Whether breakdancing, blogging, breaking bread, or throwing down with the Food Network’s Bobby Flay, Father Leo Patalinghug never fails to impress.
The Catholic priest, a faculty member at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Md., will bring this wealth of experience and insight to St. Michael the Archangel Regional School auditorium in Clayton, on Saturday morning, March 13.
Father Patalinghug, who has his own blog, “Grace Before Meals,” which includes “webisodes” of his own cooking show, will speak to families and children from the parishes of Church of the Nativity, Franklinville and St. Catherine of Siena, Clayton, who are preparing for their first Holy Communion. He will speak of the heavenly food shared at church, the food families share at home within the “domestic church,” and the “food” that Catholics can offer, to those hungry and thirsty seeking God.
Born in the Phillipines, Father Patalinghug first noticed the power that cooking had to bring people together, when he spent time in his family’s kitchen, watching his mother and grandmother cook Filipino dishes.
Later, while a seminarian studying at Rome’s North American College, he and his fellow students would invite cooks from local Italian restaurants to visit them, and students and chefs would swap recipes and cooking techniques.
Ordained in 1999, his cooking prowess gaining recognition among his fellow priests, and, in 2001 it was suggested that Father Patalinghug start his own priest cooking show. After being connected with a producer and production company who felt the same way, “Grace Before Meals” began, with the priest showing how to prepare such foods as fried plantain with vanilla ice cream, bourbon barbecue salmon salad, and pumpkin pasta with chicken and spinach.
With occasional blog entries and his cooking show, Father Patalinghug stresses family time in the kitchen, as he writes on his site that “nothing creates a better environment for a great conversation than time shared in the kitchen … to know that there can be the one place in the home where parents and teens can learn about each other and share confidences.”
Last year, while filming a cooking segment for the Food Network on what he thought would be about his show, he was surprised by celebrity chef Bobby Flay, who challenged him to a “throwdown” to see who could make the best steak fajitas, as judged by a local Baltimore food columnist, and a Baltimore chef.
Airing Sept. 9, the impromptu episode of “Throwdown! With Bobby Flay” ended with Father Patalinghug emerging victorious.
Among Father Patalinghug’s other talents include taekwondo, in which he holds a black belt, and breakdancing, for which he won numerous competitions in the 1980s.
Today, at Mount St. Mary’s, when not cooking, he directs the Pastoral Field Education Program for Future Priests.
Although the March 13 talk is primarily for families, it is also open to anyone interested. E-mail Dr. Kevin Laughlin at kevinl@eticomm.net for more information, or to reserve a seat.
To visit Father Patalinghug’s website and watch his cooking shows, sign up for free, weekly e-mails full of cooking tips and recipes, or to order his book, “Grace Before Meals: Recipes For Family Life,” visit www.gracebeforemeals.com.
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