It was a unique showdown. Famed Food Network host Bobby Flay of Iron Chef fame went to Mount St. Mary's University in Maryland and challenged the Rev. Leo Patalinghug to a "throwdown."
The drama is all part of the "Throwdown with Bobby Flay" show on cable TV's Food Network.
The Roman Catholic priest got over his initial shock and took on the challenge.
"With God as my witness, I'm not afraid!," Father Leo declared. "Bring your fajitas, let's throw it down!"
Cameras started rolling as the two began to create their versions of fusion steak fajitas, standing side-by-side before an excited crowd. The show aired nationwide last September 9, and the judges declared Father Leo's fusion fajitas the winner over Flay's red curry-marinated skirt steak fajitas.
"What an honor," said the 39-year-old priest, who is no stranger to cooking before a camera. When not busy teaching future priests at the seminary in Maryland, Father Leo Patalinghug hosts a web and cable cooking show, which, along with his published cookbook and website, goes under the name Grace Before Meals. Father Leo calls it a "movement" that promotes the importance of families preparing and eating meals together.
The family that cooks and eats together, stays together, he said, adding that family dinners can be an effective forum for parents looking to improve relationships with their children. Father Leo's two self-published cookbooks even lists Scriptural verses and suggestions on topics to talk about at meals.
Born in the Philippines and raised in the Baltimore area, Father Leo pursued degrees in writing and political science with the intention of studying law and journalism at the University of Maryland. He also taught high school speech, debate and drama. Then he studied philosophy at Theological College at Catholic University in Washington, D.C.
Before becoming a priest, he earned a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, and has won a national competition in Arniz, a form of full-contact stick fighting. He founded a martial arts school in 1988, along with his brother. He also loved to dance and competed in break dancing competitions in the 1980s.
When he heard God's call to priesthood, Fr. Leo attended seminary at the North American College in Rome and then took advanced theological degrees from the Pontifical Gregorian University and Pontifical Maranium Institute in Rome.
Father Leo developed his love for cooking during those days in Rome, where he became friendly with several Italian restaurant owners and would often invite them back to the student kitchen to trade cooking secrets. The Italian chefs would teach him about their delicious pasta dishes; he would show them how to make all-American hamburgers and ribs.
Father Leo was ordained in 1999 and served as a parish priest for five years at St. John's Church in Westminster, Maryland. He was often invited to his parishioners' homes for dinner, where he would offer to cook for them, much to their surprise and delight.
Cooking and eating form an integral part of Father Leo's life.
"It's part of our Filipino culture," he says, adding that he regularly shares meals with his parents, along with his brother and sister and their families. "I genuinely think we enjoy each other's company."
A love for cooking and the power of the kitchen in drawing families and friends together provided the inspiration for Fr. Leo' first book, Grace Before Meals: Recipes for Family Life. Then, one of his parishioners turned out to be a video producer. And that's how his web show, Grace Before Meals, was born. The movement has become worldwide and his website has been drawing thousands of visits daily.
Father Leo gained celebrity status when he beat Flay in the fajitas cook-off. He says he has received hundreds of e-mails from people of all faiths saying they enjoyed the show and were inspired by it. Suddenly, he was featured in the cover of The Washington Post, on ABC World News, at Fox Eyewitness News, and countless print and online publications. And now there's a pilot for a TV show in the works.
The priest says he is surprised by it all, and also grateful that the publicity "drew attention to the mission, which is the most important thing."
Father Leo's website shares some valuable insights that he says helped inspire him to start the Grace Before Meals movement. Here are some of them:
* "Research shows that having frequent family dinners can reduce the susceptibility of teens to risks like teen pregnancy, smoking, drug use and depression. And these benefits don't just apply to traditional families or people with kids. Stronger families foster stronger communities, and that's the goal we're striving for — one meal at a time."
* "In my experience, nothing creates a better environment for a great conversation than time shared in the kitchen. Without realizing it, I first learned about the power of the kitchen as a boy. That was our gathering place, where we watched the simple ingredients of our native Pilipino dishes transformed into inviting meals."
* "As a student in Rome, I discovered that the kitchen was the ideal place to break down language barriers. The cooks at the Italian restaurants in the neighborhood where we seminarians lived always enjoyed an invitation to come to our kitchen. There, they'd trade tips on preparing their favorite dishes for the secrets of our American cuisine. 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."
* "Those lessons about the kitchen came back to me as I took up my work as a priest. I wanted nothing more than to get past the mannerly surface chat that too often masked the real needs of the people I was there to serve. So one day, without advanced warning, I surprised a family who had invited me to dinner by announcing that I was going to take over their kitchen and, with their help, make dinner for them. My plan worked, and an evening that would have been polite and distant turned into a time for honest conversation and lowered barriers."
Cynthia De Castro is a writer for Asian Journal.
Photos from Grace Before Meals.
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