Stephen Colbert has made no secret of his admiration for Pope Francis, so it’s no surprise that he’d love to host the pontiff on his show.
But it’s the Pope who would likely be in for a surprise if he ever agreed to visit The Late Show.
In a new interview with Bon Appétit, Colbert reveals, “My dream guest is to have the Pope on, but for a cooking segment.”
The Late Show host, who was chosen by The Vatican to narrate the audiobook version of the pontiff’s memoir earlier this year, went on to explain that in the Pope’s book, “He talks about learning to cook from his mom and his dad and his grandmother. They’re Italian. They live in Argentina, but their home language was Italian and their food is Italian. His tortellini en brodo, like in broth, evidently was a big hit with all the seminarians.”
Of his dream segment with the Pope, Colbert says, “If we get to religion or faith, that’s fine, but we’re going to do his tortellini. I think he might even go for that because it’d be so refreshing. ‘Everybody wants to talk about Jesus with me, but why not my tortellini?'”
While Pope Francis himself has yet to make an appearance on The Late Show, he has figured prominently in several episodes. In September 2015, Colbert appealed to the Pope to make an appearance during his New York trip, even offering His Holiness a custom chair.
A week later, upon the Pope’s arrival in the U.S., Colbert hosted a special “Pope Show” edition of The Late Show, where, among other things, he serenaded the pontiff with a rendition of “You’ve Got a Friend ” (from a distance, of course).
Colbert was in much closer proximity to Pope Francis this past spring, when he was part of a holy trinity of late-night hosts who participated in an event at The Vatican that aimed to “establish a link between the Catholic Church and comic artists.” Cameras captured Colbert meeting the pope at the event’s conclusion.
Colbert, for his part, is no slouch in the kitchen. He and his wife Evie McGee Colbert have co-written a new cookbook, titled Does This Taste Funny?: Recipes Our Family Loves. It hits bookstores on September 17.
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