"For the fifth state dinner under the Biden administration in April honoring Japan’s visiting prime minister Fumio Kishida and his wife, White House chefs prepared house-cured salmon, dry-aged Maryland beef, and a salted-caramel pistachio cake. The lavish three-course meal was plated on George W. Bush and Lyndon B. Johnson china; after dinner, 230 well-dressed guests — which included former residents Bill and Hillary Clinton and actor Robert De Niro — enjoyed an intimate concert by Paul Simon as cherry blossoms began to bloom outside." - Tierney Plumb