Scheib worked for Clinton, George W. Bush.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: Search parties have located the body of a former White House chef who has been missing for more than a week after going hiking in New Mexico, authorities disclosed Monday.
Walter Scheib, who was reported missing in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains on June 14, was found dead late Sunday night after six days of searching by state police.
The search Sunday included resources from the Civil Air Patrol, the National Guard, the State Police, and volunteers.
Per the AP: As the search progressed, the New Mexico State Police said they were exhausting all resources in the effort. The U.S. Air Force and the New Mexico National Guard assisted, but an air search was made difficult with the presence of high mountain peaks, deep canyons and dense vegetation. The rough terrain has also made the ground search harder.
Scheib was White House chef for 11 years under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush and recently moved from Florida to Taos.
He graduated from New York’s Culinary Institute of America in 1979 and later worked at grand hotels in Florida and West Virginia, became White House executive chef in April 1994 when First Lady Hillary Clinton hired him, according the Associated Press.
Scheib was renowned for refocusing the White House kitchen on distinctly American cuisine with seasonal ingredients and contemporary flavors. As The Washington Post put it: he infused “a distinctly American flair into 1600 Penn. menus.”
After leaving the White House in 2005, Schieb became a food consultant and speaker, and appeared on the Food Network’s “Iron Chef America” in 2006. He also wrote a book about his experiences cooking for the West Wing entitled “White House Chef: Eleven Years, Two Presidents, One Kitchen, published in 2007.