A few years ago I started collecting quirky cookbooks and books about food. One prized possession is a book by two Italians, Mariangela Rinaldi and Mariangela Vicini called Buon Appetito, Your Holiness: the Secrets of the Papal Table.
http://www.arcadepub.com/book/?GCOI=55970100093110
The book is a history of what popes have eaten since St Peter, but also includes some historical and biographical information about each Pope, their time in power and the society they ruled over.
Unsurprisingly, I particularly liked the section on Pope Joan, who does not feature among the official list of Popes but m,any argue was Pope nonetheless from 855-858. She, of course, posed as a man during that time, but was undone when she gave birth to a baby boy right in the middle of a religious procession, after which she was stoned to death.
Some say this was all a fabrication – there was no Pope Joan. Merely a story to dissuade cross dressing or women aspiring to the heights position in the Catholic Church?
According to Rinaldi and Vicini, Pope Joan loved exotic, flavoursome and spicy dishes and these elements are at work in one of the recipes they include in her section ‘Pope Joan’s Fruit Salad’ The salad contains, among other things, dried figs and dates, pistachios and walnuts, honey and kirsch served with yoghurt or whipped cream.
The book stops at John Paul II. His section includes a lot of polish dishes naturally.
What might a section on the current pope involve?
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0802029.htm
The story here above covers the menu for Pope Benedict’s 81th birthday, which sees him bypass German food for Italian cuisine from the Emilia-Romagna district of Italy.
This blog post from the US covers another dinner celebrating the Pope’s 81st birthday, less emphasis on Italian cuisine here.
http://www.cakehead.com/archives/2008/04/menu_suggestion.html
If I was cooking for Pope Benedict, I know exactly what I would serve him.
A piece of my mind.
http://www.arcadepub.com/book/?GCOI=55970100093110
The book is a history of what popes have eaten since St Peter, but also includes some historical and biographical information about each Pope, their time in power and the society they ruled over.
Unsurprisingly, I particularly liked the section on Pope Joan, who does not feature among the official list of Popes but m,any argue was Pope nonetheless from 855-858. She, of course, posed as a man during that time, but was undone when she gave birth to a baby boy right in the middle of a religious procession, after which she was stoned to death.
Some say this was all a fabrication – there was no Pope Joan. Merely a story to dissuade cross dressing or women aspiring to the heights position in the Catholic Church?
According to Rinaldi and Vicini, Pope Joan loved exotic, flavoursome and spicy dishes and these elements are at work in one of the recipes they include in her section ‘Pope Joan’s Fruit Salad’ The salad contains, among other things, dried figs and dates, pistachios and walnuts, honey and kirsch served with yoghurt or whipped cream.
The book stops at John Paul II. His section includes a lot of polish dishes naturally.
What might a section on the current pope involve?
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0802029.htm
The story here above covers the menu for Pope Benedict’s 81th birthday, which sees him bypass German food for Italian cuisine from the Emilia-Romagna district of Italy.
This blog post from the US covers another dinner celebrating the Pope’s 81st birthday, less emphasis on Italian cuisine here.
http://www.cakehead.com/archives/2008/04/menu_suggestion.html
If I was cooking for Pope Benedict, I know exactly what I would serve him.
A piece of my mind.
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