KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Renowned television host, cookbook author and restaurateur Lidia Bastianich, who has a restaurant in Kansas City, has cooked for not just one Pope, but two.
She talked to KSHB 41 News Anchor Lindsay Shively about what it was like to cook for Pope Francis in 2015 as well as how she felt when she heard of his passing.
“You know it felt like a member of the family because we got to know him," she said. "When you feed somebody... eating somebody's food is an intimate happening and so, I felt very close to him.”
Bastianich said she and her team cooked for him for three days with a menu that included risotto and fresh fish. She shared one of her favorite memories of that time.
“We were having our coffee downstairs and all of a sudden, there was like a long corridor, and this white floating thing comes down. He came down!” said Bastianich. “He came, got away from everybody, came down in the kitchen, and he said we were having coffee, ‘Can I have coffee with you?’ Of course everybody, you know my daughter was there, She jumped up! (She) Got him, Tanya, got him coffee right away. We didn't know what to do first because we were so amazed. I mean that he was so close, and he came into our setting.”
VOICE FOR EVERYONE | Share your voice with KSHB 41’s Lindsay Shively
“And so he had his coffee, and then he went into his pocket and pulled out rosaries, blessed the rosary he gave to each one of the workers. He blessed us all.”
Lidia's Kansas City shared a post on the restaurant's Instagram showing when Bastianich was in town earlier this month.
—
