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Queer Voices, Bold Flavors: A Cookbook Conversation

A collage of four people: a man preparing food in a kitchen, a woman eating outdoors, a man holding a dish outside, and a man with glasses posing against a plain background.
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April 23, 2026 6:30 pm

Omnivore Books
3885A Cesar Chavez St, San Francisco, CA

Free

Join award-winning food writers John Birdsall, Justin Burke, Soleil Ho, and Jon Kung for an engaging conversation about identity, storytelling, and the ways queer perspectives are reshaping the cookbook canon. Moderated by Omnivore Books’ Celia Sack, this panel brings together four distinct voices, from Birdsall’s deep culinary history to Burke’s innovative baking, Ho’s incisive food criticism, and Kung’s unapologetic cooking, to explore how their identities inform the food they create, the stories they tell, and the communities they build through recipes.

Expect sharp insights, generous laughter, and plenty of perspective on what it means to write a cookbook that’s as much about who you are as what you cook. Whether you’re a devoted home cook, a cookbook collector, or simply curious about the people behind the recipes you love, this is a rare chance to hear from authors who are changing what cookbooks can be and who they’re for.

Books available for purchase and signing. Our friends at Third Culture Bakery will be providing mochi muffins, too!

featuring

Soleil Ho
Soleil Ho is a cookbook author and journalist living in Berkeley. You can find them at @soleil_ho
John Birdsall
John Birdsall is the author of What Is Queer Food?: How We Served a Revolution (Norton, 2025) and The Man Who Ate Too Much: The Life of James Beard (Norton, 2020). He's the recipient of two James Beard Awards for food and culture writing. He lives in Tucson, Arizona. You can find him @john_birdsall
Jon Kung
Jon Kung is the popular Chinese American chef, content creator and podcast host, who has amassed an online following of more than 2 million people for his unique style of third culture cooking, blending cultural traditions, flavors and ingredients that are meaningful and personal to him. You can find him at @jonkung
Celia Sack
I started as a rare book specialist after college and fell in love with antiquarian cookbooks—especially Victorian-era guides on opening food businesses. Food books tell us more about cultures, traditions, and economies than any other subject. After a decade running a pet shop with my wife Paula, I opened Omnivore Books in 2008, at the bottom of the recession. I've evolved from a good cook to a great one through conversations with the incredible chefs and authors who've spoken here. What I love most is connecting customers with the right book—watching someone who couldn't boil water become a confident home cook. Getting to share this passion makes me feel like the luckiest person alive. You can find me at @omnivorebooks
Justin Burke
Justin Burke is an award-winning pastry chef, queer food writer, recipe developer, author of Potluck Desserts: Joyful Recipes to Share with Pride (Countryman Press, 2025), and podcast host of That Ate: Queer Food Podcast. Justin's writing has appeared in Eater, Food & Wine, Garden & Gun, Southern Living, Better Homes & Gardens, and more. Justin lives in Columbia, SC, with their husband and son. You can find him at @justintsburke