Legal Definitions - kitchen cabinet

A kitchen cabinet is a group of unofficial and informal advisers who have more influence with an executive officer, especially the President, than the real cabinet does. This term was first used in reference to some of President Andrew Jackson's advisers, who were supposedly not important enough to meet in the formal rooms of the White House because of their reputation for unpolished manners.

For example, Theodore Roosevelt had his "tennis cabinet," Warren Harding had his "poker cabinet," and Herbert Hoover had his exercise-loving "medicine ball cabinet." Even governors can have their own circles of personal friends, like New York's Alfred Smith, who had a "golfing cabinet."

These examples illustrate how a kitchen cabinet is a group of informal advisers who have the ear of an executive officer and can influence their decisions, even if they are not part of the official cabinet.