Pino Posteraro

Chef and restaurateur Pino Posteraro, who owns Vancouver’s landmark Cioppino’s Enoteca, has cooked for foreign dignitaries for decades. Jean Chrétien and Bill Clinton have both dined at the place without much security fuss. So he was surprised to see a crew of government operatives—one U.S. Secret Service, a RCMP officer and a Health Canada official—show up in his kitchen last Sunday after U.S. VP Joe Biden arrived for dinner. That’s when he learned of new rules for traveling heads of states chowing down in local restaurants: He had to prepare a duplicate of Biden’s order for the agents who bagged it as evidence should the VP suddenly fall ill. Meet the 21st-century court food tester—all forensic analysis minus any of that problematic thrashing around on the floor grasping at one’s throat. If Jill Biden had joined her hubby for the Valentine’s Day dinner, Posteraro learned, he would have had to cook up a duplicate of her order as well. Fortunately, he says, Biden has simple tastes: Bufala Mozzarella as a starter, followed by pasta with a tomato-basil sauce. Matters were more complicated on Tuesday night when Prince Albert of Monaco showed up for dinner with Richard Branson. The chef had to duplicate the royal’s entire seven-course tasting menu for federal take-out.