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 14, 2025
Thursday Aug 14, 2025
This week on @SoulFoodPriest , Fr. Ben discusses a topic he's always found intriguing, Near-Death Experiences. After much reading, research, and personal interviews, Fr. Ben reveals some of the fascinating information he has received and how it can affect all people.
Thank you for listening. We'd love to hear from you! You can email us at soulfoodpriestmemphis@gmail.com or at Soul Food Priest Facebook page to submit questions and topic ideas for the podcast. You can also follow us on YouTube!
Monday Aug 11, 2025
Monday Aug 11, 2025
Fr. Ben discusses the basis of faith and the necessary task of each person to know what he/she believes. Better understanding what you believe and learning more about the Faith will help deepen your relationship with Lord. Not only that, but people will notice. Take a listen!
Got a question you'd like to ask Fr. Ben? You can submit questions and topic ideas for the podcast through Facebook, or you could email us at soulfoodpriestmemphis@gmail.com. The questions can be on faith or food! You can also follow us on Facebook and YouTube at Soul Food Priest.
Monday Aug 04, 2025
Monday Aug 04, 2025
Fr. Ben shares some of the topics that either cause family conflict or can keep it going. This list has been compiled by counseling people for almost twenty years. Take a listen to find out how to promote peace.
Got a question you'd like to ask Fr. Ben? You can submit questions and topic ideas for the podcast through Facebook, or you could email us at soulfoodpriestmemphis@gmail.com. The questions can be on faith or food! You can also follow us on Facebook and YouTube at Soul Food Priest. Thanks for listening!
Thursday Jul 31, 2025
Thursday Jul 31, 2025
Welcome to the @SoulFoodPriest season finale where Fr. Ben gets interviewed by teenagers! This is your chance to get to know him a little better. Watch to see what questions they throw at him and possibly see what he was like as a teenager.
Got a question you'd like to ask Fr. Ben? You can submit questions and topic ideas for the podcast through Facebook, or you could email us at soulfoodpriestmemphis@gmail.com. The questions can be on faith or food! You can also follow us on Facebook and YouTube. Thanks for listening!
Monday Jul 28, 2025
Monday Jul 28, 2025
In this homily Fr. Ben discusses the difference between narcissism and altruism. One tends to cut God and others out of their life and the other lives for the other. This is a great time for us to reflect on our own daily lives and see how we can simply change our ways to be a more loving people.
Thank you for listening. We'd love to hear from you! You can email us at soulfoodpriestmemphis@gmail.com or at Soul Food Priest Facebook page to submit questions and topic ideas for the podcast. You can also follow us on YouTube!
Monday Jul 21, 2025
Monday Jul 21, 2025
Fr. Ben takes the time to roll out his 3-year plan for St. Michael's. This all comes through prayer, focus groups, discussions, and surveys. We'd love to hear what you think!
Thank you for listening. We'd love to hear from you! You can email us at soulfoodpriestmemphis@gmail.com or at Soul Food Priest Facebook page to submit questions and topic ideas for the podcast. You can also follow us on YouTube!
Thursday Jul 17, 2025
Thursday Jul 17, 2025
Fr. Ben receives a lot of questions regarding the church teaching about Same Sex Attraction. What does the Church officially teach? Why does the Church teach that? Ben, Khira and Silvia discuss this major topic.
Thank you for listening. We'd love to hear from you! You can email us at soulfoodpriestmemphis@gmail.com or at Soul Food Priest Facebook page to submit questions and topic ideas for the podcast. You can also follow us on any podcast platform!
Monday Jul 14, 2025
Monday Jul 14, 2025
It's easy to find the struggles and ugliness in everyday life that we overlook the beauty that surrounds us. Fr. Ben teaches us in this homily why we should take notice and what to do with it. Let beauty pierce your day!
Got a question you'd like to ask Fr. Ben? You can submit questions and topic ideas for the podcast through Facebook, or you could email us at soulfoodpriestmemphis@gmail.com. The questions can be on faith or food! You can also follow us on Facebook and YouTube at Soul Food Priest. Thanks for listening!
Monday Jul 07, 2025
Monday Jul 07, 2025
The Founding Fathers used many principles in the Constitution that Jesus spoke about Himself. Fr. Ben revisits the Constitution, what these men wrote, and the beliefs that our nation was founded upon. These beliefs are in line with our Catholic belief! Take a listen to hear how and what all it means to be a Catholic American.
Thank you for listening. We'd love to hear from you! You can email us at soulfoodpriestmemphis@gmail.com or at Soul Food Priest Facebook page to submit questions and topic ideas for the podcast. You can also follow us on YouTube!
Thursday Jul 03, 2025
Thursday Jul 03, 2025
A lot of Catholics know of people who have fallen away from the church for various reasons. The question that gets asked a lot then becomes: What do we do?? In this episode Father, Silvia, and Khira attempt to answer this question as well as provide some type of advice for those who are considering leaving the church.
Got a question you'd like to ask Fr. Ben? You can submit questions and topic ideas for the podcast through Facebook or you could email us at soulfoodpriestmemphis@gmail.com. The questions can be on faith or food! You can also follow us on Facebook and YouTube at Soul Food Priest. Thanks for listening!
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.