Spain riot police smash way into Catalan voting center

Spanish riot police smashed their way into the polling station where Catalonia's regional leader was due to vote in the disputed independence referendum on Sunday. Scuffles erupted outside between police and people waiting to vote.

Spanish National Police prevents voters from reaching a voting site at a school assigned to be a polling station by the Catalan government in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, 1 Oct. 2017. Catalan pro-referendum supporters vowed Saturday to ignore a police ultimatum to leave the schools they are occupying to use in a vote seeking independence from Spain. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Civil guards force a man with a child to leave the entrance of a sports center, assigned to be a referendum polling station by the Catalan government in Sant Julia de Ramis, near Girona, Spain, Sunday, Oct. 1, 2017. Scuffles have erupted as voters protested as dozens of anti-rioting police broke into a polling station where the regional leader was expected to show up for voting on Sunday. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Civil Guard officers, wearing helmets and carrying shields, used a hammer to break the glass of the front door and a lock cutter to break into the Sant Julia de Ramis sports center near the city of Girona. At least one woman was injured outside the building and wheeled away on a stretcher by paramedics.

A woman cries after civil guards dragged people away from the entrance of a sports center, assigned to be a referendum polling station by the Catalan government in Sant Julia de Ramis, near Girona, Spain, Sunday, Oct. 1, 2017. Scuffles have erupted as voters protested as dozens of anti-rioting police broke into a polling station where the regional leader was expected to show up for voting on Sunday. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Clashes broke out less than an hour after polls opened, and not long before Catalonia regional president Carles Puigdemont was expected to turn up to vote. Polling station workers inside the building reacted peacefully and broke out into songs and chants challenging the officers' presence.

National Police and Civil Guard officers also showed up in other polling centers where Catalan officials were expected.

People gather outside a school assigned to be a polling station by the Catalan government at the Gracia neighborhood in Barcelona, Spain, early Sunday, 1 Oct. 2017. Catalan pro-referendum supporters vowed to ignore a police ultimatum to leave the schools they are occupying to use in a vote seeking independence from Spain. (AP Photo/Bob Edme)

Catalans defied rain and police orders to leave designated polling stations for the banned referendum on the region's secession that has challenged Spain's political and institutional order.

The country's Constitutional Court has suspended the vote and the Spanish central government says it's illegal. Regional separatist leaders have pledged to hold it anyway, promising to declare independence if the "yes" side wins, and have called on 5.3 million eligible voters to cast ballots.

Reporters with The Associated Press saw ballot boxes wrapped in plastic bags being carried into some of the polling stations in Barcelona occupied by parents, children and activists before some polling stations could open at 9 a.m. (0700 GMT) as scheduled.

People gather outside a school assigned to be a polling station by the Catalan government at the Gracia neighborhood in Barcelona, Spain, early Sunday, 1 Oct. 2017. Catalan pro-referendum supporters vowed to ignore a police ultimatum to leave the schools they are occupying to use in a vote seeking independence from Spain. (AP Photo/Bob Edme)

After some spent the night at the Miquel Tarradell school, assigned to be a polling station by the Catalan government, pro-referendum supporters gather at the hall in Barcelona, Spain, early Sunday, 1 Oct. 2017. Catalan pro-referendum supporters vowed to ignore a police ultimatum to leave the schools they are occupying to use in a vote seeking independence from Spain. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

The plastic ballot boxes, bearing the seal of the Catalan regional government, were placed on tables, prompting the cheering of hopeful voters that had gathered in schools before dawn.

Some 2,300 facilities had been designated as polling stations, but it was unclear how many were able to open. The Ministry of Interior didn't provide a number late on Saturday when it said that "most" of them had been sealed off and that only "some" remained occupied.

After some spent the night at the Miquel Tarradell school, assigned to be a polling station by the Catalan government, pro-referendum supporters gather at the hall in Barcelona, Spain, early Sunday, Oct. 1, 2017. Catalan pro-referendum supporters vowed to ignore a police ultimatum to leave the schools they are occupying to use in a vote seeking independence from Spain. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Police have received orders to avoid the use of force and only have been warning people to vacate the facilities. They are also supposed to confiscate ballots and ballot boxes.

In an effort to overcome myriad obstacles, Catalan officials announced that voters would be allowed to cast ballots in any location and using ballots printed at home, rather than in designated polling stations as previously announced.

Pro-referendum supporters gather at the Escola Industrial, a school assigned to be a polling station by the Catalan government, in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, Oct. 1, 2017. Catalan pro-referendum supporters vowed to ignore a police ultimatum to leave the schools they are occupying to use in a vote seeking independence from Spain.(AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Regional government spokesman Jordi Turull also said that a group of "academics and professionals" would serve as election observers. The official electoral board appointed by the regional parliament was disbanded last week to avoid hefty fines by Spain's Constitutional Court.

"We are under conditions to be able to celebrate a self-determination referendum with guarantees," Turull said in a press conference. "Our goal is that all Catalans can vote."

Tension has been on the rise since the vote was called in early September, crystalizing years of defiance by separatists in the affluent region, which contributes a fifth of Spain's 1.1 trillion-euro economy ($1.32 trillion.)

Spain's 2008-2013 financial crisis and harsh austerity measures fueled frustration in Catalonia for setbacks in efforts to gain greater autonomy, with many Catalans feeling they could do better on their own.

Pro-referendum supporters gather at the Escola Industrial, a school assigned to be a polling station by the Catalan government, in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, Oct. 1, 2017. Catalan pro-referendum supporters vowed to ignore a police ultimatum to leave the schools they are occupying to use in a vote seeking independence from Spain.(AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Pro-referendum supporters sleep at the yard of the Escola Industrial, a school listed to be a polling station by the Catalan government, in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, Oct. 1, 2017. Catalan pro-referendum supporters vowed to ignore a police ultimatum to leave the schools they are occupying to use in a vote seeking independence from Spain.(AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Courts and police have been cracking down for days to halt the vote, confiscating 10 million paper ballots and arresting key officials involved in the preparations. On Saturday, Civil Guard agents dismantled the technology to connect voting stations, count the votes and vote online, leading the Spanish government to announce that holding the referendum would be "impossible."

Joaquim Bosch, a 73-year-old retiree at Princep de Viana high school, where a crowd of 20 people was growing Sunday morning, said he was uneasy about a possible police response to the crowds.

"I have come to vote to defend the rights of my country, which is Catalonia," Bosch said. "I vote because of the mistreatment of Catalonia by Spain for many years."

After some spent the night at the Miquel Tarradell school, assigned to be a polling station by the Catalan government, pro-referendum supporters gather at the hall in Barcelona, Spain, early Sunday, 1 Oct. 2017. Catalan pro-referendum supporters vowed to ignore a police ultimatum to leave the schools they are occupying to use in a vote seeking independence from Spain. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

After some spent the night pro-referendum supporters sit at the Miquel Tarradell school, listed to be a polling station by the Catalan government, in Barcelona, Spain, early Sunday, 1 Oct. 2017. Catalan pro-referendum supporters vowed to ignore a police ultimatum to leave the schools they are occupying to use in a vote seeking independence from Spain. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

On Saturday, Spain's foreign minister dismissed the planned vote as anti-democratic, saying it runs "counter to the goals and ideals" of the European Union.

"What they are pushing is not democracy. It is a mockery of democracy, a travesty of democracy," Alfonso Dastis told The Associated Press in an interview.

Dozens of protests have been taking place in Catalonia and across Spain, some to condemn the crackdown on the vote and others supporting the nation's unity against the independence bid.

As journalists take pictures, a parked tractor blocks the door of a sports center, assigned to be a polling station by the Catalan government and where Catalan President Carles Puigdemont is expected to vote, in Sant Julia de Ramis, near Girona, Spain, Sunday, Oct. 1, 2017. Catalan pro-referendum supporters vowed to ignore a police ultimatum to leave the schools they are occupying to use in a vote seeking independence from Spain. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Police officers of the Mossos d'Esquadra, Catalan police, check the I.D. of a person at a school listed to be a polling station by the Catalan government at the Gracia neighborhood in Barcelona, Spain, early Sunday, Oct. 1, 2017. Catalan pro-referendum supporters vowed to ignore a police ultimatum to leave the schools they are occupying to use in a vote seeking independence from Spain. (AP Photo/Bob Edme)

No minimum turnout has been set for the validity of the vote by Catalan authorities. Regional government officials initially hoped for a turnout greater than the 2.3 million people who voted in a mock referendum in 2014 in which 80 percent favored independence but have recently signaled that they would consider the vote valid with a lower number given the challenges to hold it.

Separatist Catalan leaders have pledged to declare independence from Spain within 48 hours of Sunday's vote if the 'yes' side wins.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Cristeta Comerford, a longtime White House executive chef who recently retired after nearly three decades of preparing meals for five presidents and their guests, says first families are “just regular people” when they're at home in the private living areas of the Executive Mansion.

“It's not what you see on the news,” she told The Associated Press in an interview.

Preparing the first families' meals was among Comerford's many culinary responsibilities. Meals mostly would be prepared in the main kitchen, then finished off in the residence kitchen on the second floor.

“At the end of the day, when you do the family meals upstairs, they're just regular people at home. They just want a good meal. They want to sit down with their family,” she said. "If they have children, they eat together. And just to see that on a daily basis, it's not what you see on the news.

“It's the other side of them that we get to see," she said.

Comerford, who hung up her apron and chef’s toque in July 2024 after nearly 20 years as top chef and nearly three decades on the kitchen staff, is the longest-serving chef in White House history. Her tenure spanned the presidencies of Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden.

Each of the five families she served approached food differently, Comerford said at a recent White House Historical Association symposium on food and wine. She was asked whether she'd describe any of the presidents as “real foodies.”

The Clintons liked healthier meals, Comerford said. Then-first lady Hillary Clinton hired the first American executive chef, Walter Scheib, and had the kitchen avoid serving heavy sauces and creams.

She said, “I learned so much” about Southwestern cuisine from Bush, the former Texas governor who liked Tex-Mex food. “We made thousands of tamales for Christmas,” she said of the popular Mexican meal of stuffed corn dough wrapped in a corn husk and steamed until cooked.

Comerford got ideas from the vegetable garden Michelle Obama started when she was promoting healthy eating, primarily for children. "We used the garden as kind of like our backbone for our menu development,” she said.

Trump and first lady Melania Trump are “very, very classic eaters,” she said. Mrs. Trump “loved Italian food, so we tend to do the pastas, but light ones.” Comerford didn't comment on President Trump's food choices, but he is known to like a well-done steak served with ketchup and fast food.

Jill Biden was the first Italian American first lady, and the kitchen did “a lot of Italian food, as well, because she loved Italian food.”

Overall, “it's different for each family,” said Comerford, "but my job as the chef is to execute their style, their likes and their preferences.”

A black-tie state dinner is the highest diplomatic honor the U.S. reserves for its close allies.

Comerford presided over 54 of these opulent affairs, including for France and Australia during Trump's first term. Sometimes, guest chefs were brought in to help.

State dinners give presidents the opportunity to bring together hundreds of guests from the worlds of government, politics and other industries for an evening in which the three-course meal, decor and entertainment are designed to help foster relations by dazzling the visiting foreign leader.

The first lady's staff and the social secretary typically have about two months to pull one together.

Comerford said her team started by researching the visiting leader's likes and dislikes, then she used the information to create a menu using the best of American food while incorporating nuances from the country being recognized.

She'd develop at least three different menus. Then came tastings for the first lady to make a final decision.

Comerford, 62, started her career tending a salad bar at a Chicago airport hotel before working as a chef at restaurants in Austria and Washington. Scheib, then the White House executive chef, hired her in 1994 for a temporary gig preparing a state dinner for Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s newly elected president.

Scheib then hired her as an assistant chef in 1995, and she succeeded him a decade later, becoming the first woman and first person of color to permanently hold the executive chef’s position. Comerford is a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in the Philippines.

Her husband, John Comerford, is a chef, too, and she credits him with sacrificing his career to be present for their daughter so she could thrive in hers. Their daughter is a pastry chef.

When Comerford retired, assistant chef Tommy Kurpradit, whose parents are from Thailand, was named interim executive chef. Melania Trump, who worked with Comerford in the first Trump administration, has not named a successor.

Comerford said she managed everything with “a lot of prayers,” often said during her hourlong, early morning drive into the White House, but also by being versatile, humble, able to handle chaos and having faith in herself and her team.

“One thing with cooking at the White House, you don't just do fine dining meals,” she said. “You have to know how to cook eggs and breakfast. You have to know to cook a smashburger.”

It also helps to remember that the job is about the family.

“There's no ego in it,” Comerford said.

White House culinary history includes chefs from China, Japan, the Philippines, South Korea and Thailand, as far back as the 19th century, according to Adrian Miller and Deborah Chang, co-authors of a new book, “Cooking to the President's Taste: Asian Heritage Chefs in White House History."

Most sharpened their skills through service in the U.S. military.

Before Comerford, Pedro Udo, a Filipino trained in the U.S. military, was the first Asian heritage chef to run the White House kitchen after he was promoted from meat chef to head chef in June 1957, according to the book. He prepared meals for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip later that year, and for Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in September 1959 during the Cold War.

But his stint ended after less than four years when the new first lady, Jacqueline Kennedy, hired acclaimed French chef René Verdon in early 1961.

Miller said the book offers a “unique window" on the presidency.

“We get a look at the presidents, but also the presidents got a look at Asian American life in maybe ways that they hadn’t before,” he told the AP in an interview. "And I think, you know, for the presidents that decided to open that window and find out more about the people who were providing, comforting them through amazing food, I think our nation is better for them.”

FILE - Tables are decorated during a press preview at the White House in Washington, April 9, 2024, for the State Dinner for Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

Former White House exec chef Cristeta Comerford speaks during an interview with the Associated Press at Decatur House, Thursday, May 8, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rick Gentile)

FILE - White House executive chef Cristeta Comerford shows the main course during a preview in the State Dining Room of White House in Washington, Sept. 24, 2015, for the state dinner of the visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

Former White House exec chef Cristeta Comerford speaks during an interview with the Associated Press at Decatur House, Thursday, May 8, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rick Gentile)

FILE - White House executive chef Cris Comerford, holds dishes as she speaks during a media preview for the State Dinner with President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, Nov. 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)