The New Paranoia: "Queer Food"

The New York Times Book Review judges two books this week under the headline, “Taste the Rainbow:” “Dining Out” [cute, no], and “What is Queer Food?” The books appear to be serious analyses by their respective authors and are published by respected mainstream publishers. I haven’t read them.

There is a paranoid tinge to the notion of homosexual and lesbian edibles. As an observer of paranoid behavior in everyday life, such as the phrase “I’ll tell the world!” and the famous paranoid finger symptom, ascribing a sexual identity to foods is similar to the paranoid avoidance of inanimate objects. For example, “that fire hydrant is after me!” or “I don’t walk on the cracks in the sidewalk cement.” The idea of a perceived gay potato comes to mind.

The books point out that there were gay restaurants (Pfaff’s Saloon, where Walt Whitman was a regular, opened in Greenwich Village in 1856!) Some developed gay clientele even though they weren’t established as gay. An example of surreptitious gayness was the Automat where rapid turnover, communal seating and anonymity “created inconspicuous venues to meet and cruise” according to the Times review.

While the authors are on strong ground in identifying queer venues, not so in announcing queer food. (Whatever the venue “drag brunch” has never been about the food.)

Finally one of the authors hits on a major queer food, quiche lorraine, inaccurately called just “quiche” in the books. This savory French tart (hello!) has been a staple of gay brunch menus (and of straight ones too although the books’ authors don’t admit it).

During the period of overt homophobia (there’s plenty now but not so overt) quiche lorraine was a symbol of queerness and Bruce Fierstein’s humorous 1982 look at masculinity made it clear that “real men” don’t eat it.”

But today, as queers are so much under the gun and in real danger from deranged bigots, is an inopportune time to blast out the dubious notion of the existence of queer food.