What is queer food? We asked LGBTQ foodies and chefs

NBC News talked to academics, chefs and the founders of LGBTQ potlucks about queer food, including what it means and how the term has evolved over time.

It’s unlikely that two LGBTQ people will give you the same definition of “queer food.” 

The term has become increasingly popular with the rise of queer restaurants, including The Ruby Fruit, a restaurant and wine bar for the “sapphically inclined” in Los Angeles, and HAGS, a fine dining restaurant “by queer people for all people” in New York City. Specific foods and drinks have also been claimed by or marketed to the LGBTQ community, such as vodka sodas and sourdough bread.

For some, queer food is simply food made by queer people. Others say it’s about sharing food in queer community, while there are those who believe it should include serving marginalized people who have been excluded from fine dining spaces. 

So what is queer food, aside from a term slowly gaining traction in certain corners of the LGBTQ community? The question was the subject of the Queer Food Conference at Boston University in April, with workshops such as “Queer Food and Fundraising as Resistance” and “Nonbinary Botany: Cultivating Pollinator Community Workshop.” 

One of the founders of the conference, Megan Elias, the director of the university’s gastronomy program, declined to give a rigid definition, because, she noted, it can mean so many different things. “Which is lovely, right?”

https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-life-and-style/what-is-queer-food-rcna158694

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