Growing up in the Philippines, Cristeta Comerford helped her mother, a seamstress, cook for a household of more than a dozen. They were simple meals: rice, a vegetable and fish or chicken, sometimes with extra potatoes to stretch the meal.

She never considered that nourishing people, and doing a lot with a little, could be a job. But her father did.

“He was like, ‘Cris! You should go to Cordon Bleu and be a chef,” Ms. Comerford, who goes by Cris or “Cheffie,” said in an interview on Thursday. She never did go to culinary school, but she became the first woman and person of color to serve as White House executive chef.

Ms. Comerford, 61, retired last week, having cooked for five presidents and their families, charted out more than 50 state dinners, and overseen a renovation of the White House kitchen that was built more than a century ago. But she has not forgotten what first stirred her about cooking.

“You see the public life, but at the end of the day the people that we serve are just people like us who want nourishment and good food,” Ms. Comerford said.

Jill Biden, the first lady, praised the chef’s commitment to the first family in a statement announcing her retirement.