Firstly, please don’t laugh at my effort. OK you can as I’m not with you. I’m not American as you may know but I am incredibly excited about the upcoming inauguration and the Presidency of Barack Obama. Just because we can’t vote and don’t live in the country doesn’t mean that the significance and magnitude of this event is lost on people throughout the world. I was so excited that I wanted to do something to commemorate it and of course the best way I know how it by making food.
My husband, the brilliant ideas man (who also came up with the idea of a Pocky forest) came up with this idea. I ruminated over it for ages. How would it work? I’m terrible at drawing real people, only being able to drawn cartoon like version of people and I didn’t want it to be silly or a joke. So after contemplating it for a while, I decided to give it a go. Even if it didn’t work out, it would still be edible.
Mise en place
I knew which picture I wanted to use, street artist Shepard Fairey’s famous Hope poster. After all it was a fantastic poster and shaded in well so it seemed to do the job. I should mention in google searching it I also saw a “Dope” poster for George W. Bush and a “Nope” poster for John McCain. I would’ve used ricotta cheese for John Mc Cain’s hair I think.
Believe me when I say that I am no artist (that much is obvious). So I did what anyone else would have done in this situation and called my parents in a frantic state. My dad is a portrait painter so I knew that he would be able to steer me in the right direction shape wise. And like all good parents do, they hopped in the car and came over (my dad not even complaining once about having to cross the dreaded Sydney Harbour Bridge-he must’ve sensed the desperation). Using a copy of the picture, my dad initially “sketched” the outline and we filled it in with the assortment of toppings I had ready in bowls.
The first section out of the oven
I can’t say that we will be winning any awards for our efforts, in fact I think it looks more like a cross between Barack Obama and Abraham Lincoln, but I like to think that we did our very best (and I’m still not sure what happened to his right ear). It’s a little hard to do skin tones (i thought the cheese might melt to a more golden brown shade) and shadows with just one type of cheese too and if you’ve ever wondered how hard it is to render someone in a pizza, let me assure you that it’s very hard indeed! So Barack and Michelle, I hope you can forgive what we’ve done to Barack and take the spirit and enthusiasm we felt instead.
And I don’t usually do this but Not Quite Nigella has been nominated in two categories for Well Fed Network’s awards! Thankyou so much for the wonderful people that nominated me 
And if you would like to vote you can do so on:
Best Food Blog – Post (for my Freeganism story)
Best Food Blog – City
Lots of love and happiness,
Lorraine aka NQN
xxx
P.S. As well as the wonderful blogs that have linked to me, the Sydney Morning Herald also featured my Obama Pizza on their homepage and in a gallery!
The Barack Obama Inauguration Pizza
The following instructions are for a home based oven ie.e one where the whole pizza needs to be broken up into 3 parts. If you somehow have access to a giant pizza oven and a giant turner then all the easier.
Basic Pizza Dough
Original recipe taken from “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice” by Peter Reinhart.
Makes 3 pizza crusts (enough for this pizza).
Ingredients
- 4 1/2 Cups (20 1/4 ounces/607.5 g) Unbleached high-gluten (%14) bread flour or all purpose flour, chilled (I used 3 1/2 cups plain flour and 1 cup of wholemeal flour)
- 1 3/4 Tsp Salt
- 1 Tsp Instant yeast
- 1/4 Cup (2 ounces/60g) Olive oil or vegetable oil (both optional, but it’s better with)
- 1 3/4 Cups (14 ounces/420g or 420ml) Water, ice cold (40° F/4.5° C)
- 1 Tb sugar
- Semolina/durum flour or cornmeal for dusting
- 3 large rectangular baking trays of the same size lined with baking parchment
- Toppings of your choice. I used minced beef with African seasoning, grated cheese, corn, pepperoni, sliced ham, tomato pizza sauce and spring onions.
DAY ONE
Method:
1. Mix together the flour, salt and instant yeast in a big bowl (or in the bowl of your stand mixer). Place in fridge to chill.
2. Add the oil, sugar and cold water and mix well (with the help of a large wooden spoon or with the paddle attachment, on low speed) in order to form a sticky ball of dough. If you are using an electric mixer, switch to the dough hook and mix on medium speed for about 5 minutes.The dough should clear the sides of the bowl but stick to the bottom of the bowl. If the dough is too wet, sprinkle in a little more flour, so that it clears the sides. If, on the contrary, it clears the bottom of the bowl, dribble in a teaspoon or two of cold water. The finished dough should be springy, elastic, and sticky, not just tacky, and register 50°-55° F/10°-13° C.
3. Flour a work surface or counter. Line a large container (with a lid) with baking paper/parchment on the bottom and side. Lightly oil the paper.
4. With the help of a metal or plastic dough scraper, cut the dough into 3 equal pieces. To avoid the dough from sticking to the scraper, dip the scraper into water between cuts.
5. Sprinkle some flour over the dough. Make sure your hands are dry and then flour them. Gently round each piece into a ball. If the dough sticks to your hands, then dip your hands into the flour again.
6. Transfer the dough balls to the container and brush the tops with oil. Place lid on container.
7. Put the container into the refrigerator and let the dough rest overnight or for up to thee days.
DAY TWO
8. On the day you plan to eat pizza, an hour or two before you make it, remove all 6 balls from the refrigerator. After 2 hours, dust the counter with flour. Hvae your baking tray with baking parchment or pizza stone ready. Take a ball and place on a floured surface and sprinkle them with flour. Dust your hands with flour on all sides (even the backs of your hands). Shape the dough into the shape of the rectangualr baking sheet. The dough may want to spring back into place in whcih case rest it for 5-10 minutes before stretching it a bit further (gently, don’t break it) until it reaches the edges of the baking tray.
9. Repeat with the remaining 2 dough balls for the next 2 trays so that you have a total of 3 bases. Preheat the oven to 220° C
10. Have all of your toppings ready. Using a modelling tool or a bluntish knife like a butter knife as opposed to your sharpest knife, trace the picture of Obama (using a black and white copy and dividing the image into 3 is easiest). I used a mix of grated cheese for skin, minced beef for hair and outline, pepperoni for the jacket, sliced ham for accents, corn for a tie and spring onions for the word “HOPE” and dimples. I also painted the background with tomato pizza sauce and a brush.
11. Bake in an oven for 10 minutes per pizza base.
12. Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly. Line each third up against each other-you may need to trim the edges of the pizzas so that they line up. Also I found that doing it in thirds meant that proportions were slightly wrong so we trimmed the pizza so that his face wasn’t as long. Enjoy!
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109 Comments | Add your own
You did an amazing job! Very creative and well done.
How great! My girl friends and I are going to lunch tomorrow to celebrate and then I’m having a party on Sunday to celebrate. He has so much to live up to. I hope he can rise to the challenge!
That is FABULOUS!! How handy having your Dad’s artist skills at the ready. I’m a journalist so starting veeeery early for inauguration day (yuk!) …. but we’re having a lil obama party to lift our spirits after waking before the crack of dawn.
So cute!
I have been reading your blog for a few months now and I throughly enjoy it. I think that you did an amazing job with your pizza. I can bet you that it will be all over the web.
You and your father are quite talented. Of course credit also goes to your husband, what a creative lot you are.
Oh wow, you have absolutely made my day!
Excellent work, I’m always playing around with things like that for the kids. Although I could not help but notice it looks remarkably like Martin Landau.
Keep up the good work
This is great!
I love it! You are a genius and quite possibly a screwball but your heart is absolutely in the right place! PS: are you going to eat him before or after the inauguration?
Wow. I think that’s a spectacular effort. Very cool. I love the use of the shallots too!
Awesome pizza.
I think it’s so sweet that you celebrated in that way.
Haha, that is awesome! It’s nice to see all the excitement about the inauguration – hopefully this is a new, brighter chapter in America’s history.
I love it!! Go Barack. Go NotQuiteNigella!. Did you see the Krispy Kreme coffee?
http://www.alleatenup.com/Home/tabid/133/EntryId/31/Coffee-Mr-President.aspx
Lorraine,
This is fabulous! Your creativity and talent is astounding.
Oooh this is SO COOL. I love it! I’ve seen many Obama cupcakes, especially during the elections, but this is the first pizza I’ve seen!
Did you manage to finish all 3 pizzas in one go?
Hi NQN, what a brilliant and creative effort to commemorate this historic occasion! Yes you can indeed! Well done
This pizza is absolutely amazing! It looks just like soon-to-be President Obama – and is ever so clever because it is made entirely of foodstuffs. I am sure that the great man himself would love it!
NQN, this is amazing!!
You are brilliant!
This American’s laughing because you are so cool. I love this! Thanks for sharing our joy.
Lorraine that’s awesome! Are you staying up tonight to watch the official ceremony? I’m debating whether I can work on no sleep tomorrow – it’s at 3:25am!
Well, he is a delicious man… A bush pizza wouldn’t sound as good
Ooh, you are amazing, Lorraine! I hope Prez Obama appreciates your efforts on this momentous occasion (will be on listening to his inauguration speech for a mention of NQN).
That is hilarious! Love it!
Total food art! You’re so creative!
Fantastic pizza – now we know where you get your creativity from! Am sure obama would love a slice
Very creative and an impressive likeness!
Love it Lorraine! I think you did an amazing job replicating that image
PS. Saw your mention in Good Living – nice work!
Wow, that is so cool. You are quite talented! I have no artistic ability whatsoever.
Obama would be proud to eat this ! And, as a proud American, I applaud your efforts !! FABULOUS !! Thank you for sharing your heart all the way from the other side of the world ! I live 20 mins west of the White House, and am so excited for tomorrow’s inauguration !
Thank GOD ! Miracles happen everyday !
The resemblance is incredible, nice work!
It tickles me to see all the President Obama related foods & drinks popping up on the internet. I’ve seen cakes, sandwiches drinks.. but your pizza is the most creative & thoughtful of the bunch.
Extra special since you’re not from the US. Thank you for sharing the hope of our new President, and believing in our ability to self correct our course from the last few years.
To the future!
Val
Amazing. I’m think Mr. Obama would be pleased at the resemblance to Lincoln. Thank you for making something awesome.
That is fantastic!! Good on you, love it!
This is actually quite a convincing image of Obama! The eye brows are spot on lol
Wouldn’t it make more sense to use the brown meat for his skin colour instead of the white cheese?
You are so fantastic!
Congratulations to your great combined artistic creation as a homage to Obama who gives hope to our Earth’s future survival! Congratulations to your husband’s brilliant idea, your dad’s portrait painting skills and to you Lorraine for your ability to put it together so beautifully!
This is awesome! lol, i can’t begin to imagine how long you spent adjusting the positioning of his facial features!
Amazing!! I love it!
This is an amazing job!! Well done!! I’m speechless…
wow you re a genius . this looks so much like him its a pity eating it
Brilliant!!
Hi everyone! First of all thankyou so much for your really lovely comments, messages and emails. You really made my day! I actually considered not putting it up as I wasn’t sure how good a resemblance it was but I am so glad that I did! It’s like getting a whole bunch of bear hugs and I do love hugs
We had the pizza last night as tonight was a bit hectic but we still have 1/3 of the pizza to go so perhaps I’ll have some of that tomorrow.
I can’t wait to wake up tomorrow (the inauguration is on at 3.12am Sydney time) to hear all about it and of course I’m taping it
Happy happy days for America and the world!
PS yes also chuffed for my mention in Good Living thanks
If anyone is interested it’s here. There’s no mention of the blog though…ah well!
Lots of love and hugs,
Lorraine/NQN
xxx
Love it! This is too funny! I admire your patience and talente!
absolutely awesome job!
very creative – i was blown away!
Hee hee this is awesome! I rkn a cheese face is the best kind of face mmmmmmmmmmm
i have no words…
i think that you should get honorary citizenship just for this! awesome…
That’s crazy and spectacular. It totally looks like him! Kudos to your husband for the great idea
Fantastic! I love it! I made OOObama bars and cupcakes to celebrate.
you are SO clever and creative.
that being said, i’d start by eating the hair first.
I love it! Very creative.
Amazing! What an exciting day.
It’s fantastic, Lorraine! You even got the ears right
I didn’t realise on first glance that it was made from three pizzas! I can’t believe you got it all to line up so nicely. Well done, and I’m sure Obama would love it if he saw it! (I’m also quite certain that his press team will see it.)
This is genius! A good laugh for the morning, but also adorable.
No laughing here…it’s really quite impressive!
Now that’s a lot of effort to go to for a new president!
I’m blown away by the amount of good feeling his election has created.
Obama Pizza! lol… I love it! I am blown away by this…wish I would have seen this post yesterday, as I would have made it for Inauguration Day today. As it is, I don’t have all the necessary ingredients on hand, and not much time to run to the store
nevertheless, this is the best Inauguration Pizza I have ever seen!
I did have to chuckle, just because… well, it is a Barack Obama Pizza. Amazing job pulling it all together!
Very cool! I am completely impressed with your artistic ability. Also great to know that the whole world is celebrating this historic event!
I love your pizza, it did make me smile! I have already voted for you. Good luck
Wow what a great tribute! I hope someone forwards your post onto him:-)
Aww you did a great job Lorraine (and Lorraine’s dad!!).
I too am excited by the possibilities that the new President will bring, and I’m an Aussie too!
I think it just gives us all hope
wow. how cool is your pizza. I’m an aussie living in SF, and while I can’t vote yet, it’s an amazing feeling being here. great job. And congrats, on your nominations.
I knew your pizza would make it onto the web!
http://www.seriouseats.com/index2.html
Been seeing it around the blogs even before I got to you post on reader… Great job
You’re now on the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald site! They’ve got a photo gallery of “Obamaphemera” and your pizza is the first pic. Congratulations!
Long time reader first time commenting
I hope this works
http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/2009/01/21/1232471378455.html
Strangely I feel proud that you are so famous now!!
NQN asked “Can I make an Obama pizza”? and the answer is YES I CAN! Well done doll
Hi everyone! I was so happy when I watched the footage of the inauguration this morning (and afternoon). I’m so happy that it made it onto the SMH website
Wow! Thanks so much for letting me know Kris and Bling! I wouldn’t have known about it otherwise 
I really do hope he sees it -somehow, somewhere! I think he gives everyone hope, not just for the future and the economy but hope for what people can achieve too.
Thanks too for the congrats on the nomination and for voting too!
Lots of love and hugs,
Lorraine
xxx
WOW ! How did u do it? that is some work of art! i am going to save this:-)
Hi Lorraine, I think I saw Lincoln instead Obama, ha ha.
Should put more minced meat to make it look like Obama?
I think your husband would grab the head if it got more meat
I saw your photo on the right side now, not a shy food blogger anymore?
http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/2009/01/21/1232471378455.html
ypu featured on smh today
You also made it onto The Age in Melbourne yesterday, but I cant find the link now
I posted the pic of your pizza on my site and linked it back to you…I hope that’s alright! If not just let me know and I’ll take it down
hey!
its me on the pizza!
gimmi back!
Hi Soma-Thankyou so much!
Hi Lilia-Thanks for your comment-a friend and other have pointed out that Obama is a fan of Lincolns so perhaps he wouldn’t mind!
Hi Emily-Thanks for the link!
Hi Maria-That’s cool, thanks for letting me know. A friend emailed me the link
Hi Alexandra-Oh cool, thankyou so much and I don’t mind at all. Thanks again!
Hi putyin-Haha errrm ok!
I hope Obama will end up being as great as he looks on your pizza.
I wonder who you will feature next on your super special pizza?!
Congratulations on making on the SMH!
Hi Maria-Thankyou so much!
I don’t know about another one, it was so hard. But perhaps I need some practice 
What a superb effort!! It really looks like him and what a great idea too!!
Hi Dharm-Thankyou, that’s so nice of you to say!
Wow- fantastic. You do know that you could create a blog solely made out of pictures of celebrities/politicians’ faces in pizza form, right?
Hi Libby-Thankyou so much!
Hehe that would be fun indeed!
Didn’t I see that on the cover of TIME magazine? Amazing!
Hi maris-Hehe thankyou so much!
I think you are really good. You invented this! Great work! What an inspiration!
Hi Sophie-Thankyou so much! That’s very kind of you to say!
We would like to include your Hope Pizza recipe and a photo on our new website of Obama family recipes.
Your pizza recipe would be eligible to be one of 50 recipes included in our upcoming book, “Recipes for Change, Fifty Delicious Submissions to ObamaFamilyRecipes.com”, that should be published this Summer.
We are a disabled veteran owned web site.
Thanks,
Howard.
Hi Howard-That’s really wonderful, thankyou
That’s absolutely fine, if you could credit me as Lorraine Elliott Not Quite Nigella and give me a link back I’d be happy for you to use it 
An Obama Pizza! Awesome and creative :3
I wonder what does it taste like? I think it will be delicious. Unique Shape of pizza, too.
Hi Kitsune-Kun-Thanks! It tasted quite good although some areas just had one topping on it so perhaps not ideal but more for looks sake
i didn’t see this post the first time around. fantastic. i love his corn collar and pepperoni jacket.
so cool that you were on smh as well.
Hi reddoorred-Thanks so much! I was so happy to make it onto the SMH too
You never cease to amaze! Well done. x
Uhhh This is hilarious, and tasty at the same time. I’m not sure I would have the words “Hope” under him, but we’ll see..
-Sylvia
Hi lulu-Thankyou darling!
Hi Sylvia-Ahh not a fan!
you’re very creative!
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