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Il conto dell’ultima cena (The Check for the Last Supper)

Food, the spirit and Jewish humor

The Old and New Testament, Kosher rules, rabbinical teachings, Jewish jokes and recipes full of ancient wisdom: these are the points of departure for Ovadia's journey in search of a food ethic.

"The Check for the Last Supper" is a homage to the memory and the acceptance of the Other, our last "slow" antidote for the intolerance and frenetic pace of our times.

"The Jewish tradition of kasherut indicates the foods which may be consumed because they respond to the rules of the Torah. But beyond this, Jewish food has produced an enormous amount of jokes, prohibitions, recipes and prescriptions which Ovadia reviews with his usual mixture of humorism and sanctity, cradling us with meals and fasts, with falafel, molokheya, hoummus and other delights, between ancient taverns and culinary contaminations, and a music which accompanies the guest at the table with the typical irony of the wandering Jew. A journey which looks to heaven but has an earthy taste; a journey from the mannah of the desert, the so-called "bread of the Angels", to the holiday of Pesach, Passover, in which a Jewish Jesus eats lamb, unleavened bread, bitter herbs and dessert.

This story is known to almost no one.

Every time a new Pope was chosen, a delegation from the Jewish community of Rome would present itself at the Papal palaces with an ancient scroll of sealed parchment, which the Pope regularly refused to accept. Till, one day, in agreement with the Head Rabbi, the Pope decided to examine its contents. The letterhead was as follows: "The Check for the Last Supper". It is not known exactly how much that famous meal cost. For well known reasons, Jesus and the Apostles were not able to honor that payment. But we do know something about that last supper.

This is the starting point for Moni Ovadia's journey inside the Kosher tradition. The home of the wandering Jew Moni Ovadia (who, by the way, is a vegetarian) is an enormous kitchen facing the world, where he wanders from the "Markets of the East" (an Italian song) and Kosher rules to Rabbinic teachings and Jewish jokes, typical recipes and cooking which mixes with religion.

As he wanders among Mediterranean sauces and egg-plants, we meet the sprightly Jeanette, a ninety year old Egyptian who explains to us the kitchen of the diaspora and of exile, together with the recipes of Edith, sole depositary of the Sephardi family tradition of Ovadia's childhood. It is an attitude towards tasting which is, first of all, interior. A predisposition of the soul in those who are used to gazing at the heavens through the smells and flavors of the earth.

Because, when all is said and done, we will all have to learn to be Kosher, that is to say, suitable for our own human dignity."

(from: www.einaudi.it)