“They say the way to the heart is through the stomach. Love is love. Food is love.”
For Pride Month, BuzzFeed chatted with 11 out and proud leaders in the food industry to celebrate the varied and changing faces of the culinary world.
In recent years, the food world has finally highlighted the diversity of the industry (as demonstrated by this year's Food & Wine's "Best New Chefs" list) starting to change the dated perception of what a chef looks like.
Ryan Pattie/Buzzfeed
Kristen Kish
Job: cook, author of Kristen Kish Cooking: Recipes and Techniques
Location: constant traveler
What is your favorite part of your job?
My job has a lot of moving parts and it is hard to pick just one. The common theme I can thread through all of my “jobs” is meeting and connecting with new faces. Whether I’m cooking, traveling, taking meetings, attending TV appearances, or trying new restaurants, I always love meeting the people I cross paths with.
What is the hardest part of your job?
I still have a hard time letting go of expectations from outside factors and ones I place on myself. "Hard" is relative, but if I step back and look at my work as a whole, I can’t help but be grateful. Challenging moments happen every day, but having a firm grasp on being open to risk, growth, and having a controlled sense of disorder and uncertainty help out. Working hard, remaining grateful, and cultivating a life that works for me is a lot to manage, but it's really all about perspective.
Kristen Kish
Now that you're an influencer in the food world, do you plan to use that platform to talk about queer issues and support the queer community?
Outside of partnering and supporting LGBTQ organizations, the best thing I can do is be openly me — not just being gay, but all aspects that continue to show that we can all be unapologetically and gracefully ourselves while being empathetic and supportive of everyone doing wonderfully positive things for our communities and beyond.
via BuzzFeed/Food
