What to make of food’s claim to queerness? John Birdsall, the author of a 2020 biography of James Beard, makes immensely satisfying strides in answering the question in his book’s title—What Is Queer Food?—and in the process shares an approach for future writers, cooks and scholars ... What Is Queer Food? puts the sensual and the sensory at the fore, and it pulsates with hunger for what’s possible when queer life and expression is examined through food.
Eye-opening ... Birdsall’s best insights derive from individual profiles that chart broader shifts and power struggles in queer life ... Combining a novelistic imagination with razor-sharp analysis, Birdsall fills in historical gaps to highlight the resiliency of queer people and cast the culture of food and dining as an unlikely but powerful symbol of resistance. Readers will be eager to dig in.
