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Queer Books About Food, Restaurants And Baking

Updated: Apr 18, 2023

This month is one for the foodies - we're taking a look at LGBT books about food, restaurants and baking. From gay rivals-to-lovers to cooking competitions and slice-of-life queer manga, here are 12 sweet and tasty LGBTQ+ books based around food and cooking that everyone should read:


1. Bloom

Reading age: 14+


Bloom is a sweet monochromatic graphic novel about Ari, a teenager working in his family's struggling bakery. It's a story about baking, music and being true to yourself with a very sweet slow-burn MLM romance and a diverse cast of characters. Perfect for fans of Heartstopper.


- Baking and music

- Slow-burn romance

- Lighthearted



2. Café Con Lycee

Reading age: 14+


Café Con Lychee is a queer contemporary romance for young adult readers featuring an M/M interracial romance where both characters are POC. A heartfelt and engaging read with a diverse cast of characters about two rival cafés, family, friends and finding yourself.


- Rivals to lovers

- Mutual pining

- Food puns



3. Chef's Kiss: A Novel

Reading age: 18+


Chefs kiss is a hilarious and emotional slow-burn, enemies to friends to lovers queer romantic comedy with a non-binary love interest. Chef's Kiss follows Simone (a highly-strung pastry chef) and her wildly attractive nonbinary kitchen manager, Ray. A queer grumpy/sunshine romantic comedy book.


- Nonbinary love interest

- Queer grumpy/sunshine torpe

- Sapphic rom-com



4. Manly Appetites: Minegishi Loves Otsu

Reading age: 14+


Manly Appetites is a lighthearted, sweet and funny BL manga about two businessmen co-workers who bond over food. Minegishi loves to feed his grumpy co-worker, Otsu. Otsu might be taking the food, but he's not taking the bait and refuses to be charmed like everyone else in the office!


- BL office romance

- Food positivity

- The best way to a man's heart is through his stomach



5. Chef's Kiss

Reading age: 17+


Chef’s Kiss is a cute, gay slice-of-life graphic novel following loveable cinnamon roll Ben Cook. After falling into a job at a local restaurant (and developing a crush on Liam, one of the chefs that work there), Ben has to impress the head chef and his pet pig Watson with his cooking. Chef's Kiss is a funny, fast-paced LGBTQ+ romance with a lovable, diverse cast of characters..


- Hot coworkers

- Beautiful artwork

- Feed the piggy!



6. Love and Other Disasters

Reading age: 18+


Love & Other Disasters is a queer contemporary rom-com about a cooking competition with a pansexual non-binary protagonist and a sapphic love interest. A lighthearted, funny and at times emotional sapphic comedy with the occasional spicy scene thrown in for good measure.


- Dual POV F/NB romance

- Grumpy/sunshine trope

- Mutual pining



7. Space Battle Lunchtime

Reading age: 10+


Space Battle Lunchtime is a fast-paced science fiction adventure series of graphic novels with an adorable lesbian alien romance that builds throughout. Earth baker Peony joins a culinary competition to become the best cook in the Galaxy but her alien competitors don't play nice.


- Sapphic aliens

- Cute graphic novel series

- The Great British Bake Off in space



8. Our Dining Table

Reading age: 14+


Our Dining Table is a sweet and wholesome slice-of-like BL manga about cooking, eating and family. This lighthearted manga follows Yutakaas after he meets two brothers who ask him to teach them how to make delicious food. It’s not long before Yutaka finds himself loving the meals they share together and possibly falling in love himself.


- MLM Boys Love romance

- Family and food

- Slice-of-life manga



9. Rosaline Palmer Takes The Cake

Reading age: 17+


Rosaline Palmer Takes The Cake is a sweet, lighthearted queer romance set in the world of a competitive British baking show. The book follows bisexual single mum Rosaline as she enters a reality baking competition in the hopes of giving her daughter a better future. Expect love triangles, self-love and personal growth.


- The Great British Bake Off but make it gay.

- Bisexual f/m romance

- Kisses and cakes



10. The Summer of Bitter and Sweet

Reading age: 15+


The Summer of Bitter and Sweet is a complex YA contemporary romance with fantastic ace/demi representation. Lou is working in her family’s ice cream shack over the summer with her ex-boyfriend whose kisses never made her feel desire. It's an emotional story of growth and self-discovery with a lot of potential triggers. (Check triggers before reading).


- Asexual summer romance

- Diverse cast

- Ice cream is delicious



11. The Dos and Donuts of Love

Reading age: 14+


The Dos and Donuts of Love is a pun-filled YA sapphic romance about a teenage girl who enters a televised baking competition, only to discover her ex-girlfriend is a fellow contestant as well as a potential new crush. Is this a second chance? Or a recipe for disaster?


- Irish TV cooking competition

- Baking puns

- Bangladesh-Irish MC



12. Fake Dates and Mooncakes

Reading age: 13+


Fake Dates and Mooncakes is a heartfelt, joyful paperback original rom-com that follows an aspiring chef who discovers the recipe for love is more complicated than it seems when he starts fake-dating a handsome new customer.


- Fake dating romance

- Heartstopper meets Crazy Rich Asians

- Southeast Asian culture



Bonus: The Heartbreak Bakery

Reading age: 14+


The Heartbreak Bakery is a queer Young Adult fantasy romance with an agender bisexual main character, demisexual trans/non-binary love interest and a diverse queer cast. Teen Baker, Syd, send ripples of heartbreak through Austin’s queer community when a batch of post-being-dumped brownies turns out to be magical—and makes everyone who eats them break up.


- Super gay urban fantasy

- Queer café

- Magic brownies




Have we missed your favourite queer food-based book? Send us a message on twitter @ProudGeekStore or email us at contact@proud-geek.co.uk ✌


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