Chef-turned-monk puts baking skills to good use at St. Nazianz monastery

https://t.co/LdeDRvVbXV Chef-turned-monk, @AbounaMoses, puts baking skills to good use at St. Nazianz monastery pic.twitter.com/pAXryaBRpC

— The Compass (@thecompassnews) January 28, 2016

ST. NAZIANZ — The smell of freshly baked pies, cookies, pizzas and other tasty treats makes the kitchen at Holy Resurrection Monastery a shrine for the senses. Thanks to Fr. Moses Wright, a former chef and one of the monastery’s Byzantine monks, guests have another reason to visit, pray or make a retreat at Holy Resurrection.

Before joining the Byzantine-rite community, Fr. Moses, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., worked as a cook at various hotels and restaurants in the New York area. While serving as a private chef on a yacht in Greece, he said he was introduced to the Byzantine liturgy and spirituality and gave up the chef’s apron for a monk’s habit.

“I’ve always enjoyed cooking and it was a toss-up for me to become a chef or to join a monastery,” he said. Thanks to the opportunity to sell freshly baked goods as a fund-raiser for the monastery, “I’ve been able to do both.”

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I would really like to get up to the monastery for a visit this year.