WASHINGTON — President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama hosted their first White House formal dinner Sunday night, a glittery black-tie evening in the State Dining Room for the nation’s governors.

“Even Axelrod has cleaned up pretty well,” Obama said in his toast, referring to senior adviser David Axelrod, one of the 130 guests who dined on Chesapeake crab, Wagyu beef, a winter citrus salad and an Obama family White House favorite, huckleberry cobbler. Obama was in a tuxedo with a black bow tie and Mrs. Obama, with her hair in an updo, was wearing a silvery plum beaded gown.

Noting the dire economic times –and alluding to the partisanship of the first weeks of his administration — Obama in his toast to the governors — including new Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn — said that “despite our current travails,” he hoped “we all emerge more prosperous and more unified than we were before.”

Past first ladies have previewed big dinners in one of the upstairs rooms in the White House. But an agenda item for Michelle Obama is opening up the White House to the community.

The way Mrs. Obama and social secretary Desiree Rogers did it Sunday afternoon was to invite six students from a suburban Washington culinary school to the White House kitchen for a briefing from White House chef Cristeta Comerford and pastry chef William Yosses.

The White House kitchen team rolled out samples of the menu as the chef described what they made and took questions from the future chefs.

The White House kitchen itself is small, with stainless steel counters and pots and pans hanging from a stainless steel rack.

If you did not know:

•       •       ”The president loves scallops,” according to Mrs. Obama.

•       •       Mrs. Obama is fond of a White House soup that “tastes creamy without being creamy” and the creamed spinach that has no cream.

The creamed spinach is “delicious,” said Comerford.

Nonetheless, Mrs. Obama said, “Sasha still didn’t like it.” She said the White House kitchen staff faces a “test” because the staff has to deal with feeding youngsters.

“And sometimes kids are like, ‘it’s green,’” she said.

•       •       First family favorites: “There’s some mean waffles and grits that are made in the morning that’s become a regular staple for some of us; I don’t eat waffles every day,” she said.

•       •       Mrs. Obama is contemplating coming up with her own china.

The newest assistant chef, Chicago transplant Sam Kass, who was the Obamas’ personal chef, briefed the group on the winter citrus salad. He put together a sampler plate with watermelon radishes grown close to Washington; oranges and grapefruit. The lettuce was a mix of plants that “grow well in winter,” he said.

Said Mrs. Obama, “This is where the magic happens. No one would expect that all that comes out of these dinners happens in this little bitty space.”