch Saturday had less cooking experience but also had been a culinary pleasure to the White House.

Kiana Farkash was 8 when she was picked to go to the White House for the Kids’ State Dinner in 2014. She was a winner in Michelle Obama’s Healthy Lunchtime Challenge in 2014, after she submitted a recipe that was required to be “healthy, delicious and affordable.”

Kiana crafted a grilled salmon with a farro and a warm Swiss chard salad, along with an orange juice and coconut milk smoothie.

Meeting the first lady to talk about healthy cooking was a thrill, Kiana said.

“She told me I was beautiful, so, yeah, that was really cool,” she said.

Evolution of food and its scholar

Miller has been interested in the cultural evolution of food, especially Southern soul food and the chefs who make it. He said in an interview for his earlier work that traditional African-American dishes are getting healthier, but they aren’t lost to history.

“The future of soul food is kind of tricky to figure out,” he said then.

Miller’s life has been a smorgasbord. A writer and food historian make up a chapter, not the whole story.

Educated at Stanford and Georgetown, Miller was a Denver lawyer until he joined the Clinton administration at the White House to be deputy director of the President’s Initiative for One America to work on the opportunity gaps for minorities.

After that, he came home to Denver with the idea of someday running for U.S. Senate. For awhile he was the lawyer and director of outreach for the Bell Policy Center think tank. These days, Miller is the executive director of the Colorado Council of Churches.

Once, between jobs, he picked up a book on Southern food. Miller grew up in Denver, but his father is from Helena, Ark., and his mother is from Chattanooga, Tenn.

In “Southern Food: At Home, On the Road, In History” John Egerton wrote. “The tribute to African-American achievement in cookery is yet to be written.”

That inspired Miller.

His first book, “Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time,” won a 2014 James Beard Foundation Book Award.

He grew up in the Campbell Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Denver, where he saw first-hand the mix of politics and the plate.

“Different kind of politics, but I learned a lot about food,” he said, pivoting away from church politics. “Church and food are almost hand-in-hand. My faith tradition is African Methodist Episcopal, and some people say the AME stands for ‘always meet and eat.'”