Let's Kill "Foodie"

[baroness]

And before we toss "Foodie" into the river, can we also tie a cement block to "Sammie" while we're at it? 

←

Let's make that a threesome: foodie, sammie, and veggie!

[Tess]

When did "gourmand" stop being the equivalent of "glutton"? To me, "gourmand" used to = "gourmet" sounds unbearably pretentious.

Actually, I kind of like "glutton" to describe myself.

[fiftydollars]

<- Gastrophiliac

[Ted Fairhead]

When did "gourmand" stop being the equivalent of "glutton"? To me, "gourmand" used to = "gourmet" sounds unbearably pretentious.

Actually, I kind of like "glutton" to describe myself.

←

Actually, "Gourmand" is one who is fond of good eating and "Gourmet" is a connoiseur in the delicacies of the table, so they are similar. However, "Glutton" simply means one who eats to excess.

I rather like "Epicure" as one who cultivates a refined taste in eating and drinking.

[Kim Shook]

Somewhere there is a previous eGullet discussion about all these food-lover descriptives but, alas, I can't find it.

Someone there suggested "gastronaut".

←

But if, as bleudauvergne notes in her above comment, gastro in French is short for gastroenteritis - then just what in hell is a gastronaut !?

Kim

Edited January 25, 2008 by Kim Shook (log)

[Peter the eater]

And before we toss "Foodie" into the river, can we also tie a cement block to "Sammie" while we're at it? 

←

Alright, I must know, what on earth is a sammie?

And I agree with Kim Shook, gastronaut sounds a bit too endoscopy for my liking.

[andiesenji]

Somewhere there is a previous eGullet discussion about all these food-lover descriptives but, alas, I can't find it.

Someone there suggested "gastronaut".

←

But if, as bleudauvergne notes in her above comment, gastro in French is short for gastroenteritis - then just what in hell is a gastronaut !?

Kim

←

Someone who sails or journeys through it. Whatever "it" is...

[moosnsqrl]

A sandwich, as rendered nearly unrecognizable by a certain overly perky food tv 'face' who lends her name to orange-handled cookware.

And before we toss "Foodie" into the river, can we also tie a cement block to "Sammie" while we're at it? 

←

Alright, I must know, what on earth is a sammie?

And I agree with Kim Shook, gastronaut sounds a bit too endoscopy for my liking.

←

[K8memphis]

What about funkie?

That'd be food + junkie = funkie

Foodie sounding better now???

[Kim Shook]

And while we're at it...why is sammie awful and sarnie ok? I hate 'em both, but not everybody does - so what makes the difference?

Kim

[ghostrider]

In promotional spots for Diary Of A Foodie on PBS, they offer this definition:

"A foodie is someone who lives in the food world."

But don't we all? Because if we don't, ipso facto, we aren't living, we're on the way to becoming food or are already there.

Just another example of how meaningless the term has become. I haven't got a better one. However, I got along fine for 30 years before "foodie" was coined by saying "I love to shop for food & I love to cook." I'm willing to revert. I can handle the extra words.

[MarketStEl]

In promotional spots for Diary Of A Foodie on PBS, they offer this definition:

"A foodie is someone who lives in the food world."

But don't we all?  Because if we don't, ipso facto, we aren't living, we're on the way to becoming food or are already there.

Just another example of how meaningless the term has become.  I haven't got a better one.  However, I got along fine for 30 years before "foodie" was coined by saying "I love to shop for food & I love to cook."  I'm willing to revert. I can handle the extra words.

←

I'm not so sure that the term is meaningless.

We all eat to live. Some of us live to eat. "Foodies" would fall into the latter category, as would gourmands.

Truth to tell, I had always understood the word "gourmand" to be a high-class version of "glutton." One would never call Diamond Jim Brady a glutton, but one would call him a gourmand.

I note that the Wikipedia article on Epicurus stated that he stressed the benefits that came from enjoying modest pleasures. I think that adjective's connotations have been stripped completely from the modern words "epicure" and "epicurean."

Though I also note that the person who posted the Wikipedia snippet (gfron?) unconsciously channeled one of my favorite recipe sites, the wonderfully named Epicurious, the joint site of Condé Nast's two food magazines, Gourmet and Bon Appetit

Hmmmm..."appetist"?

[FoodMuse]

I don't mind being labeled a foodie. It happens almost every day.

What I do mind is the way some people say it, "Oh, you're a Fooooo- die". Like, aren't you adooooooor-able.

I might like a word with "gastro-" in it, but it tends to sound pretentious.

I like to cook and I like to eat. Period.

I could get into the phrase "food geek", but then I know I'll use it and people will still say, "Oh, right you're a Foodie".

Oh well.

Grace

[foodie52]

Well gosh, I don't know what to say.

"Foodie" is my job description at work.

[aroberts]

The internet is full of foodie blogs and foodie forums. But I'd guess this is one of them!

[racheld]

Welcome, Andy! Your "Life is a Laugh" blog made me smile.

[mizducky]

I confess to being ambivalent about the word "foodie." Yeah, it's cutesy. Yeah, it makes me fear that there are faithful fans of the Semi Ho Maid who think of themselves as true-bloo foodies. Or, worse, that if I use the term to describe myself, certain naive others might think I was such a fan. Blech.

At the same time, I have witnessed that non-food-enthusiasts are completely innocent of all these distinctions between serious and knowledgeable food enthusiasts and those who think of themselves as "foodies" because they faithfully watch whatever dreck is left on the Food Network. Trying to clarify these distinctions to such folks just causes eyes to glaze over. In conversation with such folks, you might as well say "foodie" because they won't really know or care about the difference anyway. (I say that with no disparagement whatosever--it's just the plain facts as I've observed them.)

Among you folks and others who understand, I gleefully use the term "foodgeek" -- I've been a geek my whole life, so of course I would approach cookery with the same geekish intensity.

"Gastro" as far as I'm concerned would be a big step backwards, for all the associations with "gastroenteritis" and similar terms already noted. In fact, my brain stumbles over the term "gastropub" every time I see it, for similar reasons.

"Gourmet" and "gourmand" have their place, I feel--even though words borrowed from the French into English do tend to carry some lingering connotations of snootiness. I have been known to play off that perceived connotation, as with my sometime handle "The Tightwad Gourmand."

In a recent email about what dish I was thinking of bringing to a party, I ended with "...for as you know, I like to play with my food." The recipient thought this was a riot. Despite, or perhaps even because of, its charming unwieldliness, I just might start referring to myself that way: as "one of those geeks who likes to play with her food."

[CKatCook]

I use the term "chowhound" quite a bit to descibe me. I like the sound of it. But 'foodie' is too perky and cutsy for me. And I am not perky or cutsy person, so when I say the word it sounds strange coming out of my mouth. I don't like 'veggie' either, so we can lose that and I would not lose any sleep.

[Jaymes]

Has anyone ever actually been happy to be called a "foodie"?

←

Me. As far as I'm concerned, "foodie" just means someone interested in food, which I proudly am. I assign no moral value to the term, good or bad. And furthermore, I find this flap to be silly.

But frankly, it makes absolutely no difference whichever term the "trendsetters" settle upon as being a supposedly-acceptable alternative to the now-odious "foodie."

Within in a few years, these same self-appointed trendsetters will decry it, just as they have "foodie," and "gourmet" before it.

[moosnsqrl]

Has anyone ever actually been happy to be called a "foodie"?

←

Me. As far as I'm concerned, "foodie" just means someone interested in food, which I proudly am. I assign no moral value to the term, good or bad. And furthermore, I find this flap to be silly.

But frankly, it makes absolutely no difference whichever term the "trendsetters" settle upon as being a supposedly-acceptable alternative to the now-odious "foodie."

Within in a few years, these same self-appointed trendsetters will decry it, just as they have "foodie," and "gourmet" before it.

←

I don't know quite how to approach this but I'll try . . .

The same could be said about almost anything on the forums by anyone. It's not world peace, it may be silly, but if it didn't mean something to someone, it would not be here. I don't bake, but I don't go over to the Baking topics and declare them all silly.

I don't know who the self-appointed "trendsetters" are. I think, if you suddenly started called philatelists "stampies" they would have every right to take exception and I wouldn't fault them for trying to buck the trend. And who decried "gourmet?" I must've been offline when that happened.

[Susie Q]

Gastrophile - lover of food

[The Old Foodie]

Clearly, I dont have a problem with the word.

But for those of you who do, William Kitchiner in The Cook's Oracle (1817) used the word Mouthician.

I've never seen the word used anywhere else, and the OED does not include it, so it must have been WK's own.

[Jaymes]

And who decried "gourmet?"  I must've been offline when that happened.

You've never heard someone say, "My friends call me a 'gourmet,' but I hate that word."? Or other remarks to that effect?

I've heard that at least a thousand times, including often on eG, including even in this thread.

And I like saying I'm a foodie. I particularly like saying, "Well, see you tomorrow. Right now, I'm off to meet some of my foodie friends for lunch, and then we're going to Central Market for shopping and a cooking class."

I have long wondered what it is about the human condition that makes us tend to lump people into groups and then decide our group is somehow superior to the other group.

As in, "THEY are trendy, cutsie, superficial, celebrity-groupie, lemming-like 'foodies,' but I am not. I am a 'food enthusiast.'"

Or some other group-identifying label that is superior.

I'm serious about wondering why we feel the need to do that. Like most human behavior, it must serve some sort of evolutionary purpose. But I'm darned if I know what it is.

I do think that the need to do that seems to ease as one grows older.

[JAZ]

And I like saying I'm a foodie.  I particularly like saying, "Well, see you tomorrow.  Right now, I'm off to meet some of my foodie friends for lunch, and then we're going to Central Market for shopping and a cooking class."

I have long wondered what it is about the human condition that makes us tend to lump people into groups and then decide our group is somehow superior to the other group.

As in, "THEY are trendy, cutsie, superficial, celebrity-groupie, lemming-like 'foodies,' but I am not.  I am a 'food enthusiast.'"

←

I don't think I'm better than people who like to refer to themselves as foodies. I just hate the word. I don't like words that end in "ie" for no reason, and "foodie" sounds awful to me. It makes me cringe, just as "veggie" does. So I don't use it.

[ghostrider]

We all eat to live.  Some of us live to eat.  "Foodies" would fall into the latter category, as would gourmands.....

I note that the Wikipedia article on Epicurus stated that he stressed the benefits that came from enjoying modest pleasures.  I think that adjective's connotations have been stripped completely from the modern words "epicure" and "epicurean."

←

Maybe I don't belong here. I don't live to eat. I enjoy it immensely, but it probably comes in at #3 on my list of passions. Whatever.

I very much like "epicure" in its original sense. Maybe I'll go with that. Maybe I'll try "epicurie" so that I'll be up to date.