monastic cook

One of the challenges of monastic life is when  a monk is assigned to cook for the whole community. As cook, a monk needs to learn  and familiarize the recipe for the day, be aware of the kitchen paraphernalia to be used for the particular food to be cooked, know the  time-table for the whole of the foods to be served at table for the main meal which is usually held after the noon-day prayer called Sext.


Likwise, the cook must have the skill in making use of exact measurements of the amount of  food to be cooked.

In our monastery, five  kinds of  foods are served at table for the main meal. The foods prepared are usually,  chicken or fish as the main viand, fresh vegetable salad, steamed broccoli or carrots,  steamed rice  or garlic rice, baked or boiled pinto beans with lots of garlic, and dessert. This is the composition of an ordinary meal in my community.

During special occasions like holidays such as  the fourth of July independence day, or Christmas day, or thanksgiving day  and feasts of our saints particularly the feast of our  patron Saint John the baptist and the major feast of the year which is held on July 11th feast day of Saint Benedict, my  community superior assigns two monks to do back-to-back cooking with the banquet foods to be served at table.

The amount of foods cooked and prepared is plentiful than in an ordinary day as  numerous  guests and benefactors come over to our community to join us in the celebration!