Queer food? The new way of experiencing food that (should) concern us all

There are things, sometimes, for which the only way to assert oneself is to be denied. There are things, people and instances that have been repressed for so much and for so long, misunderstood or ignored that in order to be there today they need, in spite of themselves, to pass for what they are not. It happens, for example and not by chance, with the queer food which, despite easy linguistic and cultural ghettoizations, has nothing to do with unicorns and rainbows and does not correspond to the national dish of the LGBTQ + community.

Just like those who recognize themselves in a gender or sexual orientation other than the binary and heterosexual "norm" (and presumed "normality"), so does queer food it leaves the traditional recipe books to include new ways of experiencing food and what revolves around it.

If you have never heard of it, although you may be attentive and sensitive to gender and / or nutrition issues, it is probably because it is a phenomenon that originates and develops mainly in the United States, where the status of LGBTQ + people is the subject of multi-level debate. However, knowing what is happening beyond the ocean, in one of the countries that most affect the Western way of life and culture, can help predict possible phenomena on a global scale. That's why, in this article, we want to deal with queer food and what it really means.

What does "queer" mean 

Let's start from the fundamentals: what does "queer" mean? According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, it is an adjective that qualifies anything that differs from the usual, customary or normal and therefore means strange, bizarre, eccentric, unconventional. The term, continues the dictionary, then tends to identify physical or sentimental attraction for people of the same sex and can also be used in a derogatory sense. A negative connotation which, however, has gradually been lost. Thus, what was considered an insult in the XNUMXs has been progressively assumed by its own recipients as definition and flag of a diversity to be proud of, against social and professional exclusion.

People in the foreground: queer food against discrimination 

This also concerns the world of catering and food in general, in two directions: the personal and working level of those who are part of the LGBT + community and the way of experiencing food and relating to ingredients and raw materials. Today, in fact, the American hospitality industry is often theater of racial discrimination, gender or sexual orientation, and only recently has homophobia and harassment in the kitchen begun to be openly denounced. He did it for example Charlie Anderle, who in 2018 on the pages of Bon Appetit summed up her experience as a transgender cook as follows: "There were the squalid comments from the assistant cook about the size of my new jeans and my manager trying to groped my thighs while hugging me from behind the counter. This kind of attention was always given as something to brag about; while rejecting it immediately labeled me as 'hypersensitive' or bitch ”.

Even before her, the reporter John Birdsall. A spokesperson for gay and queer culture in the kitchen since 2014, Birdsall is a firm believer in the positive role that a "different" sexual identity can give to preparations. Here then is that the first hallmark of queer cuisine is what passes for its people: no longer hidden, marginalized, isolated and abused, but on the contrary accepted, valued, protagonists subversive of an unwritten rule in which machismo and sexism are still the masters. And that finds a new form of visibility and affirmation in food. "Food has become a trope (or a metaphor, ed) through which the queer community has found a certain commonality, sought visibility, supported diversity and encouraged activism", reads a New York Times article dedicated to queer food. "Whether it's anti-discrimination dinners, fundraisers for the Puerto Rican cause, eateries that serve as safe neighborhoods or for the development of decidedly queer culinary creativity, the food industry is mobilizing the LGBTQ community" .

Queer food doesn't exist (or maybe it does)

“Queer food doesn't exist. Yet, once you start looking for it, you will find it everywhere ”. Thus begins a recent article by Kyle Fitzpatrick for Eater and perhaps there really is no better way to describe it. Wanting to be more concrete?

The answer can be found among the pages of Jarry, "a biannual paper magazine that explores the intersections between food and queer culture" - as stated on the official website - printed since 2015 in the United States with the aim of putting together "a community queer of chefs, consumers, producers, writers, photographers, artists, and industry influencers to celebrate the results and deepen their comparison ". Inside, there are also various recipes from the queer world such as, for example, that of chicken broth, noodles, ginger and lemongrass; or of the cake glazed with chocolate and olive oil; of the mix of olives and chillies marinated with orange and rosemary; of an'escarole salad with fennel and walnuts, marinade with lime juice and maple syrup; or one orange and saffron cheesecake. If, more than a stereotypical LGBT + culture, all this reminds you of sophisticated cuisine, fusion and original, you are not very far from the truth.

Forget rainbows, phallic symbolisms or the like: queer food welcomes all ingredients, raw materials and variants without limits or prejudices (cultural mixes or vegetarian and vegan experiments are welcome), for this reason it can be found potentially everywhere. And how could it be otherwise: in a world that shuns classifications and clear boundaries and makes the exception its rule (assuming that as a rule we can speak), even food does not fall into pre-established formulas, not even glitter or multicolor ones that important events such as Pride have also spread.

Because the important thing is not what you eat but the atmosphere, the feeling that this transmits and which often includes the experience of an unexpected taste in an open, shared and unprecedented way.

Queer food: food as a symbolic gesture and a search for comfort within everyone's reach  

In recounting an episode from his childhood, Birdsall recalled when as a child, a guest of a couple of homosexual neighbors, he was eating the hamburger that one of the two hosts prepared for him and how much he found it not only tasty, but a harbinger of real joy. This is a trait that even now that he is definitely an adult he recognizes queer cuisine in general: "the pursuit of pleasure at the table”, He wrote a few years ago,“ can turn into a political act".

Resist stereotypes, staying true to your nature, be satisfied with it and make others enjoy it too: queer food is also this, a means as symbolic as it is concrete to convey a new taste, that for the realization of oneself and one's rights.

Not surprisingly, another of the most frequent concepts that are read in reference to queer food is "comfort". It is found continually in Jarry magazine, as well as in the words of Carla Perez-Gallardo, co-owner with Hannah Black of the Lil 'Deb's Oasis, a queer restaurant in New York. So he told the HuffPost a few years ago: “Maybe we in the queer establishment seek comfort in what we prepare because comfort has been rendered unapproachable to our communities on a widespread social level - in terms of basic rights, access to care. medical - and to our individualities ". Queer gastronomy simply (but is it really that simple?) Welcomes the other and admits indeed foresees, the anomaly and for this reason it is extremely accessible, often also in terms of price. The concept of equality is so deeply rooted in the philosophy that underlies queer clubs, that food is within everyone's reach: like sexual orientation, in fact, even the economic aspect must not constitute an obstacle or a source of discrimination for who approaches this cuisine. L'inclusiveness it is then perhaps his unique, true, fundamental ingredient.

In this sense we are faced with a broad cultural phenomenon, made up of places open to all, in front of and behind the counter, of recipes and unusual combinations, of free and joyful inventiveness, capable of surprising and comforting, of recognizing and sharing (we have seen something similar in the project of kitchenette).

All values ​​and potential that, regardless of the sexual inclinations of each one, it is not difficult to attribute to food in general, even if one prefers already known or more traditional dishes. And there is nothing wrong with that either.

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