Obama eats, and Americans eat with him

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(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-10 09:44

NEW YORK: At the bustling Pi pizza restaurant in St Louis, the staff has come up with a new mantra: "It's just pizza!"

Just pizza, and yet, customers are happy to wait more than two hours at peak time for a table - ever since news broke out that Barack Obama loved it so much during a campaign stop that the owners were invited to recreate it in the White House ovens.

(From left): A February 2008 file photo shows then presidential hopeful Barack Obama as he puts on a napkin before eating at Dooky Chase's restaurant in New Orleans. Obama and his wife Michelle are seen eating breakfast at Pamela's diner in Pittsburgh in this April 2008 file photo. Obama takes a bite of his meal at Luis's Taqueria in Woodburn in this May 2008 file photo. [Agencies]

"We tell them it'll be two to four hours, and they say, OK!" says owner Chris Sommers, who spent his own money on travel to prepare the presidential meal in April.

Pizza from St Louis, pancakes from Pittsburgh. A juicy hamburger or a chili half-smoke sausage in Washington, soul food in Chicago. The new American president eats something and others want to eat it, too. Has there ever been such attention to the food the president eats?

"Well, White House cookbooks have always been popular - but no, there's never been this flood of interest before," says Eddie Gehman Kohan, editor of the blog Obama Foodorama. She sees a fusion of two potent forces: An escalating interest in food and food policy, and enormous curiosity in anything Obama.

And all this interest may have even more to do with first lady Michelle Obama than Barack. Some polls have shown the first lady is even more popular than her husband, and for all the focus on her fashions and her biceps, she's made food a prime area of interest - especially with her new White House kitchen garden.

"She's brought new and much needed attention to critical food issues," says Kohan. "She's also really raised awareness by describing her family's own journey through bad food habits and into a healthier lifestyle."

Indeed, foodies have no doubt that it was Michelle who chose Blue Hill, a pricey but understated New York restaurant that champions locally grown produce, for the couple's much-discussed "Date Night" at the end of May.

With all the chatter, and with restaurants often happily revealing Obama menu picks, it's stunning that a central mystery remains: What did the Obamas eat? The restaurant won't spill the (organic) beans, and as for fellow diners, "Everyone gave them space and was too cool to bother them," says Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition and food studies at New York University who ate at a nearby table.

Cool up to a point, that is. "When they got up, the whole place broke out into spontaneous applause," says Eva Fleischer, who was dining with her husband and friends. "Barack said, 'Hi guys,' and Michelle even touched my friend on her shoulder!"

"No comment," says Blue Hill chef Dan Barber, who won't say another word about the evening, though he's said to have personally cooked an off-the-menu feast for the Obamas. A noted champion of the farm-to-table movement, Barber speculates that the incredible reaction to the Obamas' food habits has only partly to do with them.

"There's definitely been an increased awareness about issues relating to food," Barber said in a telephone interview. "How food grows, who's growing it and where it's from."

"But now we have an administration that has shown an interest in these issues, and more than just a nod," Barber added. He thinks the Obamas, especially Michelle, could do a lot to help the United States move toward a healthier way of eating.

"It's my hope that she can do more for this movement through her support than her husband can do within the political system," Barber said. "Because she's framing it in terms of enjoyment and pleasure. She depoliticizes it."

It's true, though, that food has become more political than ever. One small example: In December, chef and author Alice Waters wrote to the Obamas, offering to help select a new White House chef, "a person with integrity and devotion to the ideals of environmentalism, health, and conservation".

That irked former White House chef Walter Scheib, who spent 11 years as top chef, for both the Clintons and the Bushes.

"My problem was that she was calling for the ouster of a talented, skilled individual," he says, referring to his former assistant and current White House chef Cristeta Comerford, who has remained in the job. (She's assisted by a Chicago chef brought in by the Obamas, Sam Kass.)

Scheib applauds Waters, though, for advocating for the White House garden, something he always wanted himself. Still, he says, "In the big picture it's probably at the bottom of the top 100 things President Obama needs to do in this world."