In the Philippines’ only Catholic-themed restaurant, Sister Evangeline Paras aims to enrich the soul as much as excite the palate.
As head chef, the Theresian nun oversees operations at the Ristorante delle Mitre (Restaurant of the Miter) and a menu made in honor of the Catholic Church’s bishops, but priced to suit all members of the flock.
The restaurant, which opened last year, aims to bring the church closer to the people in Asia’s bastion of Catholicism at a time when controversies such as sexual abuse scandals have alienated many believers.
“We want to show the positive side of the Church ... I consider this another ministry of the church,” Paras said amid frenzied cooking by her five assistants in the well-lit kitchen.
“It also gives you a glimpse of how the priests and bishops live, what they do and how they eat,” she said.
In the dining area, waiters move quickly between tables, explaining the story behind each dish on the menu to an eclectic crowd, from laborers and unionists in casual clothes to smartly dressed bankers.
Several hearing and speech--impaired workers under the restaurant’s equal opportunities program also engage diners with animated hand gestures.
Hanging on the walls are photographs in sepia of the church’s past and present bishops and cardinals, as well as various memorabilia celebrating Catholicism in the Philippines.
A pianist plays Amazing Grace, a popular Christian hymn written by English clergyman John Newton in the 18th century.
The soothing music envelopes the restaurant in a religious -ambiance that is occasionally broken by the clanking of utensils and the muffled voices of orders being barked in the kitchen.
The name of the restaurant is derived from bishops’ hats that are their symbol of authority.
The glass-encased miters of three late Filipino prelates nominated for beatification are displayed in a corner, while a bookcase full of religious tomes offers diners a history of the Catholic Church in the Philippines.
A life-sized mannequin in a cardinal’s vestments stares from a corner, towering over an altar with statues of the baby Jesus and Mary.
“There is a certain charm to the idea that you are eating at a blessed place,” said Marissa Castro, 28, a banker based in Australia who was paying her third visit to the restaurant since coming back home for a holiday.
“It certainly is a unique restaurant,” Castro said.
Businesswoman Elvira Go, who collaborated with the church to put up the restaurant, said the place was conceptualized when she and some bishop friends went on a pilgrimage to the Vatican several years ago.
They had frequented a small cafe where the clergy went and the idea of putting up a similar place in Manila stuck.
The Philippines is the most obvious place in Asia to set up such a restaurant, with about 80 percent of the country’s 94 million people Catholic thanks to its former status as Spanish colony.
Go’s intention was just to put up a small canteen at the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines building located inside the old Intramuros Spanish fortress of Manila.
However, the plan soon got the endorsement of the bishops conference’s 120 members, some of whom asked friends to donate their time and services to the project.
Overseeing all the food is Paras, formerly the personal cook of Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, one of the country’s most senior spiritual leaders, who agreed to place her on loan to the restaurant.
The nun with an easy-going manner came from a small family in Marinduque, where she earned a degree in home economics from a local college.
Paras, 37, became a nun in 1991 and a decade later was asked to manage a religious retreat house, where her impressive cooking skills caught the attention of the cardinal.
“Cooking for God’s people has always been my calling,” Paras said.
“You just have to cook with passion, with your whole heart and prepare every dish as you would for your loved ones,” she said.
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