In Your Face, America

Quote :

Obamas fly in chef 860 miles... just to make pizza

By Mail Foreign Service
Last updated at 12:37 PM on 10th April 2009

When you're the president of the United States, only the best pizza will do - even if that means flying a chef 860 miles.

Chris Sommers, 33, jetted into Washington from St Louis, Missouri, on Thursday with a suitcase of dough, cheese and pans to to prepare food for the Obamas and their staff.

He had apparently been handpicked after the President had tasted his pizzas on the campaign trail last autumn.
Chris Sommers and Obamas

Great honour: Chris Sommers will make 20 pizzas for the Obamas and their staff at a White House dinner

'It's surreal, it's a huge honour,' said Mr Sommers, who owns Pi restaurant in St Louis.

'It will be a casual lunch and hopefully we'll have a chance to say hello to the president.'

Mr Somers was accompanied by this business parnter Ryan Mangilardo who will help prepare the dinner for 140 this evening.

It will feature his signature dishes - ten deep dish and ten thin crust creations.

He is also planning a pizza especially for the president - the Hyde Park topped with chicken and hot sauce.

Ahh yes....the latest outrage now being discussed vehemently on Planet Wingnuttia. Almost as funny as the wingnut's reaction over Obama's greeting to the Saudi king.

Artie60438 wrote:

Ahh yes....the latest outrage now being discussed vehemently on Planet Wingnuttia. Almost as funny as the wingnut's reaction over Obama's greeting to the Saudi king.

Well Artie, I have to admit this really is over the top and especially in an economy such as we have. When I heard this story on the news I was ticked off! Obama may be doing a good job in other areas but things like this will not help his cause. Shame on him!

Party,Do we even know if the government is paying for this? For all we know the pizza owner could have paid for the trip on his own. He previously offered to deliver frozen pizzas. He could write this off as a business expense while getting huge PR for his restaurant.

Quote :

The US President got a taste for Chris Sommers’ pizza while campaigning in St Louis, Missouri, last year.

After Mr Obama’s election win, Chris offered to deliver frozen pizzas to the White House but was told he couldn’t because of security concerns.

So he took 20lb of dough and three gallons of sauce to Washington.

Chris was due to cook lunch at the White House yesterday, reported People.com. He said: “It’s surreal. It’s a huge honour.”

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2372287.ece?OTC-RSS&ATTR=News

No actually we don't know. If the cook did this all on his own then, okay. I guess I should have waited to pass judgement until we find out for sure who paid for this.

A roundtrip flight from St Louis to DC costs all of $200. If these are the best issues the right can come up with they're going to continue to be irrelevant for a long,long,time.

The White House has never had guest chefs before?

KarenT

though shall not question the saviour

Bill B wrote:

though shall not question the saviour

Or, if you're going to, choose to criticize something that might actually have a measurable impact on the economy and this country. I could only wish these were the kind of complaints I'd had with our previous President.

BigWhiteGuy wrote:

The story says."Obamas fly in chef 860 miles... just to make pizza". The implication is is being paid for by Mr. Taxpayer.

Yeah, well the fact is, it's being paid by the chef.

http://www.fox2now.com/ktvi-obama-delmar-loop-st-louis-pizza-040809,0,2615874.story?track=rss

Quote :

Owners of a St. Louis restaurant called Pi are visiting the White House Friday to prepare a pizza meal for President Obama and his family. Restaurant owner Chris Sommers says Pi's chefs got a chance to make pizza for Obama last October when he was in town for a rally at the Gateway Arch. Reggie Love, now a top aide to the president, called Sommers and the then-senator got on the phone to say the pizza was the best he'd ever eaten.

The White House communications office on Wednesday confirmed the visit. Sommers says he is picking up the expenses.

Looks like it's time for a retraction, my friend.

I wrote:

I could only wish these were the kind of complaints I'd had with our previous President.

A man can dream, eh?

BigWhiteGuy wrote:

Scorpion wrote:

BigWhiteGuy wrote:

The story says."Obamas fly in chef 860 miles... just to make pizza". The implication is is being paid for by Mr. Taxpayer.

Yeah, well the fact is, it's being paid by the chef.

http://www.fox2now.com/ktvi-obama-delmar-loop-st-louis-pizza-040809,0,2615874.story?track=rss

Quote :

Owners of a St. Louis restaurant called Pi are visiting the White House Friday to prepare a pizza meal for President Obama and his family. Restaurant owner Chris Sommers says Pi's chefs got a chance to make pizza for Obama last October when he was in town for a rally at the Gateway Arch. Reggie Love, now a top aide to the president, called Sommers and the then-senator got on the phone to say the pizza was the best he'd ever eaten.

The White House communications office on Wednesday confirmed the visit. Sommers says he is picking up the expenses.

Looks like it's time for a retraction, my friend.

Sorry, I don't believe everything I see on T.V. Why would the White House communications office make it a point to say Sommers is picking up the expenses?

I think the White House wants to make it clear that tax payer dollars are not being used to fly a chef from St. Louis to DC to make pizzas for one night. A better question is whether it plausible that the White House would lie about an easily verifiable fact?

BigWhiteGuy wrote:

Scorpion wrote:

BigWhiteGuy wrote:

The story says."Obamas fly in chef 860 miles... just to make pizza". The implication is is being paid for by Mr. Taxpayer.

Yeah, well the fact is, it's being paid by the chef.

http://www.fox2now.com/ktvi-obama-delmar-loop-st-louis-pizza-040809,0,2615874.story?track=rss

Quote :

Owners of a St. Louis restaurant called Pi are visiting the White House Friday to prepare a pizza meal for President Obama and his family. Restaurant owner Chris Sommers says Pi's chefs got a chance to make pizza for Obama last October when he was in town for a rally at the Gateway Arch. Reggie Love, now a top aide to the president, called Sommers and the then-senator got on the phone to say the pizza was the best he'd ever eaten.

The White House communications office on Wednesday confirmed the visit. Sommers says he is picking up the expenses.

Looks like it's time for a retraction, my friend.

Sorry, I don't believe everything I see on T.V. Why would the White House communications office make it a point to say Sommers is picking up the expenses?

Wow. This is a story from before the visit. The communications office confirmed the visit.

Sommers indicated that he was picking up the expense.

Here's another story, after the chef returned home.

http://www.bnd.com/breaking_news/story/726665.html

Quote :

A St. Louis pizzeria was packed Saturday. A lot of people wanted to try the pizza the President picked. The owner of Pi's Pizza in the Delmar Loop, Chris Sommers, returned from Washington D.C. Saturday morning. Friday he served up his version of Chicago style pizza to President Obama and more than 100 guests.

Lori Borrows was in town from Chicago. She stopped by to sample the pizza. She says the pizza must be good if President Obama, a Chicago native, enjoys it so much.

Sommers says his secret to the Chicago style pizza is corn meal. President Obama first tried the pizza during a campaign stop. He liked it so much, he called Sommers to compliment the meal.

Sommers says he was planning to be in Washington D.C. to visit his girlfriend's family so he offered to stop by with the pizza.

Heretic wrote:

I could only wish these were the kind of complaints I'd had with our previous President.

Man, ain't that the truth! And what's really funny is that the Obama haters have stooped to actually manufacturing phony stories like this one.

BigWhiteGuy wrote:

Scorpion wrote:

http://www.fox2now.com/ktvi-obama-delmar-loop-st-louis-pizza-040809,0,2615874.story?track=rss

Quote :

Owners of a St. Louis restaurant called Pi are visiting the White House Friday to prepare a pizza meal for President Obama and his family. Restaurant owner Chris Sommers says Pi's chefs got a chance to make pizza for Obama last October when he was in town for a rally at the Gateway Arch. Reggie Love, now a top aide to the president, called Sommers and the then-senator got on the phone to say the pizza was the best he'd ever eaten.

The White House communications office on Wednesday confirmed the visit. Sommers says he is picking up the expenses.

Looks like it's time for a retraction, my friend.

Sorry, I don't believe everything I see on T.V. Why would the White House communications office make it a point to say Sommers is picking up the expenses?

Because of wingnut blog sites that promoted this crap,and people like yourself that decided to run with it, despite the fact that they had no idea of who was footing the bill.

BigWhiteGuy wrote:

Don't you think that some guy in Ames, Iowa with a family of four kids, whose unemployment just ran out would like the money blown on flying pizza chefs to the White House?

Redistribution of the wealth???