Boston is set to host the first weeklong Big Queer Food Fest. James Beard winner Karen Akunowicz shares what to expect.

“We need to make sure to continue to hold and create space, and to keep speaking out and showing up and being our loud and vibrant selves, not just for each other but for an entire generation of folks who are coming up,” Akunowicz says.

Akunowicz, 46, and I chatted about the festival, reflected on Boston’s evolution as a food city, discussed her favorite hangout near her home in West Roxbury, and reminisced about our favorite college-era tacos.

Why Boston?

[Founders] David Lewis and Chad Hahne started this as a series of pop-ups across the country, with queer chefs coming together in a very grassroots kind of way, as queer movements often do.

Last year, it was so well-received. We did the event at High Street Place. It sold out so quickly, and it was packed. I’d like to say that this a testament to the folks who live in the city and the folks who work in the city — not only queer folks, but the community that we have here.

I think that, in talking to the City of Boston and Meet Boston about coming back, the city wholeheartedly came in 100 percent. BAGLY is part of it as well, as well as our national sponsor, which is GLAAD. I think that it just goes to show this is not just a welcoming city but a city that’s all in for its LGBTQIA community.

This year’s event is bigger and longer: What’s the plan?

It isn’t just one panel featuring LGBTQIA voices. It’s not a gathering on the sidelines. It’s an entire, four-day festival that’s dedicated to showcasing, amplifying, and uplifting queer voices. There are dinners, discussions, cooking demos, and immersive experiences that are going to highlight the depth and diversity of queer contributions to the culinary world. I think it’s about creating space for our stories to be front and center, not just an afterthought.

The culmination of the event is a huge dine-around at High Street Place. Leading up to that, we’re hosting a dinner with visiting guest chefs at Bar Volpe. There are other dinners, experiences, and panels. If you can’t join on the last day for the grand tasting, there are so many other events that you can come out and support.

Can we talk a bit about your evolution in Boston as a queer chef? What was your journey like?

I’ve been working in restaurants since I was 17 years old, which is 30 years now. I’ve been working in Boston for 20-plus years. When I was coming up, whether I was working front of the house or when I started cooking, I didn’t see folks like me in leadership roles.

Restaurants, historically, have been places where those of us who have felt othered can find a home. It’s a place where we can feel like we fit, and there’s a lot of acceptance. However, we have not necessarily seen ownership and leadership by women, queer folks, or people of color in the past.

Little by little, that’s changing. The industry has historically been tough, hierarchical, male-dominated. Being a queer woman in the kitchen meant navigating spaces that weren’t necessarily built for me or built with me in mind.

Over time, you find your people. You find mentors, friends, and colleagues to support you, lift you up, and then you work to turn around and do the same for others. Change doesn’t come about quickly, and it often doesn’t come in leaps and bounds. It’s about making the small changes, walking forward, crawling forward, continuing to push forward, even when there are setbacks, even when it’s two steps forward and one step back.

What’s the difference between when you started out versus now? How has Boston changed culturally and culinarily?

I think Boston is an amazing, vibrant food city: One of the things I always say is that Boston is a city of neighborhoods, and I think that you need to dive into different neighborhoods to experience all of the different restaurants, food, and culture that the city has to offer.

I remember somebody writing to me and saying — this was a few years ago — that they can’t believe they could walk down West Broadway in South Boston and see Fox & the Knife with LGBTQIA flags in the window, celebrating pride. They said, “I would have never seen this in South Boston 10 years ago.” The fact that our city is changing in this way is heartening and important.

I think we’ve been a bit overlooked in the past. I think that little by little, nationally, we have begun to see more light shining on our food scene. Folks who wouldn’t necessarily have been able to open restaurants are opening restaurants that are amazing and are changing the food scene.

Really? Because I hear it from others: ‘It’s still so hard; the rents are too high.’

All of those things remain true. The rent is incredibly high. It’s a really high threshold to open a restaurant. … It’s an astronomical fee to get a liquor license to open a restaurant. It is not the easiest, but I think that there are folks who are continuously chipping away at it. Look at restaurants like Comfort Kitchen in Dorchester that have received national acclaim.

What was the turning point, and what has to happen to keep this momentum going?

I think what’s happening is that we’re releasing more affordable liquor licenses in different communities. I feel like I just read something that said there are more liquor licenses that have just been issued so parts of the city can continue to grow and become vibrant. I think restaurants are the fabric of our community, right? [We need to] create opportunities for more restaurants across the city and not just in places like the Seaport.

What’s new and amazing? Or where would you like to eat if you could?

I think that Jamie Bissonnette’s new restaurant, Somaek, is an amazing addition to our culinary scene, as well as his Temple Records. I go to a lot of the same places that I’ve gone to for years. I think that one of the things that’s also important is that it’s not about the newest, brightest, and shiniest thing. It’s restaurants like Sarma that have been open for over a decade. They opened in a neighborhood [in Somerville] where there wasn’t much of anything else.

It’s [those] restaurants that I’m also so proud of and that I continue to go back to. We stand on the shoulders of folks like that.

What drew you to Boston?

I’m originally from New Jersey. I did my undergrad in social work at UMass Amherst. The summer before I graduated, I worked as an intern at the State House for Representative Ellen Story of Amherst. I lived here that summer, and I just became enamored with it. I loved how walkable the city was. I didn’t have a car. I took public transportation, and I walked everywhere.

I continue to live in Boston proper. I raise my family here. I live in West Roxbury, and then my restaurants are in South Boston as well as at Logan Airport. I’ve lived in Jamaica Plain, Allston, Brighton, Brookline, Bay Village, and Roslindale, all over 20 years.

I was at Mount Holyoke when you were in Amherst, and I really miss Cha Cha Cha in Northampton.

It was so good! And then it turned into a Bueno Y Sano — I loved the original Bueno Y Sano, the tiny little one in Amherst Center. I still remember my order. I used to get a chicken taco with yogurt and black beans.

I always got the yogurt, never the sour cream.

Always the yogurt.

Last but not least: What’s your neighborhood hangout?

Porter Cafe in West Roxbury. I’ve known the guys who own it forever. It’s a great little bar. After having my daughter, I’m like: ‘OK, can we go to a restaurant? Can we take this tiny baby to a restaurant that’s not Fox & the Knife?’ Everyone was so kind. We walk there from our house. Everyone’s always welcoming and inviting. I don’t want to say it’s a dive bar, but it’s a hole in the wall spot that has been there for a long time, and it’s one of those places that make the neighborhood great.

Interview has been edited and condensed.

Kara Baskin can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @kcbaskin.