At the table of a monk pope, there is no French-style entrée-main-dessert sequence. The order of the monastic refectory, governed by Cistercian custom, is followed: two cooked dishes served together — the pulmentum (the base pottage of vegetables or legumes) and the pittance (a second dish, often fish on permitted days) — accompanied by rye bread and water. Silence, holy reading, and moderation preside over the meal; nothing is eaten for pleasure alone, everything is received as a measured gift. Sweets and herbal drinks belong to the infirmary, not to gluttony.

Eugene III's cuisine consists of two humble things: the legume (broad bean, lentil, pea) that nourishes without luxury, and the herbs of the cloister garden (sage, hyssop, parsley, lovage) that flavor and heal. No ostentatious Eastern spices, no four-footed meat: flavor comes from the vegetable patch and oil, never from wealth.