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Epic Food Fight: A Bite-Sized History of Salvation
Fr. Leo blends profound truths with humor and wit in a way that appeals to a wide cross-section of Catholics. In this new book, Fr. Leo goes beyond an explanation of how eating together builds stronger families to probe more deeply into the theological aspects of food.
Following the example of Jesus Christ, whose miracles and teachings often involved food, Fr. Leo explains salvation history by what he calls a “theology of food”—there is a godly logic to every bite we take. He shows how the devil seeks to poison God’s children from within, getting them to “digest” his lies by taking what is harmful and making it look beautiful and edible. This cosmic struggle between good and evil can be seen as an “eternal food fight” between God and the devil.
With Fr. Leo, theology—as well as the subject of food—is never boring. In simple, practical ways, you are invited to read, savor, chew on, and digest theological concepts you might never have understood before.
“You are what you eat! Your mind, heart, and soul are capable of digesting God’s Word, especially as it becomes flesh to dwell among us.”
The audio edition of this book can be downloaded via
Following the example of Jesus Christ, whose miracles and teachings often involved food, Fr. Leo explains salvation history by what he calls a “theology of food”—there is a godly logic to every bite we take. He shows how the devil seeks to poison God’s children from within, getting them to “digest” his lies by taking what is harmful and making it look beautiful and edible. This cosmic struggle between good and evil can be seen as an “eternal food fight” between God and the devil.
With Fr. Leo, theology—as well as the subject of food—is never boring. In simple, practical ways, you are invited to read, savor, chew on, and digest theological concepts you might never have understood before.
“You are what you eat! Your mind, heart, and soul are capable of digesting God’s Word, especially as it becomes flesh to dwell among us.”
The audio edition of this book can be downloaded via
176 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1900
11 people are currently reading
80 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
November 29, 2020
Overall, Father Leo provides a solid and sound case for spiritual maturity when it comes to food. He makes string connections between the food of the Eucharist and the food we eat on a daily basis. He gives many a reader a cause to pause and reflect on aspects of their relationship with God, with others, and how their dining room table can become a regular place id creating community.
July 9, 2018
Enjoyed this book a lot, and love Fr. Leo!
August 28, 2018
It’s insightful but not heavy. It offers a very unique and accessible understanding of theology.
May 8, 2022
Written at a perfect balance of accessible and intellectually challenging, this book, and Father Leo’s “Theology of Food”, help the reader to see how our own eating and relationship with food play into our salvation and salvation history as a whole.
June 20, 2016
Epic Food Fight begins with an introduction on who Fr. Leo is, his famous defeat of Chef Bobby Flay, and how he learned the importance of food in the Catholic faith and uses it as a teaching tool. In the first chapter, Fr. Leo explains that God had a diet plan for Adam and Eve (not eating the forbidden fruit). However, they fell into the oldest and most common sin. They wanted to be God, to be like God. It was a sin Lucifer knew all too well, as it was what got him kicked out of Heaven. Fr. Leo then uses the rest of the first chapter to demonstrate other instances in the Old Testament of God feeding His people, primarily the Exodus and the manna from heaven.
Chapter Two focuses primarily on Jesus. It is appropriately entitled, "The Truth Becomes Flesh to Feed the World." In this chapter, Fr. Leo points out food references related to Jesus' life. We see Jesus was born in Bethlehem or the "House of Bread." He likens Jesus' uneventful day-to-day life that the Gospels don't speak of as leaven doing their work. He also points out that Jesus' public ministry began at a wedding feast, where He turned water into wine. The second miracle was then the multiplication of the loaves and fish. The book continues on with the food analogy, showing roles of the Church, the priest, and us individually in feeding the world. The book ends with a 10 Commandments of Personal Dieting, which is meant to be taken both literally and metaphorically.
This book was an interesting read, as it presented salvation history in a lens I had never thought of - food. Most/all of the information presented in this book was stuff I had already read/heard in other sources, but it was a creative teaching tool and one that will appeal to many people who have a strong connection to food. I, unfortunately, am not one of those people and eat to survive. With that being said, the 10 Commandments of Personal Dieting is a section I will visit again as I believe it will help me better appreciate the significance of food, both physically and spiritually. Therefore, while this book is 4 stars for me personally, I highly recommend it because I believe it would be a 5 star book for most other people.
Chapter Two focuses primarily on Jesus. It is appropriately entitled, "The Truth Becomes Flesh to Feed the World." In this chapter, Fr. Leo points out food references related to Jesus' life. We see Jesus was born in Bethlehem or the "House of Bread." He likens Jesus' uneventful day-to-day life that the Gospels don't speak of as leaven doing their work. He also points out that Jesus' public ministry began at a wedding feast, where He turned water into wine. The second miracle was then the multiplication of the loaves and fish. The book continues on with the food analogy, showing roles of the Church, the priest, and us individually in feeding the world. The book ends with a 10 Commandments of Personal Dieting, which is meant to be taken both literally and metaphorically.
This book was an interesting read, as it presented salvation history in a lens I had never thought of - food. Most/all of the information presented in this book was stuff I had already read/heard in other sources, but it was a creative teaching tool and one that will appeal to many people who have a strong connection to food. I, unfortunately, am not one of those people and eat to survive. With that being said, the 10 Commandments of Personal Dieting is a section I will visit again as I believe it will help me better appreciate the significance of food, both physically and spiritually. Therefore, while this book is 4 stars for me personally, I highly recommend it because I believe it would be a 5 star book for most other people.
June 7, 2015
This is a great little book with a very approachable style. On Easter, I was watching the Papal Mass on EWTN and Fr. Patalinghug's cooking program came on right after. It captured my attention because of his great presentation style and all around fun approach to food and theology. I immediately set out to find a book by this engaging priest. I was not disappointed. Fr. Leo frames big topics in theology like marriage and the priesthood using food and feeding metaphors. More than that it is also a book about food. Great suggestions for how to incorporate into one's life as well. Just a great quick read with some light theology and new way to think about your faith and your dinner.
Want to read
June 3, 2015This is a lively and accessible little theology book. It's not particularly new to me but very interesting way of packaging and explaining the truth.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews