QUEERS AT THE TABLE: An Illustrated Guide to Queer Food (with Recipes), a guide for those perplexed by the hows

QUEERS AT THE TABLE: An Illustrated Guide to Queer Food (with Recipes)
ALEX D. KETCHUM & MEGAN J. ELIAS (Editors)
Arsenal Pulp Press (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$11.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: An anthology of essays, comics, and recipes that reveals the dynamic and transformative relationship between queerness and food

Food has long played an important role in queer culture. Lesbian- and queer women–run feminist restaurants, cafes, and coffeehouses have been safe spaces for queer and trans folk where gender norms can be challenged and where female authority is legitimized. During the AIDS epidemic, gay men and their allies centered food as an expression of collective care for those who needed it most. And queer and trans folk have asserted themselves in a restaurant culture largely controlled by white cisgender men.

Queers at the Table celebrates the various intersections between queers and food. In its essays, comics, and recipes, the book shows how this shared culture fosters connections, defies norms, honours legacies, and creates community. Taylor Hartson and Tristian Lee write about a queer farming community in which queerness is part of a broad network of living things to be enjoyed and shared; Danielle Kydd writes about food security issues as faced by LGBTQ2S+ folk; and Blue Delliquanti's comic on urban foraging in Minneapolis demonstrates the role of a queer friend group in a local ecosystem.

In full color throughout, Queers at the Table is a diverse and enriching anthology that reveals the myriad nurturing ways that queerness informs food production and restaurant culture and how food empowers, transforms, and unites queer and trans folk.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Many are the queer folk who, throughout the decades, have no holiday cheer...they very often have no space to spend holidays that is accepting of them as they are. It's a painful passage to realize you can't go home for {insert food-centered holiday here} without hiding your self and/or receiving abuse. It knocks the Cindy-Lou-Who out of you, turning you into a grinch.

But...and this is key...someone has been here before you! They can show you fellowship via sharing their stories. It's axiomatic that food holidays are about community. It's becoming more and more understood that community comes in many types and styles. The queer people ou know will, I hope against hope, have a community with you...but even if they do, a reminder that their complicated feelings around food holidays are perfectly in keeping with those who have trodden this path before them can't hurt. Know someone young, or relocating, or just thinking afresh about their place among us? This is a great gift to give.

examples of essays in comics form

No book about food is going to be truly complete without some recipes! A newly-fledged wannabe host is likely to need a simple place to start, along with a visual reference to be sure there's at least some resemblance between product of labor and intended appearance.

A thoughtful presentation to address an ever-growing (sad to say) need.