The Gay Cookbook is filled with the jokes and innuendo of the time. Even on the frontispiece, in the book's first pages, a line reads "All rights reserved, Mary." An essential part of mid-century campy dialogue, was the use of female nicknames among gay men: Hogan addresses the reader by many, including Myrtle, Mabel, and Mame. The recipes are lengthy and chatty. But while written humorously, the recipes often are complex and cosmopolitan.

While his repertoire includes French and American classics, it also features Mexican, Southeast Asian, and Hawaiian recipes. For a guacamole recipe, Hogan gives the basics as avocado, tomatoes, fresh lime, and salt. Those wanting to mix it up can add onion and spices, he writes, but he forbids more variation. "This is an 'original' Mexican recipe," he writes, "before it's been crapped up by some Hollywood or Brooklyn chef."

Hogan also explains how to prepare an elaborate rijsttafel buffet, a many-coursed Indonesian banquet with roots in Dutch colonialism. A chili recipe spans several pages and requires hours of cooking.