‘Queer Eye’ Star Bobby Berk Shares His Go-To Starbucks Order And How To Throw A Proper PSL Party At Home
It’s hard to imagine a world in which the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte doesn’t exist in our lexicon but twenty years ago, that was the case. Now, in honor of it’s 20th anniversary, Starbucks is teaming up with Queer Eye’s Bobby Berk to help PSL lovers from around the world fashion their own at-home coffee shop parties.
I, a lover of Bobby Berk since day one, was fortunate enough to sit down with him and chat about all things pumpkin spice — also RuPaul and coagulated duck blood gelatine.
Foodbeast: Your new book, Right At Home, just dropped last month. How does it feel adding published author to your resumé?
Bobby Berk: It feels really good, honestly. I have wanted to do a design book for forever, and not just that, but come out with a book that encompasses more than just pretty pictures of giant homes. Not that those are bad…
No tea, no shade. I get it.
Haha, exactly. Every design book has a time and place and I wanted mine to encapsulate how a home is more than just a physical comfort but also an emotional comfort as well. The book is there to help teach people how to enjoy their space and design it around what makes them feel good. I want to help you find your happiness within the home, how to organize it to your standards, how to use lighting to create the right mood, and even choose colors that bring you joy.
Okay, cool, so it sounds like you’re ready to come spruce up my house?
Oh, absolutely.
Do you have a space in your house that you’d say is your favorite?
My living room. It’s so light and open and airy and it has great views of the valley.
Well, the fun part now is having these curated spaces to host these Starbucks at-home coffee shop parties!
Yes! We actually have been utilizing our office space to host these parties. We love getting to host them in the office because it feels like the true kickoff of the holiday season. I mean, the Pumpkin Spice Latte is twenty years old and has become a staple around the holidays.
Exactly. I’ve been conditioned to recognize that when the PSL gets announced every year, it’s officially the start of the holiday season.
And that’s what makes it such a fun drink to celebrate. Our team went to the store and basically raided the entire Starbucks home products and brought them into the office for the whole crew. We got pastries, whipped cream, the works. We basically threw a big breakfast coffee party thanks to Starbucks.
So how would Mr. Bobby Berk elevate a basic PSL party into a Pumpkin Spice Soiree?
Literally, I would elevate it: multi-tiered trays for the counters, different levels of the counters, and we also threw in some glass and wood pumpkins to tie in the trays we used to serve everything.
I feel like everyone does Pumpkin Spice differently. What’s your drink of choice?
Well, I will always be a cold brew guy so I do a pumpkin spice cold brew with non-dairy creamer. Even if it’s 10 degrees outside, I’ll be drinking a cold coffee.
Much like yourself, Foodbeast finds itself spinning a ton of different plates at once. One of our biggest productions is a competitive cooking show called Kitchen League where two teams of two compete against each other in the kitchen. If you were to come on the show, who would you choose as your partner and who would you want to compete against?
My husband, Dewey, no question. He’s amazing in the kitchen. Not to say I’m not good, I can cook, but I don’t enjoy it nearly as much as he does. I would also 100% challenge Karamo and his boyfriend Carlos because I know it would be an easy victory.
We love an easy victory! What’s Dewey’s top requested recipe?
We usually eat pescatarian about 95% of the time at home so he makes a mean crusted salmon.
Are you ready for a RuPaul moment now?
Who is the queen I think deserves the chop and why?
You called it! Haha! Truthfully, it’s safe to say that you’ve accomplished so much over the last few years. What advice would you give to your younger self?
Never take no for an answer and never say you can’t do something. Even if it seems impossible, at least you can say you tried regardless of the outcome. There are so many opportunities I’ve come into because I said yes to something else way back when. If someone says you can’t do something, it’s fun being able to prove them wrong.
At Foodbeast, we have that same mentality when it comes to eating really wild things. What do you think is the wildest thing you’ve eaten?
Dewey and I have traveled all over China, but the one thing that really sticks out to me was coagulated duck’s blood gelatine. Will I ever eat it again? Probably not. But at least I can say I tried it!
Are you an adventurous eater?
You know what’s funny? I actually don’t trust people who aren’t. I had someone tell me one time they didn’t like a certain genre of food and when I asked what they didn’t like, they said they’d never tried it! That was the last time I ever spoke to them.
Ah, so that’s the queen who deserved the chop?
Absolutely.
