What Does a Pope Have for Supper?
Pope Francis arrives in Hungary at the end of April again. It is a good time to recall an interesting event of another similar visit 84 years ago. I show, what Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, the later Pope Pius XII had for dinner in Budapest in 1938.
It was a very exciting moment before 8 p.m., when the Governor of Hungary, the First Lady and Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli papal legate steped in the huge illuminated hall of Buda Castle. The supper, what they were looking forward to, was a higlight of 34th International Eucharistic Congress in Budapest in 1938.
Anthony Hopkins as Pope Benedict XVI and Jonathan Pryce as Cardinal Francis in a scene of the movie The Two Popes by Fernando Meirelles
According to the report of Hungarian Telegrafphic Office at 21:05 in 25th May 1938, more than a hundered notable person were invited to the supper from different European countries. It is also an interesting thing, what a high-ranking society had gathered here, but this is a gastroblog, so let ’s put the focus on the menu!
Some moments of the congress
Invators had composed an elegant, imposing and attractive menu list for pope. First on it was
Comsommé printanier Royal,
what is a special but well-known variant of French-style consommé Royal.
Next course was
Sander á la Nantua.
’Á la Nantua’ means a using of Nantua sauce. In the French cuisine this sauce use to be used for pike dumplings, but in this case it was an accompaniment of the sander.
The recipe of the third curse,
Chicken á la reine Margot
was written in the article Le Guide Culinaire by Auguste Escoffer in 1903.
The fourth course was
Asparagus with green sauce,
what is also a French dish unlike
the well-known and popular Victorian British dish, what was served as the fith course of the supper for Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli.
Last course was a
Strawberry dessert.
Before this ’Bombo Congrés’ was served, but so far I have not been able to find a source to discover the recipe it.
The supper in a hall of the Buda Castle in 1938 (Photograph: Fortepan/Reklámélet Folyóirat)
As you can see, Hungarian invators offered a French-style supper for an Italian cardinal. The reason is, that in this time French was the standard cuisine for the European high society.
By the way the French Connection was not a new thing for Hungary. In the 12th century Béla III, King of Hungary had French wives twice. First was Agnès de Câtillon, daughter of Renauld de Câtillon, who you can know well from the movie Kingdom of Heavan by Ridley Scott, and the other was Margaret of France.
Béla III built a castle for the queen in Óbuda (District 3, Budapest). The ruins of it were discovered in the Fő tér, the main square of the neighbourhood. You can not see the ruins today, but you can find a beautiful ancient citycenter here with a relatively new baroque castle, a pretty city hall, a cosy café, what is a meeting point for artists and young people and – that is the point! – with old restaurants.
A young girl with Szindbád, a main fictional character of Gyula Krúdy's short stories in Fő tér, Óbuda (Photograph: DishCovery Food Tours Budapest)
Óbuda is the cradle of Hungarian hospitality, it is a fun to visit it for some fine tastes. You can do it on your own or on a tour. Both are great.
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