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The Catholic Leader, November 10, 2019
www.catholicleader.com.auArts + entertainment
THE VATICAN COOKBOOK:
500 YEARS OF CLASSIC REC-
IPES, PAPAL TRIBUTES AND
EXCLUSIVE IMAGES OF LIFE
AND ART AT THE VATICAN
Pontifical Swiss Guard; So-
phia Institute Press, Manches-
ter, New Hampshire, United
States; 2018
DURING an era in which coffee-table books
collect dust while
handheld social media
consumes idle time, there
seems little need for
another large hardback to
join the lot on bookstore
discount shelves.
But The Vatican Cook-
book stands out as an
extraordinary and remarkable collection holding
within its pages 500 years of recipes, history
and photographs.
An epic undertaking as both a tribute to and
insight from the storied Pontifical Swiss Guard,
The Vatican Cookbook is a culinary and artistic
dream to lovers of food, history, culture and art.
Trend-touting diet books and celebrity-cre-
ated recipe collections can sit on those shelves,
lamentable in comparison to the magnitude of
this culinary endeavour.
Such a project takes a team.
Multi-cookbook-author-turned-Swiss Guard
David Geisser led fellow guard and pastry chef
Erwin Niederberger and former Commander
Daniel Anrig to compile an extensive repertoire
of recipes.
Katarzyna Artymiak, in co-ordination with
her twin sister Anna Artymiak, illustrated the
recipes, quaint anecdotes and scenery of Rome
and Vatican City.
The photography shows a veteran eye for pres-
entation and artistry, captured in close-up images
of finely grated parmesan over charred fennel as
well as broad vistas of the Vatican Gardens.
Recipes aside, readers will find themselves
on a tour throughout this beautiful part of the
world, seeing special sights and reading unique
stories from contributors.
Take a look into the annual May 6 swearing-
in ceremony of the Swiss Guard, hear about a
jovial personal encounter between a guard and
the pope during overnight duty, and discover St
John Paul II’s unrelenting request while recov-
ering from his assassination attempt.
Appropriately so, the recipes are what make
the book extraordinary.
The collection includes papal favourites from
the home countries of Argentina, Germany and
Poland.
Here you will find such treats as the sweetly
sugared alfajores, rustic
suckling pig and dumplings
and juicy, complex-flavoured
Polish fleischvogel.
It also includes favourites
served up in the barracks of
the Swiss Guards.
The Polish Congregation
of Albertine Sisters Serving
the Poor run the kitchen; the
broad smiling faces of two of
the women religious appear in
a crisp, two-page spread.
The versatile collection of
favourites continues to include
Christmas in Vatican City and
summers at Castel Gandolfo,
the papal summer residence.
The recipes are clearly
written and easy enough for an adventurous
beginner willing to take a risk. But the recipes
are genuine to their cultural, traditional roots.
No alternative ingredients here for dieters
or suggested substitutes for those with food
allergies.
Some of the recipes call for hard-to-find or
seasonal foods, such as saffron threads, grape-
seed oil, mascarpone triple cream and sprig
mugwort.
But don’t be discouraged,
other than this being a source
for the hungry and curious
historian, there are a few sim-
ple dishes, such as eggplant
mozzarella and chocolate
gingerbread.
And, because of the book’s
photography and text, the
book need not serve as pri-
marily as a cookbook.
Feeling indulgent after all
that rich risotto with smoked
eel followed by the sweet
Christmas pastry grittibanze?
Consider joining the Swiss
Guards in taking action to end
global hunger as they turn the
reader’s attention to the need
to support the most vulnerable among us.
The authors invite readers to enjoy all the cu-
linary treats the Vatican has to offer, but to also
contribute to the Caritas Internationalis program
One Human Family, Food For All.
CNS
Vatican cookbook offers rare collection of recipes, history, photos
Book
MALEFICENT: MISTRESS OF
EVIL: Starring Angelina Jolie,
Elle Fanning, Michelle Pfeiffer,
Harris Dickenson. Directed
by Joachim Ronning. Rated
PG (Mild fantasy themes and
violence, some scenes may
scare young children) 119
minutes
By John Mulderig
THE moral probing and feminist re-
visionism that characterised its 2014
predecessor are mostly absent from
the routine follow-up Maleficent:
Mistress of Evil.
So much so, that ethical straight-forwardness
makes its title seem some-
what misleading.
Having undergone a
fundamental conversion in
the previous film, the title
character, again portrayed
by Angelina Jolie, is now
misunderstood rather than
wicked.
Though ornery and forbidding, she keeps the
best interests of her protege Queen Aurora (Elle
Fanning) steadfastly at heart.
Given that Maleficent once cursed the infant
Aurora and served as the villainess of both the
classic fairytale Sleeping Beauty and the epony-
mous 1959 animated Disney feature that first
named her, that’s quite the turnaround.
Still, while Aurora may have her temporary
doubts about the woman she has come to regard
as her fairy godmother, the audience is given lit-
tle cause to question Maleficent’s sincerity.
Fans of traditional marriage, meanwhile, will
be pleased by the premise of this sequel since
early scenes find Aurora accepting the proposal
of her longtime suitor, Prince Philip (Harris
Dickinson).
Predictably, however, the course of true love
fails to run smooth since Maleficent fears being
displaced in Aurora’s affections while Philip’s
thoroughly nasty mother Queen Ingrith (Mi-
chelle Pfeiffer) objects to the match for reasons
of her own.
Since the prospective union would promote
Improved:
Queen Aurora (Elle Fanning), Maleficent (Angelina Jolie) and Diaval (Sam Riley) star in a scene from the movie Maleficent: Mistress of Evil.
Photo: CNS
Film
Follow-up offering proves
ethically ‘straight-forward’
peace between Philip’s human realm – wisely
ruled by his amiable father King John (Robert
Lindsay) – and the fairy domain over which
Aurora presides, the complications besetting
their romance allow returning screenwriter Linda
Woolverton, joined this time by Micah Fitzer-
man-Blue and Noah Harpster, to deliver worthy
but heavy-handed anti-war and pro-tolerance
messages.
Warnings about the irresponsible exploitation
of natural resources also underlie the story.
For his part, director Joachim Ronning di-
verts from the overly-intricate plot, which also
involves an origin story for Maleficent, with
colourful visual treats.
Cute mythical creatures abound and Ma-
leficent’s shape-shifting sidekick Diaval (Sam
Riley) provides occasional comic relief.
Attentive moviegoers will note that Queen
Ingrith’s costumes include a dress adorned with
what appear to be crosses and that a scene in
which the forces of darkness she directs unleash
a diabolical plot against the good guys unfolds in
the chapel that was to have been the setting for
the nuptials.
The subsequent introduction of a sympathetic
bishop put to rest any fears of an anti-Christian
subtext, however.
While Maleficent: Mistress of Evil is free of
any genuinely objectionable material, scenes
of battle and imperilled characters make it too
frightening for little ones.
To teenagers and their elders, by contrast, it
will likely register as a perfectly acceptable – if
uninspired – piece of entertainment.
The film contains much stylised but some-
times harsh combat violence.
John Mulderig
is on the staff of Catholic
News Service.