32 Gay, Bi, & Lbian Chefs Who Competed on 'Top Chef'

Contents:

• STILL HERE AND STILL QUEER: THE GAY RTRANT ENDUR
• THE BT GAY BARS HELL'S KCHEN
• GAY HELL’S KCHEN NYC
• FOLLOW THE RABOW — HELL’S KCHEN PRIDE LGBTQIA+ GAY BAR GUI
• LIV OF 40-SOMETHG GAY MEN HELL'S KCHEN FOC OF NEW COMEDY SERI
• JO THE Q — FOUR NEW GAY VENU LE UP TO OPEN HELL’S KCHEN

STILL HERE AND STILL QUEER: THE GAY RTRANT ENDUR

Season 3 gave our first gay wner, wh Chef Hung Huynh wng the whole season. Dale, another gay chef, also ma the fale, g send place.

In season 6, Ashley spoke out about how the nttants were ma to ok for a weddg while she, and other gay nttants, uldn't legally get married. Season 11 featured gay chef Travis Masar.

Wrer John Birdsall (om left), photographer Nik Sharma, rtratr and chef Preeti Mistry talk about the ncept of the "queer kchen" wh Las Volger, the edor of Jarry, a gay men's food magaze. The gatherg was anized by the New York-based gay men's food magaze, Jarry, a twice-yearly prt publitn lnched last fall. The sensibili of this trifecta of closeted gay men had far-reachg fluence, changg the way Amerins oked and ate.

THE BT GAY BARS HELL'S KCHEN

As Birdsall has wrten, "It's food that tak pleasure serly, as an end self, an assertn of polics or a human birthright, the product of culture — this is the legacy of gay food wrers who shaped morn Amerin food. " It was this narrowly macho foc that led Birdsall to set the rerd not-so-straight wh Ameri, Your Food Is So Gay, his Lucky Peach say that won a Jam Beard Journalism Award 2014.

Birdsall, now 56, remembers he and a boyiend readg aloud om Olney's wrgs, feelg like they were gettg a glimpse of a secret gay world — one that was, by necsy, elive. Mistry, who origally wanted to be a filmmaker, was spired by the chefs' creativy and fearlsns, so much so that she left a job the "gay bubble" of Framele to start trag fe dg at Claridge's London. It wasn't jt that the women were out, at a time when rtrant kchens uld still be tough plac for women, gay or straight.

A py of Jarry, a gay men's food magaze, next to tote bags that read "Cheers Queers. ' " It was a clash of sensibili, his gay, hers queer. The youngt of the group, he says g out wasn't an issue, but fdg a gay social circle when he first started medil school wasn't easy.

GAY HELL’S KCHEN NYC

A chat wh a gay profsor led to an vatn to the med school's "secret gay potluck" — secret not out of fear, but simply bee "they didn't want any straights to e, " said Sharma.

Birdsall, who won a send Jam Beard Award for Straight Up Passg — an article about gay chefs Jarry's first issue — se queer okg as an act of anti-normative transgrsn and ristance.

FOLLOW THE RABOW — HELL’S KCHEN PRIDE LGBTQIA+ GAY BAR GUI

In fact, several high-profile, out chefs bristled at beg tegorized as "gay chefs, " much the way that many artists rist beg fed as "women wrers" or "female micians. Or was jt that the chefs — whe and cisgenr, as Mistry pots out — still feared the repercsns of embracg a higher-profile gay inty, even the more equal tim?

But several plac around the untry, they rema anchors of safety and Raff for The New York TimPublished May 28, 2021Updated May 29, 2021Stt Frankel’s favore memori of New York gay rtrants aren’t about food. Manat was so gay, had a sobriquet: rtrants, said Mr. ”But all those plac he so fondly remembers are long closed, as are Harvt, Orb’s and several others listed an article, headled “Rtrants That Roll Out the Wele Mat for Gay Ders, ” that ran this newspaper 27 years ago.

The panmic h the untry’s urban gay rtrants pecially hard, said Jt Nelson, the print of the Natnal LGBT Chamber of Commerce. MeMe’s Der, a popular queer rtrant Brooklyn, permanently closed November, cg shutdown measur and a lack of ernment rtrants, like gay bars, are also facg cris of inty and purpose a time that is many ways more welg than the past, when gay people sought out gay rtrants bee they offered safety and acceptance that uldn’t be found elsewhere.

LIV OF 40-SOMETHG GAY MEN HELL'S KCHEN FOC OF NEW COMEDY SERI

Gay men equented plac like Orphan Andy’s, a mpy der om the same that’s still bs the Castro neighborhood of San Francis. Atlanta had Waterworks, which a 1992 newsletter for the group Black and Whe Men Together lled the cy’s “only Black-owned gay rtrant. And shiftg nceptns of sexualy and genr extend beyond what words like gay, lbian, male or female n acmodate.

JO THE Q — FOUR NEW GAY VENU LE UP TO OPEN HELL’S KCHEN

A gay rtrant n jt sound fuddy-duddy. “Many of the more privileged young queer people have grown up wh cln, so they don’t feel the need to be a place where you’re sheltered om heterosexism, ” said Julie Podmore, an urban geographer at Conrdia Universy may be the se New York Cy, where gay rtrants are gog the way of dosrs (if not yet extct — Elmo and other spots are still keepg their gay fan base fed) elsewhere the untry, many gay rtrants are thrivg — as treasured lol bs, facto muny centers, refug om ntug anti-queer vlence and potential paths forward for a rtrant dtry a recent Saturday night the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washgton, Annie’s Paramount Steak Hoe was by, and was gay. Three 20-somethg gay men shared i.

Katas says nobody her fay is gay, yet Annie’s surely is. That seed was planted by her great-nt Annie was beyond supportive of the gay muny and beme, for many of the rtrant’s racially diverse ders, a mother figure before her ath 2013. Katas said, “people are g back wh tears their ey” bee they “missed beg a space where they’re not the only gay people.