Potica: The Leavened Bread that Reinvented Slovenia

When the American president Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania visited the Vatican in May 2017, the Pope asked Trump’s Slovene wife, who had moved to the United States in her twenties to pursue her modeling career, what she feeds her husband. “Potica?,” asked the Pope smilingly, to which Melania, looking rather surprised, quickly replied: “Potica? Yes!” This seemingly innocent joke, through which the Pope signaled his appreciation of this quintessentially Slovene leavened bread, immediately captured the attention of the media and audiences worldwide. It was at first at the center of a confusion which was later called “Pizzagate”, as the majority of the world media thought the Pope was enquiring about pizza, but it soon emerged that the dish was something much more unknown and even exotic.