But it's their spirit that's Patalinghug's ultimate goal, which is why his recipes tend to be leavened by little homilies. The cookbook, for example, is organized into 24 feast day celebrations - "two a month, no big deal," is how he describes it - each introduced by an inspirational essay, and including bible verses for study and questions for discussion.
"People aren't going to read a long theological essay," he says. "But surely they can look at a five-minute passage while the water is boiling."
The ministry caught the attention of the Food Network, which contacted Patalinghug earlier this year about producing a segment for an unnamed program. The ploy is, in fact, the way Flay sets up opponents for his show. When the potential adversary least expects it, the celebrity chef shows up and challenges him to a throwdown - a cook-off - on that person's specialty. A panel of judges tastes the results and declares a winner.
Because Flay's victims tend to be restaurateurs or professional chefs, it didn't occur to Patalinghug that he might be a candidate for "Throwdown." But as preparations for the segment progressed, he did wonder why producers seemed to be making such a fuss. They asked him to set up a typical Grace Before Meals event, to plan to do some grilling, and to set aside two days for filming.
Patalinghug invited friends and colleagues to the June shoot in the backyard of Mount St. Mary's University President Thomas Powell.
Theresa Greene was on set on the second day when Flay showed up. She recognized him as he made his way through the crowd toward Patalinghug.
"Father Leo didn't even know that he was standing right in front of him," remembers Greene, a parishioner at St. John Church in Westminster, where Patalinghug served before his assignment at the seminary. "He said, 'I hear you're pretty good at these fajitas.' And I thought, 'Oh man, you're in so much trouble, Father Leo.'"
She might as well have been reading Patalinghug's mind.
"It was a little difficult for me to get my mind around everything," he says. "At one point, I asked him, 'Really, honestly, what are you doing here? Because I'm not famous for anything. And he said something like, 'Well, you kind of are now.'
"By that point, my hands were shaking. And I had to cut onions."
He recovered enough to prepare what he calls "fusion fajitas."
