What do monks have to do with gastronomy? More than you might think. Since the early Middle Ages, they have followed strict rules for eating healthily enough to make a fitness guru envious, but their rules are not only for the body, but also for the mind and soul. They make wine, beer and medicinal liqueurs, their gardens are home to a wide variety of herbs and spices, and their tables are sometimes laden with festive delicacies, sometimes - more often - with fasting foods. It is through them that many varieties of plants and methods of food and drink preparation have spread from one end of Europe to the other. Throughout the ages, the cooking brothers have cooked not only for the community, large and small, but also for thousands of poor and sick. Rare treasures in libraries and archives are cookery books written and used in monasteries, old account books and cookery books. So it's worth sitting down at the monks' table - they welcome you.