Campaign-era nostalgia during Roosevelt Room lunch...President Obama is a pizza lover, and White House staffers had a special pizza lunch today courtesy of three guest chefs flown in from St. Louis, Missouri. Ryan Mangialardo, Chris Sommers, and Anne Schuermann of Pi restaurant cooked their special Barack-Beloved pizzas in a cameo role in the White House kitchen, overseen by Food Initiative Coordinator Sam Kass. It follows pizza being in the spotlight during the Inauguration, when pies from an Obama hometown fave, Chicago's Italian Fiesta Pizzeria, got much attention. (Above: Staffers sample Pi's pies in the Roosevelt room; Chef Sommers is in white; Senior advisor Valerie Jarret is in purple)
The White House pizza menu...
Ten deep dish pizzas and ten with thin-crust were served in the Roosevelt Room, including several of Pi's regular menu items: The pesto-flavored East Loop, the vegetarian Berkeley and the Bucktown, which is topped with roasted chicken. There was also a custom pizza — the Hyde Park — which had Buffalo wings hot sauce, made specially for the President, who is a hot sauce obsessive ("Absolutely always," is the famous Obama hot sauce quote).
Pi has been open in St. Louis for a little more than a year, but co-owner Sommers, 33, was a huge early adopter of Obama during Election Season, and first met then-Senator Obama in 2007, at a private fundraiser in Ladue. Later, he hosted campaign staffers at his St. Louis home, and became palsy with Obama bodyman Reggie Love.When candidate Obama returned to St. Louis in October
'08 for a monster campaign event that brought more than 80,000 supporters to the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, Love, in his constant role as Obama Food Provider, suggested Pi for lunch. Obama loved the pizza so much that he called Sommers to thank him personally.
After the candidate's November win, the Pi menu featured a commemorative pizza — the Broccoli O'Bama — to celebrate. Sommers has referred to the experience of being invited to make his pizzas at the White House as "incredible" and "surreal." It's quite an honor, and also part of the ongoing Obama campaign to make the White House a more "accessible" and "open" place. Unrelated, but amusing: Delmar Boulevard, the street the restaurant is located on, was honorarily designated Barack Obama Boulevard earlier this year by St. Louis aldermen.
Pi in the sky...
Pi co-owner Ryan Mangialardo, 27, told St. Louis Today that they'd try to fly in their own dough and sauce for today's pizza-stravaganza, but the chefs wound up making the pizza at the White House, due to security issues. They left for Washington late yesterday. And in case you're wondering--the pizza party is completely on Pi's dime. The trio paid their own travel expenses, they're not getting paid to cook at the White House, and they're paying for whatever ingredients they bring along.When you're given the honor of cooking for the President and his family, you pay for it yourself. Anne Schuermann, by the way, the Pi-zza co-chef who is also cookin' at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, is Sommers's girlfriend, and works at Pi (in pic).
The Political Angle: Pi Is Low Carbon, Organic and Sustainable
Another reason the Pi triumvirate are taking a star turn at the White House: Pi is a model business run by young people, with a focus on what they refer to as an "environmentally benign" business model. Their responsible aesthetic is huge and across-the-board, from ingredient sourcing to mitigating pollution from their pizza ovens. (Pic above is from Sommers's Facebook page...)The aesthetic is laid out in detail on their website:
Through the use of post-consumer products [recyclable pizza boxes], locally grown and sustainable purchasing, significant carbon-offset purchases and wind-energy investment to mitigate pizza ovens and product shipping, elimination of bottled beer and bottled water, eco-friendly kitchen practices and conservation, reclaimed building materials and furniture, low-energy lighting and an active recycling program, Pi aims to be a green leader, setting an example for other restaurants, businesses, and consumers to minimize their carbon footprint.
So in one single White House pizza party, there's all kinds of hot-topic politics going on: Economic Stimulus, carbon off sets, alternative energy, local and sustainable food sourcing...it's swell that once again, the Obamas are not-so-subtly encouraging change.
*Photo of the President eating pizza, above, is archival; it's "Campaign Pizza" at American Dream Pizza in Corvalis, Oregon, in October of 2008.
*Top photo by Pete Souza/White House
Info: Pi is located at 6144 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, MO, 63112. Tel: 314.727.6633.
