Tenth International Conference on Food Studies

Abstract

In the past, popular publications like Eater Magazine and HuffPost have attempted to grapple with the question, What is queer food? Most of these popular pieces conclude that queer food is flamboyant food, or food made by queer people. In this paper, I propose a new type of queer food politics and argue that vegan cuisine is “queer food” based on three criteria: 1). Vegan food troubles established food ontologies, and challenges what one thinks of as acceptable food, 2.) Vegan food must counter attacks on its authenticity by a hegemonic, meat-centric, American foodscape, and 3.) Vegan food is part of a subversive politics seeking to undermine American food nationalism built on violence against nonhuman animals and the exploitation of our natural resources. In these ways, vegan cuisine is aligned politically with the myriad theoretical uses of the word “queer,” because vegan food is perceived by the dominant food culture as queer or strange, because vegan food engages in queer political performativity, and because queer people are invested in making and promoting queer cuisine. In this paper, I will analyze restaurant menus, vegan products, faux meats, and eating and cooking practices to show how vegan cuisine performs a queer politics, and answer, in greater detail, the question, What is queer food?