Lou Rand (born 1910; died 1976) was the pen name of a San Francisco chef, Gourmet Magazine columnist and pulp fiction writer. He earned culinary distinction at the Bohemian Club, the Palace Hotel, and the Mark Hopkins as well as working as the private chef for billionaire industrialist Henry J. Kaiser. Alongside The Gay Detective, he was also author of the cult classic The Gay Cookbook, written in 1965, whose recipes are loaded with double entendres popular during the period. Rand, who also wrote for the Advocate and the Bay Area Reporter, died in 1976.