[3] At the age of 14, as was typical for boys in Germany at the time, he entered an apprenticeship, and chose cooking as a career.

With World War II raging, he chose to enlist in the Kriegsmarine, the Nazi German navy.

As a cook in the navy, he also avoided much of the hunger that afflicted the average German during the latter part of the war.

In 1951 he moved to Switzerland, but emigrated to Stockholm, Sweden, in 1952 in order to take advantage of the immense demand for chefs generated by the 1952 Winter Olympics in nearby Oslo, Norway.

[3] This left Raffert having to oversee planning, preparation, and cooking for a state dinner for West German Chancellor Willy Brandt three days later.

[6] But Hill proved unpopular with First Lady Nancy Reagan, and resigned on January 8, 1988, after just five months on the job.

(First Daughter Amy Carter would bake cookies in the White House kitchen, overseen by Raffert.)

[3] Frank Ruta, a Washington, D.C.–based chef who trained under Raffert at the White House, later said "Hans was a guy that could do it all.

"[12] Raffert's marriage to his first wife, Annemarie (a native of Austria who emigrated to the United States when she was 16 years old), ended in divorce.

He was survived by his wife, Doris, and his son, Patrick, as well as a brother, Konrad Raffert of Clarksburg, Maryland.