June 2- 8, 2005

food

More Than Hunter-Gatherers

by Adrienne Saunders

Real men cook: it's a notion that defies male stereotypes, and it's also a cookbook that defies convention in the genre. According to author K. Kofi Moyo, the book, a companion to the annual Real Men Cook event, isn't a cookbook at all, despite the fact that it contains recipes for dozens of dishes.

"It's recipes for living. That's what it's about," Moyo says. Each chapter in Real Men Cook: Rites, Rituals and Recipes for Living (Simon & Schuster, $22.95) begins with a personal story written by one of the hundreds of men who participate in the annual Real Men Cook charity cookoff. For 16 years, Moyo and his wife, Yvette, have been bringing together men in the African-American community on Father's Day to celebrate the nurturing role that many men embody.

"It's really meant to be a celebration of men," Moyo says.

Although the event started as a more high-brow affair called Men Who Cook, run in New York City by Lana Turner, the Moyos launched their own version in Chicago with a different spin. They wanted to make it a day for families to come together around a positive male model rather than the negative images of African-Americans they saw on the news.

"We know that there are men who strive every day to be providers, caregivers, mentors," Moyo says. "Not all men are fathers, [and] not all fathers are part of traditional nuclear families." The event has transformed Father's Day into more than just "the day that dad gets this crazy-looking tie," Moyo says. "Now we have an institutional event that reaches out across the generations."

The Moyos changed the name of the event in 1989, and found that men were attracted to the idea that their cooking skills made them "real men."

"It came down to the notion that the guys enjoyed the camaraderie," Moyo says. Soon, men were recruiting their friends to participate. After much prodding, Moyo was able to get them to put their experiences into words. The collaborative project draws on recipes and stories from the event's early years all the way up to the present, as it now appears in 10 cities. This year's Philly event on June 19 will be hosted by clean-humor comedian Jonathan Slocumb from HBO's Def Comedy Jam and The Steve Harvey Show. But the five local men who had recipes selected for the cookbook may be the real celebrities that day, if you're lucky enough to find them. So while you can certainly come for the food, Moyo hopes you'll take away something more, from the event and the book.

"There is wisdom and living being imparted," he says.

Real Men Cook: Rites, Rituals and Recipes for Living, available from Simon & Schuster, $22.95. For more event information, visit www.realmencook.com.