“Overpriced prices”: Gay restaurateur criticizes US trend

Queer cookbooks, cooking shows and restaurants – the trend from America is coming to us. A sales strategy or an opportunity for more tolerance?

A trend is slowly gaining momentum in Germany – in the USA there are already the first restaurants that are completely dedicated to the new queer cuisine and queer food. What is that supposed to be? This has been hotly debated for several months and the search for a definition has not yet been completed.

If you believe the rumors in the queer community, the first officially queer restaurants are already being worked on in Germany. There are already such restaurants in the USA, primarily in the queer strongholds of Los Angeles and New York. This summer, the first Queer Food Conference took place at the University of Boston.

Julia Kalder has dealt with the topic in detail and published a cookbook on the subject. The idea arose during her transition. The trans* woman was inspired by a sentence: “The more colorful a salad is, the healthier it is,” she says BuzzFeed News Germany from IPPPEN.MEDIA. In her understanding, diversity is diverse in many situations in life, which is why this statement plays a crucial role for her in the context of Queer Food.

Criticism of the queer food trend: “Has a lot to do with marketing”

Queer food has something to do with understanding the diverse queer community, says Kalder. She also emphasizes: “Is a dish automatically queer just because I cooked it or because my kitchen is LGBTIQ*-friendly?” I don’t think so. For me, it’s more about the inner attitude with which a dish is prepared.”

The queer cooking community in the USA is also focusing on communal eating among queer people – this aspect alone would of course make any meeting of queer friends in a restaurant a queer meal. Samuel B. is the owner of a gay restaurant in Munich – he sees the situation a little differently: “I think it has a lot to do with marketing.” To put it bluntly, it may just be the latest attempt to offer queer people food at inflated prices. “But maybe the definition is so difficult because even the term ‘queer’ cannot be clearly explained,” he tells BuzzFeed News Germany.

The gay performance artist Thomas Bartling made headlines in 2022 with his queer cooking show performance at the Theatermuseum Düsseldorf – in it he revived the cult cooking show “Alfredissimo” in a queer ambience. The aim was to perform queerness as normality. “Queer food makes sense because I can also clearly assign certain music, fashion or films to the queer community.” “For me to belong to the label Queer Food, some kind of taste-based, innovative, aesthetic identification would be crucial,” emphasizes Bartling at BuzzFeed News Germany.

Food trend could create more acceptance of the queer community

Kalder is certain that queer food has an important message, especially for the queer community – and in addition to the unifying aspect, queer restaurants can also create a new safe space. “In the context of society as a whole, I see queer food more as a vehicle for creating visibility.” So far, many initiatives have often been about tolerance. But isn’t acceptance what we strive for? For me, tolerance is a first step in that direction.”

The US pioneer of the queer food trend, gender university professor Alex Ketchum, also emphasizes something similar – in addition to appreciation, it is also about recognizing the queer history of the last few decades. As an example, she cites a campaign from the 1980s in which brownies with cannabis were baked for AIDS patients with loss of appetite. It is also important to include those people who are on the fringes of society in the queer community – this gives queer food a very political touch.

One question remains: Can queer people cook better? Bartling says: “Cultural and domestic skills such as cooking have traditionally often been attributed to gay men.” However, I noticed the opposite on my queer cooking show: very few of the guests could cook well. Regardless of whether they were gay politicians, queer performance artists or drag queens, most of the dishes were rather undemanding.”