Soul Food Priest
This is the podcast where culinary and Christianity collide. Each week Fr. Ben Bradshaw will serve up homilies, whip up Teaching Tapas, answer your burning questions, and pass along recipes.
Listen on:
Episodes
Thursday Aug 31, 2023
Thursday Aug 31, 2023
Fr. Ben and Silvia talk about the importance of acidity with regards to the balance of flavors. The conversation then goes to the importance of balancing relationships so that there isn't dysfunction. Great practical tips for healthy relationships are served up in this episode!
Thursday Aug 24, 2023
Thursday Aug 24, 2023
Fr. Ben serves up a small portion of great insight on the importance of technique. Knowing the basics is vital for growth, whether it be in one's cooking style or prayer life.
Thursday Aug 17, 2023
Thursday Aug 17, 2023
Fr. Ben serves up the most amazing croissants to Khira and Silvia. In between bites of this most delicious pastry, they also discuss the topic of expectations and what happens when expectations are not met. Some events and people can exceed our expectations, but some leave us disappointed. How do we respond when that happens?
Monday Aug 14, 2023
Monday Aug 14, 2023
In this homily, Fr. Ben talks about one of the main topics most people don't want to discuss...death. How does the Catholic Church view death? What can we do to prepare? We will all experience death, so it's better to be ready.
Thursday Aug 10, 2023
Thursday Aug 10, 2023
Fr. Ben gives the practical ways in which the Serenity Prayer can be adapted to one's life. This homily also provides great tools for living one's daily spiritual life with courage.
Thursday Aug 10, 2023
Thursday Aug 10, 2023
In this homily, Fr. Ben addresses many of the fundamental questions regarding the existence of God. He also talks about what it means to be human and the true meaning of love. You don't want to miss this succinct explanation.
(We apologize for releasing this late. Our producer was at World Youth Day 2023.)
Thursday Aug 10, 2023
Thursday Aug 10, 2023
Fr. Ben serves up a great tapas full of ingredients to create a life of humility! Listen to this short segment and gain a lot of rich insight.
Thursday Aug 03, 2023
Thursday Aug 03, 2023
Fr. Ben continues the discussion with his dear friend, Maureen Yarborough, on the beauty and agony that can accompany family life. Her story includes tragedy, but she wants to tell it to provide hope to those who suffer greatly, especially with loss and grief.
Thank you, Maureen, for your witness, faith, and courage!
Monday Jul 31, 2023
Thursday Jul 27, 2023
Thursday Jul 27, 2023
Listen as Fr. Ben serves up the various types of Italian sauces and the influence of Italians in a culture. A major part of Italian families is dinner together at least once a week. How can you implement this in your family?
Every other week Fr. Ben will be answering your burning questions regarding food and faith. He is joined by two of his friends and staff members, Silvia Vega and Khira Rotty, who will be the moderators for the upcoming Q & A episodes. If you have a question for Fr. Ben go to www.stmichaelmemphis.org/ask-fr--ben or the Soul Food Priest FB page at https://www.facebook.com/soulfoodpriest/.
Fr. Ben Bradshaw S.T.L.
Originally baptized Lutheran, Fr. Ben became Catholic at a young age and attended Catholic schools in Memphis growing up.
He always loved to cook and always considered being a professional chef or a Catholic priest, and so he became both.
At age 17, he began working for a French chef in Memphis and worked in kitchens until age 20. He then entered Johnson & Wales University culinary arts program in Charleston, SC. There he earned an Associate’s degree in Culinary Arts.
Fr. Ben then decided to travel to Russia where he lived and worked as a missionary with a religious community. It was there, in a small village, where he began to consider a calling to be a missionary priest. (Since then he has spent time visiting and working in Guatemala, Mexico, Africa, and Eastern and Western Europe.)
He returned home to Memphis and worked as a pastry chef for 5 years. This led him study in Paris, France at the L’Ecôle Lenôtre school of Pastry Arts, where he studied chocolate and pulled sugar artistry. He continued to consider more frequently the call to be a missionary priest.
After returning to the United States he attended The New England Culinary Institute in Vermont, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Food and Beverage Management. After graduating from NECI, Fr. Ben began considering an option he had not yet considered: Diocesan Priesthood. After much prayerful discernment, he entered the seminary at the age of 27 and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Memphis in June of 2006.
Fr. Ben earned a Masters of Arts and a Masters of Divinity in Sacred Theology. He wrote his Master's thesis on Pope Saint John Paul II's understanding of femininity and womanhood as it relates to writings of St. Edith Stein. He also holds a Licentiate degree in Sacred Theology from the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Washington, D.C. The focus on his dissertation was on the response of the Catholic Church to the issue of Same-Sex attraction. Since 2005, his continuing education studies have been at the Theology of the Body Institute in Philadelphia, P.A.
Fr. Ben is currently the pastor of St. Michael's parish in Memphis, TN.