Definition: The Kitchen Cabinet was a mocking term applied to an official circle of advisers to President Andrew Jackson. When Jackson came into office after the bruising election of 1828, he appointed fairly obscure men to most of the posts in his cabinet.

The only man of any real political stature in Jackson's cabinet was Martin Van Buren, who was appointed secretary of state. The real power in Jackson's administration rested with a circle of friends and political cronies.

As Jackson was always a controversial figure, opposition newspapers, implying there was something nefarious about the president receiving such unofficial advice, came up with the play on words, Kitchen Cabinet, to describe the informal group. The official cabinet was sometimes called the Parlor Cabinet.

The Kitchen Cabinet included newspaper editors, political supporters, and old friends of Jackson's. They tended to support him in such efforts as the Bank War, and the implementation of the Spoils System.

In later presidential administrations the term Kitchen Cabinet took on a less derisive meaning, and simply came to be used to denote a president's informal advisers.