Obama Food Headlines: The 3,000-Calorie-Plus Inaugural Lunch + a Lincoln Inaugural Food Fight

Eli's Cheesecake

Eli's in Chicago crafts a 500-lb. cheesecake for the Staff Inaugural Ball

President Obama is a firm advocate of universal healthcare. He cares about gun control. He's passionate about seizing moments together. He does not, however, seem to care about calorie-counting. And, despite her anti-obesity campaign and her hipster bangs, neither, apparently, does First Lady Michelle Obama.

As Fox News points out, today's Inaugural Luncheon menu weighs in at a hefty 3,027 calories, not including the wine, as calculated by the website DietsInReview. There isn't even a bacon milkshake involved. There is, however, lobster with clam chowder sauce and hickory-grilled bison with red potato horseradish cake. Dessert is, of course, apple pie with sour cream ice cream, topped with maple caramel sauce. And just to be really classy and Frenchified, the whole thing is topped off with an artisan cheese plate with fancy honey.

See the full menu, with links to recipes provided by the White House, plus details of the 500-lb. cheesecake being served tomorrow night and an epic Lincoln Second Inaugural feasting frenzy, after the jump.

The menu for Obama's Second Inaugural Luncheon:

First Course: Steamed Lobster With New England Clam Chowder Sauce

Lobster tails

New England clam chowder sauce

Sauteed spinach

Sweet potato hay
(Per serving: calories 783, fat 45.7 grams, saturated fat 16 grams, cholesterol 247 milligrams, sodium 1,819 milligrams, carbohydrates 55 grams, dietary fiber 7.5 grams, sugar 14 grams, protein 29 grams)

Second Course: Hickory-Grilled Bison With Red Potato Horseradish Cake and Wild Huckleberry Reduction

Bison
Butternut squash puree

Baby golden beets and green beans

Red potato horseradish cake

Strawberry preserve and red cabbage

Wild huckleberry reduction
(Per serving: calories 1,184, fat 34.6 grams, saturated fat 16 grams, cholesterol 177 milligrams, sodium 7,445 milligrams, carbohydrates 149 grams, dietary fiber 16.7 grams, sugar 97.2 grams, protein 51 grams)

Third Course: Hudson Valley Apple Pie With Sour Cream Ice Cream,
Aged Cheese and Honey

Pie dough (editor's note: duh)

Cinnamon crumble

Apples

Sour cream ice cream

Maple caramel sauce

Garnish

Artisan cheeses
(Per serving: calories 1,060, fat 64.4 grams, saturated fat 39 grams, cholesterol 331 milligrams, sodium 488 milligrams, carbohydrates 108.5 grams, dietary fiber 1.7 grams, sugar 75 grams, protein 14 grams)

Total nutritional counts (not including wine pairings): calories 3,027, fat 145 grams, saturated fat 71 grams (49% of fat), sodium 9,752 milligrams, total carbs 312.5 grams, sugar 186.2 grams (59% of carbs)

Wine Selections for any course:

Tierce Finger Lakes Dry Riesling
2010
 Korbel Natural, Special Inaugural Cuvée Champagne, California

Bedell Cellars Merlot 2009

Hey, it's only once every four years. If you want to try to replicate the lunch at home, the White House has provided all of the recipes.

And if that's not enough calories for you, wait until the Staff Inaugural Ball tomorrow night, where Lady Gaga's presence will be eclipsed by a 500-pound cheesecake from Eli's Cheesecake in Chicago. The massive confection will be topped with a replica of the Capitol Dome. The three-tiered cake, created at Eli's Chicago headquarters, will be covered with 100 pounds of buttercream frosting and decorated with gold stars, the blue presidential eagle and the inaugural seal. The layers will alternate between plain and chocolate chip.

Crafting the monster cheesecake takes 155 pounds of cream cheese, 50 pounds of butter, 45 pounds of sugar, 40 pounds of sour cream, 20 pounds of flour, 15 pounds of chocolate chips, 5 pounds of powdered sugar, 20 dozen eggs and two cups of Madagascar vanilla -- in addition to the 100 pounds of buttercream frosting.

One hundred pounds of buttercream frosting. We'll just let that sink in for a moment.

Finally, NPR reports that the Smithsonian has uncovered the menu for President Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural ball, proving that the more things change, the more things, uh, change.

Highlights of the French cuisine-based 1865 "Bill of Fare" include smoked tongue in gelee, pickled oysters, terrapin (i.e. turtle) soup and burnt almond ice cream. The meat-heavy buffet selection also included pheasant, quail, turkey, chicken, grouse, venison, ham, beef prepared four different ways, veal, foie gras and calfsfoot-and-wine jelly. Thirty-one desserts were served, including 10 different kinds of cake, six flavors of ice cream, three flavors of fruit ices and eight "ornamental pyramides" of candies, cookies and petit fours.

Unfortunately, according to Smithsonian Magazine writer Megan Gambino, "The buffet table was meant to only serve 300 people at a time, but everyone sort of rushed at once."

"Men would go over to the buffet table and they'd fill a tray of food to bring back to their dates and their friends. And they'd maybe hoist it above the rest of the crowd ... The food just slopped all over the floor and probably over people," she told NPR.

The Washington Evening Star reported at the time: "The floor of the supper room was soon sticky, pasty and oily with wasted confections, mashed cake and debris of foul and meat."

Now that's a party!

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