They say food brings people together. It certainly did in the case of one recipe in “Cooks with Collars” – the online cooking competition that raises funds for parishes in the Diocese of Allentown.
Priests and a seminarian at the Cathedral of St. Catharine of Siena, Allentown made a four-course meal for their video this year: City Chicken, Potato Filling, Roasted Cauliflower, and Rolls a la Mayo.
Monsignor Donald Cieniewicz, pastor, told a special story about the rolls.
When he was growing up in the Millmont area of Reading, he and his older brothers had a paper route, including “a nice couple who lived in our neighborhood, Phil and Octavia Mayo. And they were great friends, and my brother was friends with some of their children as well, and Mrs. Mayo was a great cook, and she would often send things home with my brother for us,” he said.
“We were a family of six children, so she often sent treats along, and one of them was her creation of her rolls, which were always so good. And I happened to have the recipe and I saved it.”
The rest of the story was told by Rev. Mr. Keaton Eidle, who also grew up in the Reading area and is now serving his transitional deacon year at the Cathedral.
“I was kind of surprised when Monsignor mentioned this recipe,” he said, “because it turns out that the Mayos were my great-grandparents. And the friends of his older brother happened to be my grandfather, Phil Mayo, and then also his future wife Diane Pietrantonio, who is my grandmother.
“So, it was kind of a nice little way to celebrate the relationship that brought us together.”
This video and 43 others of priests in the kitchen are posted at www.cookswithcollars.com. Watch the videos, then vote for your favorite priests by clicking the vote button to make a donation. All voting dollars go directly to parishes.
Voting deadline is Monday, Feb. 12, and champions will be announced on Tuesday, Feb. 13 (Fastnacht Day).
Photo: Cooks at the Cathedral are, from left: Father Herman Pongantung, M.S.C. and Father Stephan Isaac, assistant pastors; Monsignor Donald Cieniewicz, pastor; and Rev. Mr. Keaton Eidle, holding the Rolls a la Mayo.
