Mennonite men can cook, too. There’s a cookbook that says so.

Goshen, Ind., resident Willard Roth has compiled his favorite recipes and gathered his guy friends to add to the collection. The result is a glossy, 300-plus-page book — Mennonite Men Can Cook, Too, published by Good Books — that can hold its own not only in the kitchen but as a coffee table conversation starter.

“[Cooking] was sort of in my genes,” Roth said. “We lived on a farm. I was the eldest of — initially — three boys. Since there were no girls in the family at that point, and I loved to be in the kitchen, I did my chores in the early years helping my mother in the kitchen.”

He also credits his uncle, Vernon Roth, with being a male role model who enjoyed cooking.

“He was in the kitchen in an era when, essentially, Mennonite men weren’t in the kitchen. I’m not quite sure why,” he said. “He simply was there for me. I always looked up to him; he was a mentor and a very special uncle.”

After marriage, his wife, Alice, said her new husband’s cooking skills came as a bit of a surprise to her.

“I didn’t realize what a good cook he was,” she said. “I knew he came from this farm family, where butter and cream and great cooking was part of it. I did not grow up on a farm; I never really learned to cook at home that much. As I realized how good a cook Willard was, it was rather intimidating. It took me a little while to realize what a great blessing I had.”

She recalled times when dinner guests would assume Willard had prepared a dish that she had actually made.

Eventually, she came to appreciate her husband’s gift.

“It has been wonderful,” she said. “Our two children and I have benefited from his ability.”

But Roth was quick to add he thinks his wife is a good cook, too.

“She has her specialties,” he said, adding that she does vegetarian cooking.

International horizons

Despite having a natural affinity for cooking, Roth credits his time in Ghana for teaching him about hospitality.

Between 1968 and 1973, Roth worked in some administrative capacities with Mennonite Board of Missions in West Africa, living in Ghana with his family and traveling to other West African nations to provide communications support for churches.

“This was our first time living in an extended cross-cultural setting,” he said. “That opened all kinds of doors of hospitality. It was very broadening.”

Roth would later work as communications director for Mennonite World Conference from 1990 to 1996, traveling throughout Europe, Africa and Asia for meetings.

Adjusting to different cultural expectations was a growing experience.

“An important dimension of my initial time in West Africa was having the opportunity of working with an older minister who provided mentoring for me in cross-cultural adaptation and communication and helped me to see what was culturally sensitive and what wasn’t,” Roth said.

For example, he described himself as “an efficient North American” who went directly to his desk each morning to start the workday. His mentor told him, “Willard, the first thing you do is greet everybody.”

The Roths would share meals with co-workers and do some recipe-swapping.

“We introduced American Thanksgiving one year, and we learned to know some of our favorite dishes now,” he said. One of those recipes — the vegetarian peanut stew — made it into the cookbook.

The men who cook

Mennonite Men Can Cook, Too features recipes from some of Roth’s friends as well.

Along with Roth, Stanley Kropf was part of a group of four men who got together on a regular basis to cook a meal and share it with each other and their spouses.

“It was a lot of fun,” Kropf said. “We had some wonderful meals.”

Like Roth, Kropf pointed to an uncle who inspired him to cook.

“My first interest in cooking was as a child,” Kropf said. “Uncle Earl was usually helping in the kitchen instead of jabbering around with the men. He was a nice role model.”

Kropf attributes to Roth a concept called “planned-overs” — purposely preparing more food than can be eaten at one time to have more later. In other words, planned leftovers.

Another friend featured in the book, John Bender, worked with Roth for Mennonite Board of Missions in the 1970s. The two of them separately signed up to take the same cooking class, and “the rest is history,” Bender said, adding that most of his childhood kitchen experience was limited to the cleanup.

Bender said he has a new appreciation of food, not just for its physical value but its spiritual value as well.

“It’s more than just physical energy you get from it — it’s a spiritual experience to share it with other people around the table,” he said, adding that he’s now more conscious of a need to conserve food as a “treasure.”

What is hospitality?

Roth’s goal for the cookbook was to include some of his memoirs along with his recipes — “to bear witness to the hospitality dimension of what my life is all about,” he said.

He now sees hospitality as a significant focus in his life.

“Hospitality to me means the giving and receiving of love,” he said. “Hospitality is always a two-way street.”
He is inspired by a saying from the monastic tradition: “ ‘Food is love made edible.’ That’s hospitality.”

[box] What is one of Willard Roth’s favorite recipes?

“It’s hard for me to know what my favorite one is,” he said. “I suppose if I had to choose one…”

Escalloped Corn with Oysters

“A holiday family favorite for the oyster lovers in seacoast-deprived Iowa.”

Makes: 12 servings

Prep. time: 10 minutes

Baking time: 45-50 minutes

Ingredients:  2 eggs, beaten 2 c. milk 16-oz. can whole kernal corn, drained 4 oz. saltines (1 sleeve), crushed 1 tsp. black pepper 16-oz. can fresh oysters

In greased 2-quart casserole, mix all ingredients thoroughly, in order given. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes.

— Excerpted from Mennonite Men Can Cook, Too (2015). Used by permission of Good Books.[/box]