Secretary of State Transforms the Diplomatic Menu Marty Katz for The New York Times MADE TO ORDER Hasan Siyam, the chef at the Turkish Embassy, with a Fourth of July apple pie. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON'S first high-profile pronouncement on cooking and entertaining was not exactly a passionate one: During her husband's 1992 presidential campaign, she defended her career choices, saying, "I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas." But as first lady, Mrs. Clinton took an intense interest in White House dining, replacing the traditional French food and chefs with contemporary American fare prepared by an American chef. Now, as secretary of state, Mrs. Clinton is again bringing about change in the kitchen. In her three and a half years at the State Department, she has transformed the way food is chosen, cooked and served at the agency's Foggy Bottom headquarters here, and she has given it prominence as an important part of what she calls "smart diplomacy." Meals for heads of state and other foreign dignitaries are now used as an opportunity to showcase American cuisine, particularly local ingredients, and to show fluency in the visitors" culinary traditions. The department has named an executive chef for the first time, and regularly invites celebrity chefs to cook. Favorite snacks are stocked for high-placed visitors. And as the department celebrates the Fourth of July with its fireworks party for foreign ambassadors and their families, this year's event will have a new food component: a contest for the best apple dessert from an embassy kitchen. "Showcasing favorite cuisines, ceremonies and values is an often overlooked and powerful tool of diplomacy," Mrs. Clinton wrote in an e-mail response to a reporter's questions. The meals that I share with my counterparts at home and abroad cultivate a stronger cultural understanding between countries and offer a unique setting to enhance the formal diplomacy we conduct every day. Less formally, Natalie Jones, a deputy chief of protocol, said that food is crucial "because tough negotiations take place at the dining table." Before Mrs. Clinton arrived, the State Department relied exclusively on local caterers, who supplied a limited choice of cookie-cutter menus. But a special unit was created in 2009 to handle all the secretary's official activities when she is hosting foreign dignitaries. "Basically, we became an in-house catering company to control quality, instead of outsourcing it," said Jason Larkin, the executive chef and event manager for the department, which he joined in 2006. Mr. Larkin and his assistant, Chris James, buy locally and seasonally. The once-obligatory green salads have been replaced by dishes like watermelon-tomato gazpacho with Maryland crab meat; the old double consommés have given way to beet soup with beet ravioli. "The caterers used to do the food by the numbers," Mr. Larkin said, "but now they have to work with us." Bill Homan, the owner of Design Cuisine, a local caterer who has worked with the State Department for 30 years, agreed. "There's a lot more scrutiny," he said. They want grass-fed beef and organic ingredients and things that are new and different and exciting. They want to be stylish. We weren't used to it in the beginning. Robert Barnett, a Washington lawyer and frequent guest at the State Department through many administrations, described two recent lunches for visiting foreign dignitaries as "noticeably wonderful." In the past, he said, "the food was fairly pedestrian." While Mrs. Clinton is often far from headquarters, delegating many of these matters to her chief of protocol, Capricia Marshall, the use of food as a diplomatic tool is clearly Mrs. Clinton's priority. "She first introduced me to the importance of food when she was selecting the White House chef, Walter Scheib," said Ms. Marshall, a longtime confidante of Mrs. Clinton's and a social secretary during the Clinton administration. It was not just what was being served, it was the way it was presented. We were searching for great American producers and growers.