Gay chefs

Now that the show has just recently begun its 19th season, taking place in Houston, we're taking a look back at 32 of the LGBTQ+ chefs that have appeared on the show. Scroll through to meet. From the person who made history as the Food Network’s first openly queer show host, to out and proud chefs using their time on the juggernaut reality competition series Top Chef as a springboard to international fame, here are seven iconic queer food personalities who have been born out of culinary television.

We spoke with five members of the LGBTQIA+ community in New York to discover how their personal challenges yielded professional triumphs: Chef Mary Attea of One MICHELIN Star The Musket Room and Raf’s; Chef Telly Justice and sommelier Camille Lindsley of HAGS; Chef Jeremy Salamon of MICHELIN Bib Gourmand Agi’s Counter; and sommelier Brendan.

From Top Chef Queen Melissa King to up-and-coming chefs like Ashleigh Shanti, this list of queer chefs you need to know about will introduce you to great cuisiniers, delicious food, and maybe even your new culinary crush. The site reports that a male executive chef makes, on average, $17, more a year than a female executive chef. Despite numerous gay and lesbian personalities on Bravo and Food Network, including.

We aim to break boundaries, think outside of binaries and build bridges within our communities and beyond. Stay connected, and tell a friend. As much as queer representation has become prominent in a multitude of television productions, one area that still feels lacking are those within the food realm. Though a handful of individuals made exciting headway in the late s to early s, when it comes to queer food TV personalities, it seems like representation took a break for almost a decade.

There are plenty of reasons why this could be. Restaurant kitchens have long been known for their subpar working conditions, ridden with harassment and assault issues. Likewise, culinary programming has placed a clear focus on diversity in casting, and Top Chef is certainly an exemplar in that regard. Every person has a slightly different idea of what a celebrity means.

When I was a younger gay, there were hardly any openly gay men to look up to in the Food Network realm. His love of food and drink led him to be cast in the ensemble cast of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy in In , with the debut of Chopped , he made Food Network history as the first openly queer host of a food television series. Chopped became a huge sensation and is currently in its 53rd season—wow!

The series wound up spawning international franchises such as Chopped Canada as well as offshoots like Chopped Junior. But Crawford is nothing short of a Canadian culinary icon. The show was equal parts hilarious and informative, and helped cement Crawford as a true Food Network Canada star.

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Her late Toronto restaurant Ruby Watchco, which she co-owned with her wife, Lora Kirk, celebrated daily menu refreshes and hyper-locality long before that mentality was in vogue. The James Beard Award—winning Elizabeth Falkner has done plenty in her multi-decade career, from owning restaurants in San Francisco and New York to competing on shows like Top Chef Masters , which helped her achieve celebrity chef status, and even taking the top spot at the World Pizza Championships in Naples with a unique pizza topped with fennel, fronds, flowers and pollen.

Her two cookbooks, Demolition Desserts and Cooking Off the Clock , were released in and respectively. With an active career of 23 years and counting, the Portland-based Gourdet has long been a culinary talent worth noting. His runner-up finish on the 12th season of Top Chef helped make him a household name in North America and even scored him a guest appearance on the beloved comedy series Portlandia the following year.

Though he has yet to clinch that TC crown, Gourdet is now a resident judge on the popular competition series. What followed was much fanfare, a huge social media following and what appears to be a permanent resident judge position on Top Chef since their season win. In summer , they became the first Top Chef alum to attend the famed Met Gala, sporting a sharp tux and Chinese empress nail guards to fit the gilded glamour theme.

Her first book, Kristen Kish Cooking , was released in The following year, the chef opened her first restaurant, Arlo Grey, which is located in Austin, Texas. A celebrated actor in his own right, many may not know that the husband of Neil Patrick Harris is also a trained and active chef. Burtka trained at the Pasadena campus of the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu in before launching his own private chef and catering company in L.

Before his hands-on love of food and work as a chef, he hosted a short-lived series on the Cooking Channel called Celebrity Dish that explored celebrity-owned eateries across the United States. Dan Clapson is a Calgary-based food and lifestyle writer. Communication not private: Your email will be forwarded to the writer by an Xtra editor.

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