Real Men Eat Cupcakes: Dude Food

Men are taking back the kitchen..

Of course plenty of men have always enjoyed cooking. What’s different now is that so many of them aren’t just men? they’re guys, they’re dudes, they’re bros.

The bros are a subculture that’s been closely associated with take out pizza and happy hour chicken wings. When they venture into their man-cave kitchens, they’ve been best known for barbeque skills and beer can chicken, eschewing anything as wussy-ass as salads and vegetables and any dish that requires a recipe. But this new breed of food dudes is stretching its culinary muscles.

Men make up about one-third of the audience for food-oriented web sites.

Even online, the bros like to hang with other bros. They cluster at web sites that focus on simplicity and efficiency in techniques and ingredients. They are turned off by fussiness. They’d rather stew than poach, grill than bake. Bring on the garlic and oregano; pass on the tofu and tarragon.

New online media are looking to tap into the bro market with content geared toward their sensibilities. There are earnest attempts to create online food communities and tongue-in-cheek content of the ‘manly man-food for men’ variety. For most of them, you can follow your nose because there is sure to be bacon cooking.

ManTestedRecipes.com is an offshoot of top food site Allrecipes.com. Look for dishes like Irish stew made with a couple of bottles of Guinness, and lots of barbeque sauce variations.

Baron Ambrosia comes across like the love-child of Anthony Bourdain and Ali G. His public access cable show, Bronx Tour is streamed online.

A couple of chips off the old block,  the sons of TV chef Paula Deen have launched a cooking magazine for men. The Deen Bros Good Cooking magazine expects to publish six issues a year by 2011.

The blog Dudes on Foods calls itself a sanctuary for the modern-day man.

Cook Man Food aims to elevate cooking skills so that ‘good food, good friends, a good drunken story’ can be accessible to every dude.

Men in the Kitchen is a popular group within the online community The Art of Manliness. Sign up and they’ll send you their group writing project, The Man Cookbook.

For the ultimate bro treat, stop by New York City’s Butch Bakery (where butch meets buttercream). They’re baking up manly varieties like the Driller (maple cake with bacon), the Jackhammer (chocolate and hazelnut), and the Beer Run (iced with beer-infused buttercream and chopped pretzels). Not a drop of pink icing or sprinkles in sight.