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!
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