My dinner with the pope

Beverly Stephen, Frank Kelly & Eileen Miller reports.

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New York City—What do you cook for the pope?

That was the first thought that crossed the mind of Lidia, as chef/ restaurateur Lidia Bastianich is affectionately known by her television fans, when she was asked to prepare dinners on April 18 and 19 at the papal residence during Pope Benedict XVI's visit.

But her maternal instincts quickly came to the fore, and a logical answer presented itself. Chicken soup? Well, yes, albeit a fine dining version with free-range organic chicken and a rich broth floating with agnolini that "looked like little hosts." And, she says proudly, "he ate the whole bowl."

And beyond that? "I thought, 'How can I relax this man and make him feel at home? How can I make him know we are here as a family?'" she recalls. She decided to go straight for the jugular—his childhood memories. Since Lidia hails from the Friuli-Venezia-Giulia region in northeastern Italy, where much of the food is mittel European, it's not a stretch to the pope's Germanic roots. This train of thought led her to a goulash of braised Wagyu flatiron beef with smoked potatoes, sauerkraut, and sour cream, ending with apple strudel. "He said he loved it, that it was just like his mother's flavors."

The previous evening the dinner had been a little more Italian—pear and young pecorino filled ravioli, spring vegetable risotto, and whole roasted wild striped bass (it was Friday, after all).

The chefs from all the Bastianich restaurants helped in the kitchen and her son Joseph acted as sommelier, serving almost all Italian wines from their vineyard. When the Saturday dinner was over, the Bastianich group, including Lidia's mother, was invited to join the papal party for a private string quartet concert. Lidia calls the weekend the "pinnacle of my career." If her customers are lucky, she may serve the menus at Felidia or Del Posto some day soon.

Antoine Bouterin, who prepared a lunch for the pope and 60 dignitaries, took a different tack. He felt the pope should eat American. "The pope lives in Italy, so what is the purpose of doing Italian food?" he asks. He offered a spring salad with baby vegetables and filet mignon with a spaghetti squash cake encircled with leeks and a carrot cake flavored with lemon and ginger. Dessert was strawberry shortcake. The wines were from California.

Then there was the White House birthday cake for the pope's 81st, made by pastry chef Bill Yosses. This was no ordinary nine inch layer cake with a couple of candles. It was a towering four tier skyscraper of a cake, a stairway to heaven. "He really had to stand on tiptoes to blow out the candle," Yosses says. The lemon pound confection with lemon curd filling and a vanilla fondant icing showed off the yellow and white papal colors handsomely. Truly a memorable experience, Yosses says.

Meanwhile, what about the faithful, who filed into stadiums in New York and Washington, D.C., for the papal masses?

At Yankee Stadium on Sunday, April 20, second base was presided over by Benedict XVI instead of Robinson Cano, but the food preparation was no different than for a regular Yankees game (minus the beer), according to Gael Doar, director of communications for concessionaire Centerplate. The concession team arrived at the stadium at 5:30 a.m. to begin preparing food that had been arranged for about a week earlier. "We sold approximately 7,500 cakes, 20,000 hot dogs, 5,000 pretzels, 20,000 chicken fingers, 20,000 servings of water/soda and 6,000 snacks—Cracker Jacks, peanuts, and popcorn," Doar says.

People were let into the stadium beginning at 9 a.m., and most of the nearly 60,000 were in their seats by noon, when the gates were closed. All concession stands closed down at 2:30, when the Mass was scheduled to begin. Some attendees said that some of the concession stands ran out of hot dogs and coffee (which was in great demand, as it had been quite chilly).

At Nationals Park in Washington three days earlier, the Centerplate crew had to show up by 3 a.m., as the gates were to open at 6. Breakfast items were served, and concession stands were closed at 9 a.m. for the 10 a.m. Mass.