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.
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Episodes
Monday Aug 22, 2022
Monday Aug 22, 2022
If God is all loving, then why does He allow bad things to happen? We've all wondered this, and Fr. Ben provides an answer.
Thursday Aug 18, 2022
Thursday Aug 18, 2022
Want to learn how ganache and conscience relate to each other? Fr. Ben serves up a short 5 min. Teaching Tapas to reveal how.
Monday Aug 15, 2022
Monday Aug 15, 2022
Fr. Ben explains in this homily how Catholics view Science, and how science and religion can help each other out.
Thursday Aug 11, 2022
Thursday Aug 11, 2022
Fr. Ben sits down with Silvia Vega and Khira Rotty to discuss patron saints, eat some macaroons, and talk about his love for Julia Child and St. Edith Stein. Enjoy!
Fr. Ben's recipe for French Macarons (yield: 110)
*8.25 cups of ground almond flour*19 egg whites (room temperature)*6 cups plus 3 TBSP of powdered sugar*3 cups of granulated sugar
1.) Puree the almond flour and the powdered sugar in a food processor until the mixture is very fine, then sift at least once.
2.) Whip the egg white in a mixer on medium-high speed, gradually adding the granulated sugar… repeat: GRADUALLY! Beat on high until firm peaks form.
3.) Now begins what is sometimes called “macaronage,” or the process whereby the whites and the almond flour are folded together. Add 1/3 of the almond flour mixture into the whites, folding it in slowly. Once all of the almond flour is added, the mixture should look somewhat like lava and form a figure-8 without the ribbon breaking as it falls off the rubber spatula.
4.) Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.
5.) Pipe onto a sheet pan with parchment paper or silpat (I prefer parchment), spacing about an inch apart.
6.) Pick up the sheet pan and drop it in the counter about 3 times to force out any excess air bubbles in the macaroons.
7.) Let the piped macaroons sit at room temperature, to form a skin, for no less than 30 minutes before baking. You should be able to touch one without batter sticking to your finger. Bake for 15 minutes.
8.) I suggest making the macaroons and the filling the day before use. They are better when they stale a bit. Leave uncovered overnight.
There are thousands of variations, though I prefer the following: rose petal (made with rosewater), pistachio, Nutella ganache, salted raspberry, lavender-lemon, or dulce de leche.
Monday Aug 08, 2022
Monday Aug 08, 2022
Fr. Ben explains what the conscience truly is and how following it can affect one's life and that of others.
Thursday Aug 04, 2022
Thursday Aug 04, 2022
Fr. Ben gets inspired throughout his day and whips up Teaching Tapas for you! These are small plates of faith and food served up for you every other Thursday. We hope you enjoy this one on oysters and humility.
Monday Aug 01, 2022
Monday Aug 01, 2022
In this homily, Fr. Ben explains the various forms of communication and how to be truly attentive to others.
Monday Aug 01, 2022
Monday Aug 01, 2022
Welcome to the Soul Food Priest Podcast! This is the first official podcast recording where Fr. Ben Bradshaw unfolds his hopes for this podcast and what you can expect in the weeks to come. 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, regarding food or faith, go to www.stmichaelmemphis.org/ask-fr--ben or the Soul Food Priest FB page at https://www.facebook.com/soulfoodpriest/.
We're glad you're here!
Wednesday Jul 20, 2022
Wednesday Jul 20, 2022
In this homily, Fr. Ben addresses the struggles in parenting, the beauty of parenting, and the calling that God has for all parents.
Wednesday Jul 13, 2022
Wednesday Jul 13, 2022
In this homily, Fr. Ben speaks of the beauty and importance of masculinity and femininity.
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 regarding food or faith email us at soulfoodpriestmemphis@gmail.org 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.