This was a bit of a do over. There was any knowledge and and knowledge meant an acknowledgement the first time was a misstep. Wasought the herrera dress nice. Of the lastnd one. It was such a surprise. One of the things she does quite well, one of the reasons people are eager to see what she is going to wear, is because she does not just go with design houses that have been around for decades. Brendan mackerel hasnt even been in business for more than a year. Wore before, had not been in business very long. That is really nice to see. She is supporting Small Businesses. In the true sense of the word. Thank you for your time. And tonights state dinner dress versace. R such a tweeting, she looks flawless. Ceis comes from the versa fashion house. The first lady has had a major impact on the fashion industry. , following anlue appearance by the first lady, was 14 million. The dresses often sell out immediately. This diplomatic art. She tries to think about the diplomacy aspect. Robin said it best. When you are honoring a certain country, she looks for a designer that might have a british background in their history. Versace. N, is a wonderfully talented in doing that and looking so beautiful. It was so exciting looking and seeing those dresses. Does she approached designers . Do designers approached the white house . Likes andws what she she is really good at it. On the other side, they are clamoring to dress her. Does she have a stylist . She is a wonderful person who helps the first lady. You can see the work that goes into that. The first lady has a natural style, too. These dresses by these designers are really expensive dresses. Does she pay for them herself or does she paid full price . Yes, she does. To these designers ever donate the dresses . I think they do. I think it is a casebycase basis. Did they go to the National Archives . I think that is the plan, maybe going to the obama library. Some of the libraries have their spouses dresses on there we will see after they leave. Why is the designer kept secret . Thats funny. Watching this, that is one of the highlights of working there. Its not like we were getting ready to say ok, guys, what do you think . We all have our headset pieces in and we think, oh she looks stunning, she looks great. She looked gorgeous. All the first ladies do when its happening, i think. Its an exciting time. What about the president . He just wears a tex ito and looks great. Has he worn the same tax the the whole tuxedo time . I am not sure. This is a story i can tell you. We saw the president and the Prime Minister come down the grand staircase. He was getting ready for a state trip to china, his button fell off. We were like, what are we going to do . Around and find some thread and so the button back on. Crisis averted. People were like, what took so long . I will tell you later. Host what was his reaction . Guest its fine, its fine. It all worked out. Look back atake a Michelle ObamasDesign Choices and dress choices over the past eight years. Fromt together a montage the cspan archives. Take a look. Host a look back at the first ladies dress choice for the past eight years at the 12 state dinners. Tonight is the 13th state dinner administration, and it is the last. They are honoring italian Prime Minister matteo renzi, who is at the white house with his wife and 400 of their closest friends who have been invited to tonights state dinner. There taking a look back at last eight years and what the approach has been from this administration to the state dinners. Juliana is here with us in studio, former social secretary for the administration. I just went to get your reaction to this. Guest chefi is the tonight. Why a guest chef . Is this unprecedented . Guest i do not know if the obamas were the first to bring in a guest chef or not, but its a great idea, and mario, i wish we could get a sampling of the food. For the one i did for mexico, we had written a less rick and it was wonderful. He fixed an amazing meal and everyone was thrilled. It can be intimidating for these chefs. They prepare wonderful cuisine, but probably not for 200 people that all has to be served t the same time. That is where Chris Comerford comes in, the white house chef, who is just fabulous. I think she loves having these guest chefs. She gets to show them how she does things. She is right there beside them making sure everything gets out on time. The mario was part of preparations. As we were talking, he was sending photos on instagram. Squash. Es of you can imagine the logistics of trying to get hot food out. Guest but they know how to do it. Its like the flight of the butterflies, almost. Its beautiful. Host what is the kitchen like on a night like this . Inst when they do it dinner the state dining room, they have an old family dining room just off the state dining room where they have it all set up. They have the paper down on the floor, stations set and ready to go. It is a huge production. Tables and all the the stations and get it out. Het mario told one reporter wanted to bring his own ingredients and he was surprised when the white house said you cant. What kind of security is there around the president s food . Guest its very secure, of course. The white house has it under lock and key and knows exactly what is coming in and what will be served. Happened once with me, but they understand. Host tonights entertainment, Gwen Stephani will be performing. How many songs will she saying, typically . Guest probably two or three, i would think. They had the state dinner for mexico, beyonce was there, which was great. Host how do they go about deciding who the entertainment is question mark is at the first ladies decision . And thehe first lady president have conversations about it and decide who they would like to come, who the honored guest is a fan of. It goes back to protocol. You know what flowers they like, what do they like, what kind of food they like. Its a research project. Learned about the flowers and food that will be served tonight when we did a state dinner preview. Take a look. Good afternoon. I am the white house social secretary. It is my honor and privilege to welcome you here today for the press preview of the state dinner. Tomorrow, president and mrs. The attackwell come welcome the italian Prime Minister for the 13th and final of thisnner administration. Get into the delicious cuisine we plan on serving, i want to tell you about the decorah. Tomorrows dinner will be taking place on the south lawn in a tent covered in chandeliers and mirrored cocktail tables to reflect the beautiful bouquet and candlelight. We will have handmade glassware as well as neoflorentine handpainted goldleaf charcoal. You to theay a thank many people who put this together. As you can imagine, we have a huge team of folks who help, including the secret service, the military office, the state executive, the office, the white house communication agency, and the security council. Executiveand i cannot do any os without my fabulous social office team who are here today, who are going to introduce themselves. Quakes hi there. I am lauren kelly, deputy social secretary, originally from des moines, iowa. I am the deputy associate director in the social office, and i am from the bay area. I am also deputy associate director in the social office. I am originally from new york city. I am a deputy associate director in the social office and i am from silver spring, maryland. [indiscernible] and i am from indianapolis, indiana. Is working to make the visit so wonderful for you tomorrow. Without further a do, i will send it over to charlie from the security council. Quakes could afternoon, everyone. I am the specialists could afternoon, everyone. I am be a special assistant to the director , everyone. Ernoon i am a special assistant to the director for european affairs. The official visit and state dinner to honor the Prime Minister and his wife provides an opportunity for the president to build on a strong betweenship that exists the United States and italy, as well as to build on the strong, personal friendship that the president has built with Prime Minister renzi over the last few years. The president sees this as a very important meeting and an opportunity to reciprocate for the hospitality that the prime both to the shown president as well as to his family and italy. Wants to essentially demonstrate the strength of the relationship with italy, as well as to get behind and put wind in of sales of someone sails someone he sees as one of the most promising politicians in europe. The president and Prime Minister sher a great deal of common ground. Prime minister renzi is in the some very important political and Economic Reforms in italy, attempting to streamline the political system and make it more effective. He is attempting to boost growth in employment through structural reforms. These are issues the president and Prime Minister will discuss tomorrow, and the president strongly supports the efforts of the Prime Minister to undertake these reforms. I think president obama also sees in Prime Minister renzi someone who is very important to the future of europe. It goes without saying that europe has faced tough times over the last couple of years. Sluggish growth, the migration , a moregee crisis aggressive russia, and all of this has combined to create an undercurrent of populism and besteu sentiment, perhaps exemplified by the recent vote in the United Kingdom to move toward an exit from the eu Prime Minister renzi is someone who believes in a strong and integrated europe. He is someone who has laid out an agenda in conversations with his european counterparts about how to revitalize the european project, realogy demise it, brief new life into it. Relegitimate it, breathe finn to it. His progrowth agenda is one life intoobama new it. His progrowth agenda is one president obama supports. This is a topic that will be at the center of the discussions tomorrow. Let me briefly run through what i think the conversation will focus on. First, reforms domestically in italy, but also within europe to help drive forward the project of integration, to speak to the needs of average europeans, to boost growth, to bring down unemployment, particularly among. Uropean youth there will obviously be a conversation about the ongoing migration crisis. The situation in the aegean has improved. Be oncus tomorrow will the central mediterranean, where we continue to see migrants coming. There will be a discussion of how to address that crisis in an orderly and humane way. There will be a discussion of the cooperation between the United States and italy on everything from the counter isil campaign to defense cooperation in nato and the efforts by europeans and americans to advance the fight against terrorism. , i expect there to be a conversation about the ongoing conflict in ukraine and how the United States can work with italy and at least european address a europe that is confronted with a more aggressive russia. I will now turn things over to. He executive pastry chef susan good afternoon, everyone. My name is susan morrison. Almost everybody calls me susie. I have a desert in my hand that is a flaky and ellicott crust delicate crust filled with a tender batterer and lightly poached green apple. And a a caramel sauce soft crumble top tube with a topped withelato a buttermilk gelato. In keeping with the theme of the have a handmade dessert creation made of chocolate and poured sugar that includes a chocolate pumpkin , and of course we have to have a little chocolate beehive. Pastryiature selections include a pumpkin iramisu,y tart, term 80 chocolate fig leaf, and an orange a chocolate fig leaf, and an orange slice. Thank you. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I am the white house executive chef. The state dinner tomorrow will celebrate our fall harvest and a lot of italian dishes that have been embraced in our american cuisine. As part of the canapes we will be passing, we will have smoked rainbow trout, roasted figs from california, some wonderful basil , crab cannoli, how much he from hawaii, a dish from sweet and sour eggplant. We have some rosemary that came from the garden. Our objective is to utilize as much as we have from our fall garden harvest. For the main course, we are doing a classic italian dish in aan american beef ancote. Pe it is kind of a 10 minute diversion of the normal flank of a that version normal flank steak that would be praised for hours. We have a Butternut Squash and pumpkin finished off with a cheese from new york. For the first course, we are serving a sweet potato onion motif that has been garnished with a wonderful Monterey Jack and wenoma, california, have used a lot of wonderful all of oils that are part of sonoma county, california. I think thats it for dinner. Right . [indiscernible] [laughter] hello, everybody. And i ams mario c helping to make the dinner tomorrow. We have a lot of work to do. Our day is full. I brought you a taste of one of the dishes we are making. I am going to pass it around. I am proud to be here. I am proud to be an american. Celebrity chefs and restaurant tour mario vitali surprising the media, giving them a taste of the state dinner tonight. Its underway at the white house and we have coverage of it here on cspan for all of you. We showed you the north portico arrival and the descending down the grand staircase. Toastt is the traditional the two leaders will be giving each other. We will try to bring that to you live if we can hear on cspan. In the meantime, Julianna Smoot is with us in studio to talk about the last eight years as social secretary. Lets talk about the seating arrangement. Who decides who is sitting where and by whom they are sitting . Compromise is a huge as well. If you have planned a wedding or a dinner party where you have talkative guests and not talkative guests, you have to take that into account. The tables seat eight. Generally, the president and first lady like to have couples sit together. Theould be that they sit at same table, which would be fine. You would have couples together. A couple of italians and a couple of americans, government leaders at each table, and then you would stick them in with, you know, the regular people. Gwen stephani, if she were going to eat. You do aut number of friend through his for that. You do a number of run throughs for that. Somebody cancels last minute or has an rsvp at the last minute, there are lastminute glitches, but you need to start the seating chart probably three days ahead of time to get it going. There is no panic like not having the seating chart. Host some of the regular folks tonight include chance the rapper, who tweeted this out. Also, frank ocean tweeting. Showing off his footwear for the evening. Fromt lots of questions reporters about why he decided vans this evening. It would be interesting to know. Hat table they are sitting at in terms of choosing the plate where, the glassware, what are those conversations like . There are all different kinds of china you can use for state dinners. Sometimes it depends on what you are serving. If you are having a red sauce, you might not want to put it on an orange bordered china. A matter of figuring out how many people are coming. My last state dinner, i wanted to do finger bowls. I thought that would be so great. The butlers said it could be a bit of an issue because people dont use finger bowls. You would have to explain it at every table. So we decided not to do it. But it was interesting. Of course, coming up, the president and Prime Minister will toast each other and talk italythe u. S. Relationship, something the president has done many, many times over the last eight years. Here is a look back at all of the toasts he has given in 2000 since 2009. Mr. Obama i want to close with the words your first Prime Minister spoke at that midnight hour on the eve of Indian Independence because those words speak to our hopes tonight. The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, the opening of opportunity to the great triumphs and achievements that await us. The past is over, and it is the future that beckons us now. And yet, we know that life is , as the extraordinary writer wrote in one of his poems. You must deserve your dream. Chinesed there is a proverb that says if you want one year of prosperity, go green. Grosgrain. If you want 10 years of prosperity, grow trees. If you want 100 years of prosperity, grow people. So i propose a toast. Tonight we honor angela merkel, not for being denied her freedom or even for attaining her freedom, but for what she achieved when she gained her freedom. Politics determined to lead a united germany. The first german chancellor in german history and an eloquent voice for human rights and dignity around the world. This evening, i want your country to know what korea has meant to america. [speaking korean] of our alliance, i think, is embodied in the concept that is uniquely korean. It doesnt translate that easily, but it reflects the affection and bonds of the heart that cannot be broken and grow stronger with time. To her majesty the queen on her diamond jubilee. To our dear friends david and on the great purpose and design of our alliance. We remain, now and always, faithful servants. Cheers, everyone. Toast. I propose a to our friend and partner, president hollande, to all of our friends here today. France,. Bless america, and long live the alliance between our great god bless america, and long live the alliance between our great nations. Just as you say in china that the sea excepts 100 rivers , our countryivers thetronger when we accept diversity and views and contributions of all of our rivers. A alliance between the United States and canada. To our friends, justin and sophie. Americansship between and canadians. The spirit that binds us together. Abidingine, deep, and respect for each and every human being. Cheers. If you have visited any of these nordic countries, everything is orderly. Everything is clean. Everybody is well behaved. Even prompted a bestselling book called the almost nearly perfect people. There were some shockers. Apparently, nordic people can aboutto heated arguments which country is happiest.