This chronicle tells the little or the big story behind our food, dishes or chefs. Powerful weapon soft power, A societal and cultural marker, food is the founding element of our civilizations. Conflicts, diplomacy, traditions, cuisine has always had a political dimension. Because, as Bossuet already said in the 17th century, “it is at the table that we govern”.
Few have had the chance to enter this timeless place where solemnity rubs shoulders with the sacred. On March 27, 2014, Barack Obama arrived in the Saint-Damase courtyard, in the very heart of the Vatican city, welcomed by the prefect of the pontifical household and the Swiss guards. The American president then enters the majestic apostolic palace and its bay windows which overlook 360 degrees of Saint Peter’s Square in Rome. A long stroll follows to the Pope’s library. It is in this immense room, with a simple desk and a few glass cabinets filled with old books, that Francis receives the leaders of the 180 countries with which the Holy See maintains diplomatic relations.
At the end of forty-five minutes of interview, it was time for the traditional gift giving. That day, Barack Obama held a strange box in his hands. Inside, fruit and vegetable seeds planted at the White House and intended for the gardens of the summer residence of the popes of Castel Gandolfo, built during the reign of Urban VIII (1623-1644) and located 25 kilometers from Rome.
At this location, there is a 25 hectare organic farm where all the wonders of Italy are produced every day, which end up on the table of His Holiness: the milk of Frisian cows from the origin of parmesan, the oil olives, citrus fruits, peppers, aromatic herbs and, of course, wine (for mass?), with its grape varieties such as malvasia or trebbiano… An agricultural paradise acquired by Pius XI in 1929 to underline the attachment from the Catholic Church to the rural world.
Yogurt, milk and olive oil produced in the organic farm of the summer residence of the sovereign pontiffs, in Castel Gandolfo, now open to tourists as a museum, since Pope Francis renounced it stay, in 2017.
© / AFP
The Pope’s environmentalist encyclical
This seemingly modest gift from Barack Obama is a clever nod to two well-established inclinations of the sovereign pontiff: agroecology and eating well. This three-star vegetable garden, which would make all the great chef-gardeners in the Michelin guide green with envy, fits perfectly with the image that François wishes to convey.
Not only did the “pope of the poor” choose not to make this grandiose residence his summer residence like the other heads of the Catholic Church and opened it to the public, but, moreover, he did not hesitate , when his schedule allows it, to come and have lunch on site with the fifty families who work there.
Consumerism, food self-sufficiency, short circuits, ecology… These notions, reserved a few years ago for activists, are now part of the papal vocabulary. In 2015, Francis published his second encyclical six months before the Paris climate conference. “Laudato si”, a clearly revolutionary text for a rather cautious institution, where the sovereign pontiff launches an appeal to the “powerful” to act as quickly as possible to save the planet. In one of the chapters, the Pope openly criticizes food waste which is estimated at 1 billion meals every day in the world in 2022, according to the UN. “Throwing away food is like stealing food from the poor man’s table,” he writes.
The carnal pleasure of food
The image of a committed pope also includes that of a more modern pope than his predecessors. What could be better than promoting the “carnal” pleasure of the table as opposed to the “bigotry” which has often prevailed within the Catholic institution. “The Church has condemned inhuman, crude, vulgar pleasure, but on the other hand it has always accepted human, sober, moral pleasure. […] The pleasure of eating serves to keep you in good health by eating, just as sexual pleasure is done to make love more beautiful and guarantee the perpetuation of the species,” he says in a book of interviews* published under the pen of Carlo Petrini, writer and founder of the Slow Food movement, created in the 1980s to oppose fast food.
But it would be dishonest to make François a simple paragon of communication. This son of Italian immigrants received an education in eating well from childhood. In the Bergoglio kitchen there is a sweet smell where the flavors of Italy and Argentina mingle: cappelletti with tomato sauce, Piedmontese risotto, stuffed squid, empanadas, matambre, a sort of meat roll typical of Argentina, and the essential pot of dulce de leche (milk jam), says journalist Roberto Alborghetti in a book**. L’asado, the meat roasting technique which is the pride of the South American continent, has no secrets for this boy who dreamed of becoming a butcher and who finally obtained a technician diploma in agri-food chemistry.
When he ascended to the highest office in the Church, his prestigious visitors did not miss an opportunity to offer him gourmet gifts. For her first meeting with Francis, in 2014, Queen Elizabeth of England gave him a wicker basket containing a sample of products from the royal estates, including a dozen eggs, honey and a bottle of whiskey!
He who tirelessly denounces the “economic colonialism” of multinationals turned out to be very helpless when, on December 30, 2016, a stone’s throw from an entrance to the Vatican City, the best known of them: McDonald’s, the planetary symbol of junk food. A restaurant rented by Apsa, the manager… of Vatican real estate.
An association for the defense of the historic district surrounding the Vatican and several cardinals – one of whom wrote to the Pope – may have tried everything to stop the lucrative rental of the establishment at nearly 30,000 euros per month, but nothing has happened. do. At this location, chicken burgers have replaced Roman artichokes. And as sovereign pontiff as he is, Francis could not perform a miracle.
Our reading tips:
A book of Italian cooking: In the kitchen. My most beautiful Italian recipes, by Pezone Alba (Hachette Pratique, 2017).
A book of Argentinian cuisine: Empanadas. Argentinian cuisine, by Enrique Zanoni and Gaston Stivelmaher (Marabout, 2023).
* The Earth of tomorrow. Dialogues with Pope Francis on integral ecology, by Carlo Petrini (Seuil, 2021).
** At the table of Pope Francis. His stories and recipes to give flavor to life, by Roberto Alborghetti (Bayard, 2018).
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