Sweet Gig for Gay WH Pastry Chef

Bill Yosses, the openly gay White House pastry chef hired by Laura Bush in 2007, talks about how his work has changed under the health-conscious Obama administration.

The New York Times profiles the 57-year-old Yosses, whom it calls "a cheerful veteran of New York restaurant kitchens." Under the direction of First Lady Michelle Obama, his duties have expanded from pastries to include beekeeping and weeding.

Yosses laments that he lives in a different city from his partner, an elementary reading school specialist in Queens, New York, but otherwise sounds ecstatic about his work.

"He said that the pressures of the job -- even making a chocolate village for the Easter egg roll, or devising ever more ways to replace white sugar with honey and maple syrup -- are entirely manageable compared with the chaos and hysteria of a high-profile New York restaurant kitchen," according to the Times.

His former colleagues include lesbian chef Anita Lo.

"Now, and even then, a gay pastry chef is not big news," she told the Times. "But any public figure coming out and being relaxed about it is a good thing."

Read the profile here.