The WOW Report

  • WOW Report
  • RuPaul’s DragCon
  • RuPaul’s Drag Race Live!
  • WOW Presents Plus
  • What to Watch
    • Backyard Envy
    • Dancing Queen
    • Fashion Photo RuView
    • Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles
    • Ministry of Evil
    • UNHhhh
    • Watch RuPaul’s Drag Race
  • Store
You are here: Home / Entertainment / Books / #QueerQuote: “I Believe That If Ever I Had to Practice Cannibalism, I Might Manage If There Were Enough Tarragon Around.” – James Beard

#QueerQuote: “I Believe That If Ever I Had to Practice Cannibalism, I Might Manage If There Were Enough Tarragon Around.” – James Beard

By Stephen Rutledge on May 5, 2019 8:32 am

Photo from “American Masters, PBS via YouTube

A Portland icon and probably the number one figure in American food culture, James Beard (1903-1995) briefly attended Reed College in Portland, although he was expelled for being gay in 1922. Reed granted Beard an honorary degree in 1976. In 1923 he joined studied voice and theater abroad until 1927, when he returned to the United States.

Beard didn’t invent American cuisine, but in many ways, he defined it for generations to come. Gay chef Craig Claiborne (1920-2000) declared Beard a “missionary in the gospel of bringing good cooking to the home table.” Julia Child said, “In the beginning, there was Beard“, a quote repeated by food critics to the point of cliché.

Beard’s influence is far-reaching: He pioneered food television with the first-ever network cooking series in 1946; he published two dozen books and hundreds of magazine and newspaper articles on cooking; his work inspired home cooks to no longer see food as mere sustenance but as a delightful, delicious entertainment.

He is the namesake for the annual James Beard Awards, which is sort of the Academy Award of Food. The awards ceremony is Monday night in Chicago. And though his impact was as immense as his 6’4″, 300 pound frame, another enormous part of Beard’s life hardly factors into his legacy: his queerness.

Beard came out as gay in his memoir, Delights And Prejudices (1981), yet given his legendary status, it’s surprising how his gayness is little more than a footnote to his career.

When he died of congestive heart failure in 1985, the obituaries made only winking references to his sexuality. Major biographies published in the 1990s: James Beard: A Biography And Epicurean Delight: The Life by Robert Clark and Times Of James Beard by Evan Jones, both straight men, treat it as an inconsequential detail. Even the current bio page on the website of the James Beard Foundation fails to mention his 30-year relationship with Gino Cofacci, a pastry chef and author of two cookbooks.

Beard was so monumental that it’s entirely possible to consider his career without mentioning his personal life. But can you easily remove Beard’s queerness from his culinary sensibilities, which so brazenly stood in contrast to American norms at the time?

It was the sexuality of three gay culinary masters: Beard, Claiborne, and Richard Olney (1927-1999). that played the major role in both the aesthetics of their cooking and, with their outsized influence on American food. They were part of a cultural shift in America that really embraced pleasure for its own sake.

The erasure of Beard’s queerness is just another course in the straight male-dominated culture in professional kitchens. Despite the increasingly visible presence of queer culinary celebrities, the back-of-the-house can still prove hostile to LGBTQ people and straight women. There is no quick-and-easy recipe for queer liberation, it’s hard, hot work.

Show the love:

  • Tweet
  • Share on Tumblr

Filed Under: Books, Celebs, Culture, Entertainment, Gay, History, LBGTQ, Retro

More

#QWERRRKOUT Tuesday: ANGEL Is The Centerfold!!!

#QWERRRKOUT Tuesday: ANGEL Is The Centerfold!!!

by Paisley Dalton on January 12, 2021 9:59 am

Stream: Adam Joseph “All That Bo?” feat. RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 13 Queens

Stream: Adam Joseph “All That Bo?” feat. RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 13 Queens

by Paisley Dalton on January 11, 2021 9:53 am

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Trending


Supercut of Trumpers Freaking TF Out After Being Put On the “No-Fly” List. Watch

UPDATE: Armie Hammer’s Ex Courtney Vucekovitch Says “He Wanted to Barbecue and Eat Me”

Backstage Video Shows Trump & Family Excited About Mob of “Awesome Patriots” & Rocking Out to “Gloria” Watch

Man Seen Carrying Pelosi’s Podium, Arrested (+ It Was For Sale on eBay!?)

Federal Officials Searching for Person Who Carved “TRUMP” onto the Back of a Mantee

About

From the creators of The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Party Monster, Million Dollar Listing, RuPaul's Drag Race, I Am Britney Jean, Big Freedia, and more.

Stacey Abrams! Kimye! Chaos at the Capitol! Georgia Goes Blue! It’s the WOW Report for Radio Andy!
The Top Ten Things You May Have Forgotten Happened in 2020!
“Santa Fa La La” from “The Jinkx & DeLa Holiday Special” is a Sexy Xmas R&B Grind. Watch
Tom Cruise! Meryl Streep! James Corden! Ann Reinking! Harry & Meghan! The WOW Report for Radio Andy!
Check Out Big Freedia’s XXXmas Wishlist in “Better Be” feat. Flo Milli

© 2019 World of Wonder Productions, Inc | World of Wonder is a trademark of World of Wonder Productions, Inc | Privacy

Copyright © 2021 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in