Photo: Drea Catalano
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Big Queer Food Fest makes its way to Boston on Monday, kicking off the week-long culinary experience.
The fest was founded by David Lewis and Chad Hahne in 2023 in Los Angeles as a way to celebrate queer identity through food.
“The community has always been very influential in the culinary space, but for a long time we couldn’t be present,” Hahne said. “We couldn’t be open, we couldn’t be out of the closet or the kitchen.”
Hahne mentioned how famous chef James Beard was gay, and his identity left a massive impact on the culinary world.
“James Beard was a gay man, and that greatly influenced how he cooked, it influenced his cookbooks, and therefore influenced how America eats and thinks about food,” he said.
Lewis reaffirmed this statement, while also adding that those aspects of Beard's life and many other queer culinary icons have been brushed aside.
“There’s so many figures that are so important to it that had to leave their identity in the kitchen,” he said.
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This fest places the importance of that queer identity back into the food, with a week’s worth of events that include numerous dinners, tastings and panels of chefs from all over the country. Lewis talked about the ones he was most excited for.
“We’re doing a cocktail competition, the finale of a three-part series at Shore Leave on Wednesday night, called Cocktail Wars. Then we have a huge party at the Boston Tea Party Museum on Thursday, a big queer tea party,” he said. “Everything is all leading up to our Grand Tasting in High Street Place and on High Street, the whole block of it, in downtown Boston on Saturday and Sunday.”
Hahne was just as excited for these events, while also looking forward to Boston residents experience the food at all of the events.
“To see the look on Bostonian’s faces when they try some of the best food they’ve ever had,” Hahne said.
The full list of events can be found on the Big Queer Food Fest website.
WBZ NewsRadio's Suzanne Sausville (@WBZSausville) reports.