Someone just remarked to me that he didn't know that I was a "gourmet." I hastily corrected him, pointing out that I just love to eat and cook. I should have answered that I'm a proud amateur "foodie." What's a foodie? A foodie is a colloquial term (joille en français) for someone who has a distinctly keen and devoted interest in food, particularly the enjoyment of preparing it and eating it. I wear the title proudly.

The foodie T-shirt image comes from prettygoodgoods.org.

When I went to determine what the world thinks of foodies, I was a little surprised. Unfortunately, with the recent rise of culinary culture and the growing popularity of foodtv, the term has been much maligned in popular culture and has developed some unsavory connotations. This includes foodies generally being overweight and foodies having a haughty (snobbish) attitude. Such is evident in two of the definitions at urbandictionary.com, a wiki-type dictionary that allows visitors to add content indiscriminately.

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These connotations are completely uncalled for. Regarding having a haughty attitude, this may come from an unfortunate linking with another "connoisseur" term and is reflected at dictionary.com. Accordingly, the 4th edition of the American Heritage Dictionary states that "foodie" is a synonym for "gourmet." This is incorrect. The word "gourmet" had etymological roots in the old French word for gluttony, "gourmandise", one of the seven deadly sins. According to wikipedia, a gourmet is a person with a discriminating taste who is knowledgeable in fine food and drink. The word gourmet is often used as an adjective to modify other nouns. Examples include gourmet food and gourmet restaurant. Both words evoke thoughts of high class foods paired with somalier-endorsed wine. Foodie, on the other hand, is a modern word that was coined in 1984 by authors Ann Barr and Paul Levy in their seminal book, "'Harpers and Queen' Official Foodie Handbook." It is supposed to refer to a person who spends great amounts of energy and time learning and understanding the component ingredients of dishes and the proper preparation thereof. They also find great enjoyment in quality ingredients. Like gourmets, foodies collectively can make or break a restaurant. They have created a large complement of blogs, wikis, and even magazines where large online and off line communities pour over reviews. However, foodies will embark on activities that gourmets will not. For instance, foodies will spend time looking for the "perfect" taco or hamburger, honest everyday foods. Whereas, self-identified gourmets find such pursuits beneath them. This is the reason why many gourmets do not see themselves as foodies and the vast majority of foodies do not see them selves as gourmets.

Regarding the overweight connotation, this is a result of the unfortunate misconception that enjoying food means eating unhealthily. This is untrue. Foodies spend copious amounts of time analyzing and determining the proper proportions of specific ingredients and proper preparations of dishes they enjoy. If you appreciate good ingredients and good preparation, you will be assembling your own dishes as well. As such, armed with an understanding of how a dish works, foodies can opt for healthier components in their dishes and avoid fattier ingredients.

Further, for many foodies, processed foods and particularly ready-made meals are accordingly out. They simply provide no enjoyment to foodies who take great pleasure in 1) good ingredients and 2) good food preparation. Processed foods contain more chemical anomalies for colour and/or shelf-life than quality ingredients. They are also put together in such a fashion to benefit more their mass production than their consumption. This means that more foodies' pantries will have less processed foods. Less processed foods means that foodies will partake in less of the high fat calories that are typical of processed foods.

From this self-professed amateur foodie, join our ranks! Happy cooking and happy eating.

For more information on foodies and foodie-related culture refer to the following links:

• Foodie Quiz on forfoodies.com
• Top 50 things every foodie should do

Here are my scores on the Foodie Quiz.

Results

Meaning

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