Strict guidelines have governed what cardinals may and cannot eat for over 750 years in order to prevent secret messages from being put within napkins, chicken, and ravioli.
Visitors to Rome may have seen cardinals frequenting their favourite eateries this past week. Prior to the 2013 papal election, Al Passetto di Borgo, a family-run restaurant 200 meters from Saint Peter's Basilica, was reportedly frequented by many of these men. According to Italian media, Cardinal Donald William Wuerl is known to order the lasagna there, and Francesco Coccopalmerio, who was reportedly the most-voted Italian cardinal in 2013, enjoys the grilled squid.
Because they will be completely cut off from the outside world for an undetermined amount of time during the conclave that starts on May 7 and in which 135 cardinals will have a secret election for a new pope in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel, cardinals may feel a sense of urgency to eat a nice meal or two. Strictly regulated sequestration is used for voting, sleeping, and eating.
Papal conclaves are infamously private gatherings. With the exception of the smoke that indicates if a vote was successful, the cardinals are confined to a single common area and are not permitted to send or receive communications. Black indicates that a second vote is necessary to achieve the two-thirds-plus-one agreement needed to install a new pope, while white smoke indicates the arrival of a new pope. It's unclear exactly what goes on in these conclaves, but one thing is for sure: the cardinals have to eat throughout the days or weeks it takes to choose the next head of the 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide.
Alamy It's unclear exactly what goes on within a conclave (Credit: Alamy). Alamy
It's unclear exactly what goes on within a conclave (Credit: Alamy).
However, how is the conclave's secret maintained while supplies are coming in and leaving out? How can the cardinals guarantee that the vote remains impartial despite extraneous influences?
Food has always carried some risk: a cardinal may use a filthy serviette to surreptitiously announce a vote update to the outside world, or a cardinal's ravioli could be filled with an illegal message from the kitchen staff. Nonetheless, one setting where covert talks may occur is during group meals. Conclave food culture has been used by recent pop culture portrayals to heighten feelings of mistrust, intrigue, and control.
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Consider the 2024 movie Conclave, in which almost every story element takes place in the cafeteria rather than the voting booths. The almost quiet conclave session, which goes on without official arguments, stands in stark contrast to the boisterous dinners. Moments of ceremonial speech, such as the audible oath a cardinal makes as he slips his voting card into the ballot urn, are the only breaks in the otherwise quiet voting process. However, there is a lot of communication going on surrounding the ceremonial quiet, a lot of it is via and including food. Furthermore, it is undeniable that in papal food culture, as in culture more generally, what you eat, how you eat, and with whom you eat say volumes, even if we cannot presume that the movie really captures what goes on behind closed doors.
Pope Gregory X created the rules that still partially govern how papal elections are conducted today in 1274, which is when the canon of conclave secrecy was first established. His coronation was contentious, as was the case with many popes. Additionally, it was the longest by far, taking almost three years (1268–1271) to attain the majority agreement needed to choose a new pope. Henricus de Segusio, an Italian canonist who attended the conclave, said that in order to speed up a conclusion, locals threatened to limit the cardinals' meals.
Alamy Cardinals cast their votes for a new pope in the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican. (Source: Alamy) Alamy Cardinals cast their votes for a new pope in the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican. (Source: Alamy)
The cardinals' food was rationed and the conclave was isolated, two of Pope Gregory X's new regulations that remain in place today. When there was no agreement for three days, the cardinals were given just one meal a day; after eight days, they were given only bread and water. Clement VI loosened these regulations at the middle of the 1300s, allowing for three-part meals that included soup, a main course of meat, fish, or eggs, and a dessert that might contain cheese or fruit. Although the restrictions was abandoned, strict monitoring over conclaves is still in place.
Bartolomeo Scappi, the most renowned chef of the Renaissance and maybe the first celebrity chef in history, provided the most thorough historical description of the culinary culture of papal conclaves. He worked for both Popes Pius IV and Pius V. He became well-known after publishing Opera Dell'Arte del Cucinare (The Art of Cooking) in 1570, which was the first cookbook written by a professional chef. In it, he divulges the methods used to feed the conclave that chose Pope Julius III and the harsh monitoring methods still in use today.
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Cooks and sommeliers, two of the several domestic jobs that kept a conclave running smoothly, prepared the cardinals' daily meals in a shared kitchen, according to Scappi. He acknowledges that the kitchen served as a place for the exchange of illegal communications and that guards were placed there expressly to stop this. Thus, attendants would ceremoniously deliver the meal to the ruota twice a day in a lottery-determined sequence. The turntable, which was integrated into the wall, used as a "wheel" to transport food and beverages to the cardinals in their inner hall. Food and beverages were examined by testers to make sure no illegal messages were concealed before being sent through the wall. The Swiss and Italian guards observed every move.
Folger Shakespeare Library The parade of stewards, guards, and testers delivering food to the isolated conclave via the "ruota" is seen in a 1605 photograph. Folger Shakespeare Library is credited. Folger Shakespeare Library
The parade of stewards, guards, and testers delivering food to the isolated conclave via the "ruota" is seen in a 1605 photograph. Folger Shakespeare Library is credited.
Foodstuffs were tightly regulated; nothing that may compromise a secret message was allowed. No pies that are closed. No complete chickens. Instead of being served in opaque containers, wine and water have to be served in transparent glass. The cloth napkins were opened and examined closely.
This arrangement was made in part to allay fears of poisoning and in part to guarantee the cardinals' total seclusion. After all, the pope was a very powerful political position, particularly during the Renaissance.
The meals Scappi describes seem plentiful and well-balanced, including salad, fruit, charcuterie, wine, and fresh water, despite tight protocol and dietary restrictions. Similarly, he talks of the cardinals' cosy quarters. Each had a big cell that was provided with a bed, a table, a clothes rack, two stools, a chamber pot, a lockable jar, and many other objects. The cells were adorned with silk. According to Scappi, if you didn't mind being watched all the time, working in a papal conclave during the Renaissance wasn't a horrible job.
The nuns at the Domus Sanctae Marthae, the contemporary home where cardinals reside during their sequestration, will prepare minestrone, spaghetti, arrosticini (lamb skewers), and boiled vegetables for the upcoming conclave, which begins on May 7. Lazio is the Italian region surrounding the Vatican and neighbouring Abruzzo. The procedure is tightly managed to ensure that no information may enter or exit, even if this may seem to be different from Renaissance conclaves when meals were cooked by secular domestics working under rigorous protocol and close watch.
Alamy Nuns will make traditional Lazio and Abruzzo delicacies for the cardinals during the next conclave. (Source: Alamy) Alamy
Nuns will make traditional Lazio and Abruzzo delicacies for the cardinals during the next conclave. (Source: Alamy)
Conclave has a number of culinary sequences, the first of which shows nuns cooking entire chickens for broth—hardly a lavish meal. However, what matters is the symbolism. The contemporary Catholic church aspires to project a straightforward, moral image, particularly under Pope Francis' direction. The possibility that food—more especially, entire chickens—could carry actual hidden messages has diminished. The issue today is illegal electronic communication, which is another recurrent metaphor in the movie.
Therefore, the cardinals will make their own preparations as the Vatican is searched for hidden technological devices in anticipation of the next conclave. They may even go into Rome to indulge in a few of their favourite dishes, wondering whether this would be their final meal before becoming pope.
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