“Queer Food” with Alex Ketchum and Megan Elias

What is queer food, you ask? Let’s find out! Alex Ketchum and Megan Elias tell me all about the connections between gender and food, cooking and sexuality, and recipes and community. The amazing book Queers at the Table is a product of the queer food conference Alex and Megan ran in 2024 (returning in 2026!) and consists of essays, stories, comics and endlessly inspiring reflections on queer cooking and intellectual inquiry. Lesbian chefs, feminist cafes, queer community cookouts – this episode has them all.  References:Queers at the Table (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2025)Alex Ketchum’s Ingredients for Revolution: A History of American Feminist Restaurants, Cafes, and Coffeehouses (Concordia UP, 2022)https://press.library.concordia.ca/projects/ingredients-for-revolution (open access)Megan Elias’ Food on the Page (Penn Press, 2017)Queer Food Conferencehttps://www.queerfoodconference.com/@queerfoodconferenceAlex Ketchum’s How to Organize Inclusive Events and Conferences (Microcosm, 2026)https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/books/63461Alex Ketchum’s Digital Queers and High Tech Gays (MIT Press, 2027)@dr.alexketchumhttp://alexketchum.caAlex Ketchum’s Engage in Public Scholarship!: A Guidebook on Feminist and Accessible Communication (Concordia Uni Press, 2022)https://press.library.concordia.ca/projects/engage-in-public-scholarship (open access)https://www.justfeministtechandscholarshiplab.com/Greggor MattsonPrism ComicsQueer Food FoundationThe Female Glaze@thefemaleglazeThe Nonbinarian Bookstorehttps://thenonbinarian.gay/Bishakh Som’s SpellboundCait McKinney’s Information Activism: A Queer History of Lesbian Media TechnologiesThe Ripped BodiceCasey McQuiston’s The Pairing  Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:     How do Megan and Alex define queer food?     Megan thinks about what ‘not queer food’ might be and whether we would want to define this. What is your opinion? Is there ‘straight’ food?     How is gender connected to food? Were you surprised by anything we mention?     What connections do Megan and Alex draw between sexuality and food?     Alex and Megan speak a lot about community. Can you name two examples of how community makes food queer?     How might food be linked to queer knowledge production?