Though cooking is chef Leo Niehorster’s passion, working in a kitchen hasn’t always been a pleasant experience. As an LGBTQ+ person , navigating the hospitality sector comes with added complications. It shouldn’t be this way, but in 2024, it remains a reality for many chefs and waiters alike.
‘I have struggled working as a chef in restaurants as an LGBTQ+ person . The issues in restaurant kitchens aren’t just about being LGBTQ+ , it’s a general lack of diversity,’ 33-year-old Leo, who is bisexual and non-binary, tells Metro.co.
uk. ‘I worked in two restaurants last summer, and apart from one other chef, they were all straight white men. Being radically different, socially and culturally, from everyone else in the kitchen was very isolating.
I didn’t feel understood or supported.’ For Leo, being LGBTQ+ isn’t just about gender or sexuality: it’s about how they ‘navigate the world.’ ‘For me, realising that my gender and sexuality didn’t fit the social ‘norms’ or what was expected of me made me question everything else about society,’ Leo, who lives in Swansea, adds.
Leo believes that extensive change is needed across the hospitality industry, and that it needs ‘queering’ on the whole. ‘The entire industry needs to be queered, especially old fashioned, traditional and “fine dining” kitchens,’ Leo details. ‘We need representation, especially leadership, from LGBTQ+ people, but not just from those who are willing to fit in and foll.