On a recent taping of SiriusXM’s Derek and Romaine Show , host Romaine Patterson was chewing the fat with Ted Allen, host of Food Network’s Chopped, when Allen spilled that his FN colleague Anne Burrell (Secrets of a Restaurant Chef) was in a relationship with a woman.
At one point in their chat, Patterson dished “I have the biggest crush on [Anne]—whether she is a lesbian or not, she’s my girl!”
Allen saucily replied, “I’m not going to put a label on Anne, but she is dating a woman right now.” The former Queer Eye star explained he’d recently met Anne’s new ladyfriend, who works at the Chicago eatery Avec. “She was really cool—you’ve got some competition.”
We hear the chemistry is so hot she sets Anne’s hair on end.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
The full interview airs Monday, May 21 at 9:30pm on SiriusXM OutQ 108.
Malky
Well I’m not really surprised.
Dr Jeff
I’m not connecting the dots…. why in the world would it matter what her preferences and/or proclivities are?
I’m straight… have a gay brother… so? Let’s stop the silliness of labels… Individuals are just that… individuals… Some think individuals are born with a specific orientation…. Others believe it’s a learned/chosen preference. As long as what we do or so is legal and doesn’t bring harm to anyone, then why would we need to report on such things.
Agendas cannot be advanced when we engage in such pettiness. There are those in the straight world who have more openmindness than those I’ve seen writing for publications such as this one. There are far more issues (gay or otherwise) upon which we should focus.
BTW: I love watching Anne! I’ve learned so much from her relative to culinary technique and expertise. Plus, her 3 time victory on Worst Cooks in America certainly gives hope to those of us who are learning.
eames
I had the absolute pleasure of meeting Anne at a mutual friend’s birthday party earlier this year. Charming, genuine, gracious – she’s a delight. Whomever she’s dating, regardless of gender, should count themselves lucky. And, her cookbook is great, too.
Red Assault
@Dr Jeff: how about you shut it?
While many of us were growing up our only gay role models were either big, cringe-worthy freaks like Boy George & Liberace or stars who died of AIDS like Freddy Mercury and Rock Hudson.
Had we had a few positive role models and seen that we would be able to grow up to be anything I wanted and not a singing clown or a depressed, lonely drug addict… that might have been nice.
“Gay” is not a label. It’s a word to describe what we are. You say that you’re straight and then whine about labels?
Really?
You say that openly talking about the personal lives of gay people can’t advance an “Agenda?” Hm… so we can have every entertainment magazine in the world go on and on about the romantic lives of straight people but gay people will only gain equality if we hide from you and never talk about being gay?
I don’t think so.
kawneekwa
I bets they toss a nice salad together, oh yessah!
yaoming
“Red Assault” rocks.
MJ
did he just out her? I that there was an unwritten rule about outing one of your own?
shannon
FUNNY….SHE SAID SHE WAS “LOOKING FOR A RELATIONSHIP WITH A MAN” IN A LOCAL MAG………..LOLOL
Carlos
Clearly you’ve never heard of bisexuality shannon.
DrewSF
Red Assault chill with the issues Mary.
I’m a gay man but my sexuality is just an aspect of me and not my entire being as a person.
I thought that Freddie Mercury was wonderful even if he was bisexual and died of AIDS.
Dr. Jeff-Sexual orientation is NOT learned/chosen. Did you decide or make the choice to be straight?
Red Assault
@DrewSF: no, I will not “chill.”
I’m not going to have some straight person come here, tell us that they’re straight but that we should keep quiet about about sexual orientation or we’ll never get our “Agenda.” Whatever that means.
Nor did I say being gay was my entire being as a person…I said it would have been nice to know that I could grow up to be something other than a weirdo who would die of AIDS. I would have felt like less of a freak if I knew that there were plenty of great gay people all over the place and not just the creepy uncle everyone laughed at on Bewitched.
Justin
I really hope he had Anne’s permission to reveal that tidbit, because outing someone is kind of a douchey thing to do.
Mike in Asheville
@Red Assault:
Well Red, your comments too are partially true but not fully accurate. Indeed there were no shows on TV featuring teen gay kids singing in their high school, talent shows featuring gays/lesbians, movies with positive gay themes, etc.
And, thousands of gay men did die of AIDS. BUT, millions more lived on, grabbed their community, and forged change. My view is most definitely skewed from growing up in my teens in the SF Bay Area: and there were many heros who were/are just being themselves and actively changing the homophobia of the general community: Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City was published everyday in the Chronicle (started in Marin and included time at the Examiner), Harvey Milk championed equality — EVEN GETTING RONALD REAGAN TO PUBLICLY DENOUNCE THE BRIGGS INITIATIVE (a proposal to ban gays/lesbians from public school employment), Quintin Crisp the unabashed “Naked Civil Servant” and Larry Kramer publishing their thoughts….
There are thousands of life stories of those of us who did persevere … that is how, after all that struggling, that today the battle is over MARRIAGE EQUALITY. Sure there is much much more to do, but don’t neglect the fact that gay rights have surged in the last 30 years, from public opinion that same-sex sex should be illegal to a majority, slim as it is, that supports marriage equality.
All that aside, you are absolutely right that there not be a retreat into quiet hiding closets — out loud and out proud.
jason
With women, it’s different. Women don’t need to be aroused in order to have a sexual relationship with someone. Their relationships are often based on convenience and not the genuine, pulsating sexuality that men are known for.
If that grates on some, so be it. I’m not here to be PC in the name of preserving this revolting liberal coalition.
Chris
@jason: Have you been with a woman? They have sex drives too.
brixnation
Red Assault suffers from foot-in-mouth disease, apparently.
Freddie Mercury was a “singing clown”?
Wow, your ignorance is markedly worse than those you criticize.
Had you lived through the AIDS crisis and watched all your friends die (according to your implication, their fault) you probably would have just a bit more empathy for those who suffered through it.
Shame on you.
Danny
Gotta side with RedAssault here. Can’t agree with heteros who come here to tell us to stay hushed about other’s sexuality. Dr Jeff, it’s great that you feel there are more important issues to focus on, and very easy for you to say as your civil rights aren’t violated on a daily basis in this country. When I get the opportunity to vote on your right to marry, you can come back and bitch at us here then.
brixnation, I’m guessing the “singing clown” comment applies to Boy George, not Freddy Mercury. I’m also going to go out on a limb and suggest that RedAssault isn’t didn’t intend any disrespect to Mr. Mercury (I happen to be a big fan of Queen), and simply pointing out that some of the few out gay or bi public figures from the 70’s and 80’s died of AIDS isn’t in any way disrespectful. It’s simply a fact (a fact that led to additional discrimination against non-heterosexuals, right or wrong).
Mike in Asheville, it’s great that you grew up in the Bay area, but can you imagine what it was like for those of us who grew up in Middle America? None of your references were on our radar back in the day. My experience growing up more closely matched what RedAssault described so it’s not fair to posit that just because one metro area on the west coast was more progressive back in the day, everybody else’s experiences of a childhood with virtually NO gay/bi role models is insignificant.
Red Assault
@brixnation: ugh. No. Freddy Mercury was the guy who stayed in the closet publicly until he was outed on his death bed. Like Rock Hudson. We all knew. But he never told.
the singing clowns were Boy George and Liberace.
Red Assault
My point was – and I figured that this was obvious – that we had no positive gay role models.
The only famous gay people were either drag queens like Boy George and Divine, creepy weirdos like Charles Nelson Riley and Paul Lynde or guys who were only outed once they were about to die of HIV. (I guess we had Holly johnson, but that’s about it)
We didn’t have Zachary Quinto, Matt Bomber, John Barrowman, Gareth Thomas or the “can you hear me now” guy.
I loved Freddie and think he was wonderful. But he never publicly came out until the last moment which furthered the idea that being gay people all lived secret lives of sex and drugs and died young. Not really what we all wanted to aspire to.
MikeUK
Red Assault quit revising history. Freddie Mercury was out as bisexual for decades before he died from AIDS.
Red Assault
@MikeUK: Yeah…. no, not really.
Out to his friends, yes. He never claimed to have girlfriends, no. But he never really publicly talked about it. It was one of those “open secrets” which actually made it worse… sent the message that you could be one o’ them queers but you better not talk about it.
The Real Mike in Asheville
@Danny: Danny, actually, I can and do relate to my gay brethren from the Mid West, for I was one too, before we moved to California from a small town in the Indiana country side. And even back in the early 1970s, at least this then gay boy found first boy-on-boy action with an Indiana neighbor/friend.
The gay role models of day — certainly fewer and less well-known than the many more of today — nonetheless were there if you could find the way to find them. And those were the ones who lived and learned and continued the march.
The shift in public support, as so well demonstrated in the marriage-equity movement did not happen out of a vacuum. It happened because those role models of the 1970s became the movers of the 1980s, and then to the 1990s, with successes limited to very small circles (the initial marriage effort began in Hawaii, with the first state Supreme Court taking our side in 1995/6.
It is unfortunate and sad that to find the freedom to be so many had to move to major cities; but it was those who sought out their journey who built a movement that now allows “The Glee” generation their chance. Not perfect, certainly movement in the right direction.
MikeUK
Red Assault-Actually yes Freddie Mercury did claim to have girlfriends and he left some of his estate to ‘the love of his life’ Mary Austin.
Mary explains, ‘Being a bit naive, it had taken me a while to realise the truth. Afterwards he felt good about having finally told me he was bisexual.’ Mary decided to move out, but Freddie insisted she shouldn’t move too far from him.
Freddie was not closeted and was out as bisexual here in the UK and in the United States as well.
b
@Red Assault: You sound like a whiney bitch who bitching for the sake of bitching. Just shut up.
Frank
Now I understand the turkey baster joke…