Amanda talks to Chris about becoming a baker and the reason why he is moving out of San Pedro with his husband.
EPISODE DATE: 06/06/2019
By Tracy Bueno
June is Pride Month and in today’s episode, Amanda talks with Chris Tucker, who is described as a “Southern baker with a French twist,” about his journey from hairstylist to baker and his experience living in San Pedro with his husband Jonathan. Chris was born and raised outside of Orlando, Florida when he started baking with his grandmother as a young kid. He talked about how his grandmother would come during the holidays and cook, which is where he instilled a passion for the kitchen. When she died of lung cancer when he was in middle school, Chris took on making her recipes for family gatherings during the holidays and said it was fun. Also, he would spend his summers at a Southern restaurant his other grandparents owned that sparked his interest in baking.
Chris was a hairstylist for eight years and competed on ABC’s last season of “The Great American Baking Show.” It wasn’t until a couple of years ago he honed his craft by incorporating his own recipes and that was how he transitioned to baking as a career. He met his husband Jonathan at a church in Hollywood where they were in a choir. One day, after rehearsal they went out for drinks and the rest is history. They got married in San Pedro in September 2017, where they fell in love with the town and bought a house, making the move from Culver City.
Then Chris explained why he and Jonathan made the heartbreaking decision to move out of San Pedro. He says the community wasn’t welcoming and it was like they were singled out as a gay couple. Chris felt like he had to hide while Jonathan would dress down to blend in with the crowd. He also shared being discriminated and harassed, something he has struggled with after he came out as a teenager, being called racial slurs and at one time almost being run off the road by a truck that followed him.
Living In San Pedro
“The more that we immersed ourselves in this community here, the more that we realized…we might be just amongst a few gay people here…and every time we would go eat we would be the only gay couple in a restaurant, we would be the only gay couple in a grocery store…” – Chris Tucker
Amanda gives an apology to Chris, Jonathan and the LGBTQ community for what they have experienced. While San Pedro is celebrating its first ever Pride On The Port event, she mentioned how recent history shows that they have not always been kind to the LGBTQ community. She expressed how San Pedro has a long way to go and asked what changes can be done. Chris said that people need to be more respectful to one another and accepting of more diversity, no matter what their religion, race, gender, class, sexual orientation, etc. It’s important to love everyone and be tolerable of people.
How San Pedro Needs To Change
“I think that there’s a lot of amazing people in the community, I just think that there are a lot of people that need to get with the times that happened to be louder than those amazing people and I think it will change because unfortunately it’s just going to happen.” – Chris Tucker
LINKS:
Chris Tucker’s Instagram:
Chris Tucker’s website:
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