Mr. Bake on creating space for queer chefs of color
Ever since his daily subway ride in high school, textbook in one hand and cake box in the other, Kareem Queeman has been balancing baking, career, joy, and representation.
Queeman, a gay man, is best known as Mr. Bake. Emboldened by his grandmother, who embodied the dynamic spirit of his close-knit family, Queeman took to the Kitchenaid and never looked back.
Known for custom cakes and Southern classic desserts that “give you that nostalgic feeling,” he says, he’s now a James Beard Semifinalist for the 2023 Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker, a reality TV baking competition star, and proud bakery owner at the La Fantome Food Hall in Riverdale Park, Md. “I want to make space for Black and queer food business.
There’s not many queer people of color in this space, and I want to help open those doors,” he says. Before he went oven-to-oven against Bobby Flay and started sending his cupcakes across the country, Queeman grew up in Harlem, with a grandmother who gave him space to pursue his passion.
