How a South Jersey woman turned cooking into a ministry with ‘My Wife Can’t Cook’

For years, Carleen Roberts avoided learning how to cook. Her husband, James, happily prepared meals for their family, or they went out to a nearby restaurant or ordered takeout.

And then the pandemic hit and restaurants and home delivery eateries were closed. There were fewer options.

“As a wife who couldn’t cook, I had no choice but to learn,” says Roberts, 40.

Roberts knew how to prepare one basic dish: curry chicken and rice. James and their four children loved it, but wanted something else. Roberts began experimenting and posting her concoctions on social media.

She realized that there were other women like her who had never really learned how to cook and wanted to improve their culinary skills. She launched the group My Wife Can’t Cook and quickly picked up more than 3,200 social media followers around the country who started sending recipes for her to try.

The group’s name often attracts attention from strangers unfamiliar with the history, especially those invited to join their private Facebook group. Her husband takes it in stride “as the person who was cooking for my wife for 20 years.” There are a few men in the group, mostly chefs who help with cooking lessons.

“I love the shock level of it. It was simply the truth,” said a smiling James Roberts, 41, an executive with Increase Beverage in Pennsauken. “My wife can’t cook. But she’s getting better.”

They even have a theme song — a tune by the same name recorded by Lonnie Russ in 1962. The couple got permission to use the song.

Because of her limited culinary skills, she was usually asked to bring paper goods or beverages to family gatherings. But what began as a family joke turned into a movement and a ministry for Carleen Roberts. Now, she’s teaching others how to cook, with help from her husband.

Since early 2020, the couple has teamed up to host live cooking demonstrations on Thursdays from the kitchen of their Cherry Hill home. They post the ingredients a week prior so that viewers can cook along with them during an hourlong Facebook Live. The recipes include a soft-shell crab sandwich, Mexican street corn, fajitas and keto chicken crust pizza.

Lucy Cubbage, 48, of Clementon, said she mastered basic cooking skills as a teenaged mother. Married with five children, she joined the group and brought along her husband, Robert.

“I can cook but it was survival techniques,” Cubbage, a social worker, said with a laugh. “When I joined the group, I began to like cooking.”

The Robertses have a YouTube Channel and launched both merchandise and spice lines. They have also been invited to do cooking demonstrations at Brown’s Shop Rite in Philadelphia.

Carleen Roberts, who is deeply spiritual, says she draws inspiration from her faith. The couple are both pastors at El-Beth El Community Cathedral in Palmyra. They believe cooking is a ministry and cite Psalm 34:8: “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.”

“It’s not about what we say we can’t do,” she said. “It’s about what God says we can do.”

While growing up in Camden and Pennsauken, Roberts said, she never paid attention when her mother and elders were cooking, and no one offered to teach her. James Roberts learned how to cook at the feet of his grandparents. He gladly assumed cooking duties for the family.

The couple also owns two businesses at the Moorestown Mall: Doctor Scrubs, a uniform store, and Dija’s Dollhouse, which sells health and beauty products. They want to help others become entrepreneurs.

Cooking has become more than overcoming fears for Carleen Roberts, although she is still somewhat uncomfortable in her recently redesigned kitchen. She is on a mission to help others, especially those less fortunate.

Every few months, the group prepares meals for people who are experiencing homelessness in South Jersey. For Thanksgiving, they provided homecooked meals and costs. The group also sent food and water to their members in Texas impacted by recent severe storms.

On Saturday, the group is scheduled to feed about 100 people at the Anna Sample House in Camden, a shelter for homeless families. There will be toys and gifts for every resident. The tables will be decorated with centerpieces for the holiday.

“We bring home to them so they can forget about where they are,” Carleen Roberts said.

Moving around their spacious kitchen Friday, the couple prepared heaping pans of chicken alfredo, spaghetti sauce and penne pasta to be served at the shelter along with salad and rolls. Kia Roberts, 39, of Glassboro, a sister-in-law, came to lend a hand.

While he sliced 40 pounds of seasoned chicken breasts, she diced onions and pressed garlic into an aluminum bowl as the pasta boiled in a huge pot on the 46-inch stove.

“This is the real chef right here,” Carleen Roberts said, patting her husband on the back.

He said: “We want to cook for love. We’re not trying to cook for money.”

The Robertses have attracted a following with other charitable groups such as the South Jersey TeenShop, donating food and gifts, and were recently featured on 6ABC for a “Be Kind” segment.