From the looks of Bravo and the Food Network, gay and lbian chefs are ubiquo. But big-name LGBT oks say they're still the mory -- unrpaid and unrreprented.
Contents:
- WHICH FOOD NETWORK CHEFS ARE GAY?
- WHO IS THE GAY TV CHEF?
- WHO IS FOOD WORK GAY CHEFS?
- AMERI'S MOST INFLUENTIAL CHEF WAS GAY AS HELL
- AMERI'S MOST INFLUENTIAL CHEF WAS GAY AS HELL
WHICH FOOD NETWORK CHEFS ARE GAY?
* gay food network chefs *
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. But when to mercial kchens, women are still unrpaid and unrreprented -- that go double for lbian 's no secret that the culary dtry is male-domated, but acrdg to gay and lbian chefs, the macho environment has ltle tolerance for anythg feme -- whether that be a woman or a gay man whom workers view as culary dtry's misogyny is well documented. Dpe numero gay and lbian personali on Bravo and Food Network, cludg Ted Allen of Chopped, Cat Cora of Around the World 80 Plat, Elizabeth Falkner of Iron Chef, San Feniger of Too Hot Tamal, Anne Burrell of Worst Cooks Ameri, and Top Chef's Art Smh, out chefs who work the dtry say they're still the mory.
WHO IS THE GAY TV CHEF?
"There don't tend to be a lot of gay chefs, " says Yig Pura, a gay pastry chef and wner of the first season of Top Chef: Jt Dserts, and who September opened his own San Francis shop, Tout Sweet Patisserie. Pura said the first chef he worked for was a lbian, so he didn't enunter much homophobia unr her learship. But unlike gay chefs, several lbian chefs reported ls bullyg due to their sexual orientatn and stead had to nont the sexist, male-domated mdset of the culary world.
Falkner beme San Francis's facto gay weddg ke baker wh her flagship bakery, Cizen Cake, known for s unique, creative nstctns, and s proximy to Cy Hall. "Pura stggl wh the same stereotypil assumptn, wh the poundg factor that people assume all pastry chefs are gay, he says. Elizabeth Falkner"Whether you're gay or straight, whether you're a Mlim, Christian, or Buddhist, people love food, " says Pura.
"I've found that [food is] actually a really homogenizg pot.
WHO IS FOOD WORK GAY CHEFS?
"When somethg is lic, there's no homophobia or hatred.
If they're gay, they're gay, but they are also great at what they do. "But the great chefs who happen to be gay and lbian aren't jt rtg on their lrels. Smh also partners wh Lady Gaga's Born This Way Foundatn and Brish gby player Ben Cohen's antibullyg 4 of Top Chef: Masters featured a married gay uple petg agast each other, both for Mae chari that promote LGBT equaly.
Magaret ChoFeniger ss on the board of the Los Angel Gay and Lbian Center and partners wh and donat to several chari. The gut of honor sisted that Feniger and Lachman attend the party, and proudly troduced the uple to his nservative horts as "my new gay iends. As a gay person of lor who emigrated om Ankara, Turkey, at the age of 12, Pura says he was a target for bulli high school.
AMERI'S MOST INFLUENTIAL CHEF WAS GAY AS HELL
"The thgs that I always thought ma me different and weak -- I've found that actually, my adult life, those are the thgs that make me really strong and set me asi as an dividual, " he 's more, the prsure on gay and lbian chefs n actually drive them to succeed, Pura ntends. Whether was issu of racism gay clubs, gay youth issu, issu specifilly pertag to black, queer people, I’ve kept an active profile.
Beg a gay culary figure is important to me bee ’s a legacy built on the shoulrs of Jam Beard, Craig Claiborne, Bill Neal, and many others. When I was wrg The Cookg Gene, beme very important to me to do what they uldn’t do, which was to say, hey, gay chefs e om gay kids who once dreamed of wowg people wh their food and flair. Even though we stggle wh anti-gay sentiment the morn food world and kchen, knowg that there are so many women, men, and trans dividuals the food world mak me feel scribably and eply nnected.
AMERI'S MOST INFLUENTIAL CHEF WAS GAY AS HELL
The Barefoot Contsa -- n't shake a spatula whout htg one of her many gay iends, who are forever lg about her fabulo East Hampton kchen. She, Pla Deen, Nigella Lawson, Sandra Lee, and the rt of the Scripps Networks' culary fag-hag harem have gay men tung to and TiVo-g the Food Network and the Cookg Channel by the uchful. But, strangely, for all of this pk pantry programmg, you won't fd a sgle out gay chef chiffonadg on eher work.
And y, 2005, Steve McDonagh and Dan Smh, two gay men (a uple no ls) won the first season of the Food Network's wildly popular realy petn The Next Food Network Star, and were award their own show, Party Le Wh the Hearty Boys, but after srg dismal ratgs was nceled wh a year. So, where exactly is the first (never md the next) gay Food Network star, and why hasn't he or she been disvered yet?
'We're always lookg to broan the diversy of our hosts, and we work hard to fd talent that has the expertise, charisma, and broad appeal necsary to work on our air, ' says Bob Tchman, general manager and senr vice print of the Food Network, one of several gay high-level executiv employed by Scripps.