Washington – Inside the Washington Hilton kitchen before dinner of the White House correspondents on Saturday evening, the preparations for frantic dinner for around 2,600 people.
“So, if it’s a three dishes, you multiply that by three, we could move away by making almost 10,000 plates in the kitchen as a whole,” said Daniel Bennett, the executive chef of the hotel, at CBS News.
THE Correspondents dinner is an annual tradition since 1921, bringing together presidential comedy And the press, and the Hilton has been his house for 57 years.
The Washington Hilton is also known for one of the darkest moments in presidential history. On March 30, 1981, President Ronald Reagan had just finished speaking during a union convention and emerged from the hotel when he was struck by a The potential assassin John Hinckley Jr. .
Reagan survived and returned to the hotel less than six months later.
Now there is a plaque that commemorates the assassination attempt. Shortly after, a garage was built with a secure door so that presidential limousine could enter and go out with absolute security.
The entrance to the garage leads to a long corridor decorated with photos of each president and First Lady.
Each president from Lyndon Johnson spoke here, often making several trips per year for fundraising, conferences and the national prayer breakfast.
Andrew Harnik / Getty images 
President Richard Nixon attended an inaugural ball at the Hilton in 1969, as did President Barack Obama 40 years later.
When the hotel opened in 1965, its double -arch design was an architectural anomaly in a capital Staid. Its 30,000 square feet ballroom is one of the largest interior gathering areas of DC
It is large enough to organize concerts, including the doors in 1967 and Jimi Hendrix a year later.
The dinner of Saturday evening correspondents will be a little different. There will be not a featured actorAnd President Trump, Jumped The dinner of each correspondent during his first mandate will not be attended. The writer and performer Amber Ruffin had been announced as the entertainment of the night in February. However, Ruffin, who criticized Mr. Trump, was withdrawn from the event in March.
Despite the controversy, for the Hilton, this does not change the imperative to serve.
“Above, the day the event ends, we are already planning the next event,” said hotel managing director Ken Jarka.
And what will define the dinner of successful correspondents for the Hilton?
“No one writes about us the next morning. How is that?” joked Jarka.
Not an easy feat in a journalist room.
