Gregory Hinton (Bus’77) is a California-based author, historian and founder of Out West, a national museum program series exploring the contributions of LGBTQ communities to Western American history. By discussing these cultural themes and how they connect to communities through his work, Hinton hopes to educate people about LGBTQ history and culture in the American West.

How has the LGBTQ landscape in the American West changed since you were a CU student? 

Countless rural-born western gay men and women of my generation (myself included) intially evacuated to the urban coasts — Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle — seeking community, companionship and safety. Fortunately, this evacuation has slowed over the years, and now, some are returning. Despite progress in areas like marriage equality, however, non-discrimination protections and hate crimes legislation still have not passed in many western states.

Tell us about the work you’ve done as an author and historian. 

I attended CU on a creative writing scholarship, always hoping to have a literary career. Though I ultimately graduated with a business degree, I have since published three novels — Cathedral City, Desperate Hearts and The Way Things Ought to Be — along with several short stories, plays and film productions. In 2009, quite by chance, I created an educational program series called Out West. The Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles was the first museum to invite me to create programming — lectures, exhibitions and plays — dedicated to shining a light on LGBTQ history and culture in the American West. Since then, we’ve shared stories all over the country.

Tell us about the work of the Gay & Lesbian Rodeo Heritage Foundation (GLRHF), where you’re a founding director. 

GLRHF was formed after the acquisition of the International Gay Rodeo archives by the Autry Museum of the American West in 2009, and it has been closely connected to my public programming for Out West. Its purpose is to support scholarship that illuminates gay rodeo visibility and to ensure gay rodeo receives recognition and its own place in rodeo history. 

Which of your three books means the most to you and why? 

It’s tough to choose just one — almost like admitting you have a favorite kid. But I would have to say that because it’s my own coming out story, The Way Things Ought to Be, set against the backdrop of 1970s Boulder.

If you could give one piece of advice to other LGBTQ folks who want to make an impact on the community, what would it be? 

Don’t wait for permission. Act on your hunches. Don’t be afraid to write a letter or email or tweet to get what you need. Never deny who you are.

What is one of your favorite memories from CU? 

I always loved to walk around campus, especially on winter days when the frozen Flatirons would actually sparkle in the sun. I also loved my Spanish teacher — her name was Maddie. I used to watch her from the second-floor window of Old Main coming to class in her long fur coat. She was so glamorous. I’d wave and she’d wave back. I think about her often.

What is your biggest takeaway from your Out West journey so far? 

I am so happy to find that we don’t need to leave our small western communities behind if we don’t want to. I love telling our stories. And I love the solitary drives they afford me into the most beautiful country you can imagine — I feel most like myself on those drives. Out West was just a whim I had, a spark that got fanned by the flames of need. I remember watching a young waiter in Red Lodge, Montana, as he was serving a large table of cowboys. He was so professional, and they treated him courteously. I later ran into him in a bar and asked how things were for him in Red Lodge. “At least I know I am safe here,” he told me. “At least I know I am accepted.”

What do you hope people will take away from the Out West series? 

I hope they will see the value in telling all the stories of the American West.

Interview condensed and edited. 

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Photos courtesy Gregory Hinton 

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Not much has changed at Julia Child's summer home in France, thanks to Craig Held (Psych'74) and family, who preserve the famed chef's epicurean legacy at their cooking school and vacation rental.

In the kitchen of La Pitchoune, the French Airbnb run by Craig Held (Psych’74) and his family, a fragrance of herbs, meats and simmering wines recalls the aromas that routinely scented the space beginning in the mid-1960s.

For nearly three decades, the stucco cottage was the summer home of American chef and cookbook author Julia Child and her husband, Paul. Today, Craig Held, wife Tina and daughter Makenna preserve the Childs’ epicurean legacy in the hilly French countryside by operating the property as a cooking school and vacation rental.
 

“Makenna imitated Julia as a child,” said Craig, a retired business executive who acquired La Pitchoune in 2016 at Makenna’s urging. “Now she’s 6'1", wears the same size 12 shoe as Julia [who was 6'2"] and went to Smith College like she did.”

Located about 10 miles north of Cannes, France, La Pitchoune (which translates as “little thing”) is available seven months a year for up to six adults in three rooms, starting at $970 a night. During the remaining months — April, May, June, September and October — it becomes the Courageous Cooking School. Guests receive six days of live-in cooking lessons and excursions led by Makenna, who is a Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef.

The Helds bought the property in 2015, after Makenna, then 30 and teaching skiing in Beaver Creek, Colo., saw a story in The New York Times about the house and felt an immediate draw to it — especially to the kitchen.

“My greatest fear?” said Makenna. “Someone would gut the kitchen and demolish the legacy Julia had left behind.…I knew that someone who wanted to keep the house somewhat, if not completely intact, had to buy it. I wanted to be that somebody.”
 

“Change is rampant in this part of Provence. But inside the kitchen of La Pitchoune, it felt as if little had changed.”

Besides a model of a Julia Child kitchen in the Smithsonian, La Pitchoune is the last original Julia Child kitchen, said Craig. The extra-tall countertops remain, as do the pegboards Paul installed on the walls with his hand-tracings of the utensils Julia hung there.

The Childs built the home around 1963 on the three-acre property of Julia’s friend and Mastering the Art of French Cooking co-author Simone Beck. Julia gave the home back to the Beck family in 1992, when Paul became ill. He died in 1994, Julia in 2004.

A student of Beck’s owned the home next and ran a cooking school there. She listed it in 2015 for $880,000. After the Helds acquired it, they decided to run the 1,500-square-foot dwelling as a family business.

“Airbnb was the platform that seemed most appropriate for us at the time,” said Craig, adding that the online property rental firm was eager to promote the , which describes the home as “a foodie paradise in Provence.”

La Pitchoune quickly drew interest from food writers at The New York Times, Vogue, Food & Wine and Condé Nast Traveler.

“Change is rampant in this part of Provence,” wrote Julia Moskin, a Times food writer who spent a week cooking at the house. “But inside the kitchen of La Pitchoune, it felt as if little had changed.”
 

Two years in, the Helds’ recipe for La Pitchoune appears to be a hit.

The home offers fresh opportunities for Craig, who helped coach the CU ski team under Olympian Bill Marolt (Bus’67). For most of his career, Craig worked as an executive at Pepsi, Taco Bell and Paramount Farms. Just 10 days before Makenna called him about La Pitchoune, he’d left his job as executive vice president of XetaWave, a software-defined radio company in Louisville, Colo.

Now, when he’s in France with Tina on one of their three annual trips, his focus is on providing guests with cozy comforts: “We welcome guests with charcuterie, wine and a fully stocked Julia Child kitchen,” including all pots, pans, knives and baking dishes, he said.

Two years in, the Helds’ recipe for La Pitchoune appears to be a hit.

“You will have moments throughout where it seems surreal and unimaginable that you are cooking in Julia Child's kitchen, in her house,” wrote one Airbnb reviewer. “It was a week in paradise.”

Comment on this story? Email editor@colorado.edu.

Photos by Beth Kirby
 

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