The First Lady At The Top of The Food Chain: America’s food movement is filled with thousands of well-intentioned groups that have often been at odds with each other’s goals. Writer Paula Crossfield highlighted this in a recent Huffington Post piece, Step One: Hone The Ask, in which she pointed out that it's difficult to know what to even request that the Obama administration change in food and Ag policy, because food activists have been so disconnected from each other, and have lacked definitive leadership. But as of yesterday, the food movement is in swell shape, because First Lady Michelle Obama has just become the official leader, and she’s laid out, in capital letters, precisely which food initiatives the White House believes need immediate attention, and where her influence is available to be used. "The Asks" have already been honed into a plan, into what can be regarded as round one of making profound changes in our food culture (Pic: Mrs. Obama with a snap pea, at yesterday's garden harvest event).

At an afternoon picnic, during a celebration of the harvest of the White House Kitchen Garden, Mrs. Obama delivered policy-heavy remarks that covered some of the most hot-button topics in food. While ostensibly addressing the Bancroft Elementary School fifth graders who’ve been helping her work in the garden, Mrs. Obama talked about food deserts, local food economies, food security and food justice; getting more fresh and nutritious foods into the USDA’s Child Nutrition programs; the critical issue of reducing diet-related disease; supporting local and smaller food producers; encouraging urban and community gardening. Of course there was a big media presence at the harvest event, but most news outlets failed to report how very far-sighted Mrs. Obama’s remarks were, how progressive and reassuring they are at a moment in time when everything about food is open to debate. Instead, mainstream media focused on the feel-good angle of the story, with headlines like It’s Pea Picking Time in The Garden! and Garden Party: The First Lady’s 73 Pounds of Lettuce.

The White House, however, posted all of Mrs. Obama’s remarks online—as well as on Youtube--because the issues she discussed are not only critically important on their own, but must be resolved in order for many of the President’s policy goals to be achieved, particularly his very ambitious plans for health care reform. Having Mrs. Obama make these potentially volatile remarks is a politically brilliant maneuver, since she’s currently enjoying approval ratings that are higher than the President’s. And delivering the remarks at a picnic--in the presence of the children whose eating habits have been permanently altered after just a couple of months working in the garden (which transformation has been happily recorded for all posterity by NBC, in the Inside The Obama White House TV special)--served to make “the plan” seem like a series of goals that are imminently possible.

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From The New York Times's Marian Burros: "Michelle Obama will begin digging up a patch of the South Lawn on [Mar. 20] to plant a vegetable garden, the first at the White House since Eleanor Roosevelt’s victory garden in World War II. There will be no beets — the president does not like them — but arugula will make the cut. While the organic garden will provide food for the first family’s meals and formal dinners, its most important role, Mrs. Obama said, will be to educate children about healthful, locally grown fruit and vegetables at a time when obesity and diabetes have become a national concern. “My hope,” the first lady said in an interview in her East Wing office, “is that through children, they will begin to educate their families and that will, in turn, begin to educate our communities.” Twenty-three fifth graders from Bancroft Elementary School in Washington will help her dig up the soil for the 1,100-square-foot plot, in a spot visible to passers-by on E Street. (It is just below the Obama girls’ swing set.) 

From the Chicago Tribune: A spokeswoman for Michelle Obama has announced that Sam Kass, who earned his chef cred working at Avec, is now working in the White House kitchens as an assistant chef to Cristeta Comerford's culinary operations at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. He was a private chef for the Obamas while they were in Chicago. Sam kass  “Sam’s been with the Obamas for years,” said Paul Kahan, chef-owner of Avec and Blackbird. “It was very much on the hush, but he’s cooked for them for at least a year, and I think more. When the Obamas would come here [Blackbird] to eat, it was always Sam who was the conduit.

From the Chicago Tribune's Bill Daley (www.chicagotribune.com)": November 4, 2008 may well go down in history for a reason other that the election of Barack Obama as president. For it was on that date that Obama Foodorama was launched. This blog delivers on its promise to be "a daily diary of the Obama foodscape, one byte at a time." It's a heady mix of the serious and the fun, from agricultural policy to White House chef speculation to recipes to the O-llure of arugula and cupcakes. The graphics and photos are great, too. You'll find Obama's face burned into a slice of toast, Obama as a stalk of broccoli, Obama as Lincoln, Obama hangin' with Frank and Dean, Obama as a cowboy riding a giant rooster and so on. Obama Foodorama is written by Eddie Gehman Kohan, a food writer and self-described "agriculture policy wonkette" based in Los Angeles. She's also "editor-in-beef" of an online food magazine called The Haphazard Gourmet Girls, produced in conjuction with her sisters, Pleasant Gehman and Meghan Gehman. The three are daughters of Richard Gehman, author of "The Haphazard Gourmet.""

http://obamafoodorama.blogspot.com/

Kate Coleman of the San Francisco Chronicle reports: Amid the flurry of hundreds and thousands of resumes descending upon the transition team for President-elect Barack Obama is a letter from Alice Waters of Chez Panisse volunteering her services - and those of Gourmet editor Ruth Reichl and New York Union Square restaurateur Danny Meyer - to be the first couple's informal "kitchen cabinet" on all things culinary, from recommendations for a new White House chef to overseeing the creation of a sustainable, organic kitchen garden on the White House lawn.

In the letter, sent the day after the election, Waters wrote passionately: "At this moment you have a unique opportunity to set the tone for the changes we need to make in the way our country feeds itself. The purity and wholesomeness of your campaign can find a parallel in the purity and wholesomeness of the food at America's most visible and symbolic address: the White House."

A White House garden.

Waters is not alone in sensing that the newly elected, allegedly arugula-loving president is the perfect vehicle for national food reform. His switch to local, organic, seasonal food would lead the way in fighting America's epidemic of obesity and diabetes stemming from processed food, chemicals and eating too much from the wrong end of the food chain. Author Michael Pollan envisions a White House Victory garden a la Eleanor Roosevelt's, while EattheView.org pictures a White House and its lawn ripe for planting.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/12/09/FDDN14IPLM.DTL&type=food

Posted by Daniel Zemans for Serious Eats:

When reports started trickling out in July that Barack Obama's favorite pizzeria was Italian Fiesta Pizzeria, I took it a little personally. By that time, I had already given time and money to his campaign, and despite my cynical nature, I had already had so many glasses of Obama Kool-Aid that my former neighbor and state representative could do no wrong in my eyes even as he surprised me by voting for FISA and shown cowardice political pragmatism on gay marriage. But now came reports that he favored pizzas from Italian Fiesta Pizzeria, which I knew served far from top-notch pizza.

Italian Fiesta has been in the South Shore neighborhood on Chicago's south side since 1951. Even as the neighborhood changed dramatically (read: blacks moved in and whites ran away), Italian Fiesta stuck around, eventually adding locations in Hyde Park and a couple of southern and southwestern suburbs. Michele Obama grew up in South Shore and, presumably, she gets the credit for introducing it to the president-elect.

After the jump, find out whose pizza Barack Obama really craves. [He] "wouldn't shut up about my pizza," the joint's owner said.

The Hyde Park location that the Obamas patronize is a small restaurant in a strip mall that does not offer a dine-in option. Those who choose to go pick up their pizzas are advised to call at least 45 minutes before they arrive, despite there being no possible way it takes even half that amount of time to cook one of Italian Fiesta's thin-crust pies.

Another quirk of the ordering process is that the phone number used to place the order is not to the restaurant itself, but to a general number where the person answering asks not only takes the order but also asks which location the order should go to.

The restaurant consists of a waiting area that's about 10 feet by 20 feet and a large kitchen area visible through a small bulletproof glass window, where about a dozen people were busy making and packing pizzas. There were a couple of signs on the wall in the waiting-ordering area that caught my eye. One warns that there may be a long wait for pizza, and the other explains the refund policy: No refunds, only exchanges, and if a customer wants to make an exchange, they have to bring in the uneaten portion of their pizza.

I picked up my sausage pizza and headed to the car to open the box. Inside was a steaming thin-crust pizza with a noticeable amount of oregano and grease sitting on top. The buttery crust is thicker than traditional Chicago thin crust, but still pretty thin. The homemade sauce was well seasoned and was generously applied around the outer part of the pizza, but the middle pieces could have used a bit more. The sausage seemed to be fairly low quality, but it had some flavor and was well-represented on the pizza.

I was ready to write off Italian Fiesta after a couple of pieces, but when I got home about half an hour later, I ate some more. By that time, the grease had largely soaked back into the pizza, which resulted in a vastly improved pie. That's not to say the pizza magically became a high-quality treat, but there was something rather comforting about it. Italian Fiesta does not offer a pizza to be savored, but it offers a decent pie, particularly for late night diners—Italian Fiesta is open until 1 a.m. during the week and 2 a.m. on weekends.

 

http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2008/11/italian-fiesta-pizzeria-barack-obama-favorite-pizza-reviewed-chicago-il.html

Toss out the Wonder bread and bring in the veggies.

The President who notoriously wouldn't eat anything "green" or "wet" is being replaced by one who loves his meals straight from the garden.

While George W. Bush spent his two terms scarfing down BLTs, white-bread grilled cheese sandwiches and burgers, President-elect Barack Obama will usher in just as big a culinary makeover as a partisan one.

"Apparently he is not into carbs," says Denver chef Daniel Young, who cooked for Obama at the Democratic National Convention. "I made lots of fresh, healthy foods."

And though the family's been dutifully sampling local specialties like cheese steaks, fried chicken and pizza for the past year on the trail, the White House fridges will be stocked with fresher fare.

"They try to limit the sweets and they include a lot of fruits, vegetables and lean meats in their meals," an Obama pal said. "Of course that isn't always possible when he has been campaigning."

Though the Obama camp says that no decisions have been made yet about who will occupy the kitchen at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., three top chefs have emerged as possible presidential cooking contenders.

Chef: Art Smith

Smith prepared Obama's meal at Oprah Winfrey's star-studded fund-raiser for the candidate at her home. He has won two James Beard Foundation Awards and has cooked for former Florida governors Bob Graham and Jeb Bush.

Current Job: Winfrey's personal chef for the past decade. Owner of Chicago's Table Fifty-Two.

Signature Style: Smith is a proponent of organic foods and fresh local fruits and vegetables. His signature dish is pistachio-crusted chicken breast with coconut-ginger-chili sauce, lo mein noodles and string vegetables.

Chef: Rick Bayless

When Obama and his wife, Michelle, head out for a night in Chicago, they opt for Bayless' Topolobampo.

Current Job: Owner of Chicago Mexican restaurants Topolobampo and Frontera Grill.

Signature Dish: Bayless founded his high-end Mexican restaurants to prove that genuine Mexican cooking can be as sophisticated as French and Italian. His grilled skirt steak tacos with caramelized onions are a favorite.

Chef: Daniel Young

Young cooked for Obama at the Democratic National Convention.

Current Job: Personal chef to Denver Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony.

Signature Style: Young is a fan of using spices to bring out the flavor in low-calorie dishes. His signature dish is seafood stew with crab-stuffed chicken breasts.

http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/food/2008/11/09/2008-11-09_chef_executive_three_cooks_in_the_runnin.html