WHEATON, Maryland. A cooking priest, Fr. Leo Patalinghug, a Filipino American, won a fajita showdown with America’s “Iron Chef” Bobby Flay.
Fr. Leo’s fusion fajita – which incorporated Filipino, Mexican and American flavors – was declared the winner in an episode of “Throwdown with Bobby Flay” which is shown in the highly rated Food Network.
As the “cooking priest”, Fr. Leo has carved a niche in Catholic ministries. He is director for Pastoral Field Education at the Mount Saint Mary Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland.
Born in the Philippines, his parents, Dr. Carlos and Fe Patalinghug, brought him and three siblings to America a few months before martial rule clamped down the country.
They settled in the Baltimore area where Carlos started a practice.
His moher, Fe, says she gave her children equal duties, including picking a day when they have to cook the family’s meal. “I wanted to prepare them so they won’t starve,” she explained.
The Patalinghug kids – Maritess, Carlos Jr., Angelica and Leo – are familiar faces in the Baltimore Fil-Am community but perhaps no one more than the future priest.
Growing up, Leo was involved in break-dancing, folk dancing and the Filipino martial arts, arnis. He was also a tae kwon do champion and incidentally, is said to have a mean singing voice.
The young Leo and his brother were also active in the local church, often volunteering as altar boys during Sunday Mass.
The mother was so happy seeing them at Mass. She prayed so hard, praying with her arms outstretched and without them knowing it, praying that one or both of them would someday enter the priesthood. But when the time came, she was caught by surprise, when one day, Leo informed his parents that he submitted his application papers with William Cardinal Keller at the Catholic University of America in Washington DC.
After only a year, he was sent to study in Rome for six years.
There, he made friends with Italian restaurant managers and their chefs, inviting them to the kitchen of the seminary of the North American College to trade cooking secrets.
He discovered the kitchen was a good place to overcome the language barrier.
“I returned home with a new respect for the kitchen as a place where you can have a great conversation without using a lot of needless words in the process,” he said.
Fr. Leo was ordained in 1999 and given the parish of St. John’s Church in Westminster, Maryland. When he was invited to the homes of his parishioners, he would turn the tables on them by cooking the dishes himself.
Fr. Leo has obviously stumbled on a winning recipe to get people to listen to his message about the power of prayer and family. It all starts in the kitchen and the dinner table. And maybe also his Filipino roots.
Fr. Leo is very much in demand in the speaking circuit, taking him all over the US which is just fine with him, confessing his love for travel.
Fr. Leo’s message is as simple and basic as preparing a well-cooked, nutritious meal. If he has found a steadily growing audience, it is perhaps because his message hits the core of what troubles many Christian families today.
“We all are hungry, and that’s why people go everywhere to find something to satisfy them. What I would like you to consider is to make sure you have a balanced diet for your body, mind and soul,” he concludes in his messages to his audiences.
With reports from ABS-CBN North America News Bureau
as of 09/11/2009 11:44 AM
