ROOM AT THE TABLE collects old and new family recipes handed down generations through the cooks in the Renth and Weidler families of St. Louis, Missouri, as a memorial to Betty Jean Weidler Renth and her husband Earl Renth. The idea for this compilation of recipes came while the editor (Betty Jean's last son-in-law) was on retreat studying ways to be more inclusive, to "make a place for everyone at the table," and to scour the clippings and tattered scraps of recipes handed down to the cook in my household, Carol, one of the Renth girls.