Are you a gourmet snob?

[Shalmanese]

I just noticed a piece in the Guardian by fellow eGullet member Tim Hayward which, although hilarious, seemed to hit a little bit too close to home for comfort. (edit: link here)

You delight in dining off-menu. Your knives are worth more than your car. Self-confessed gastronome Tim Hayward on 10 tell-tale signs that you love food a little too much

I've certainly been guilty of making ironic food. And I will admit to lovingly gazing over my collection of animal fats before I go to bed to ensure that no harm has befallen them. But I've never gone so far as to proudly display them to my friends.

Although I'm currently not set up with any fancy kit of my own, I admit to being insanely jealous of the people with sous vide machines and custom made knives and I've used the words Molecular Gastronomy before without air quotes.

I think the only thing that stops me from crying myself to sleep every night is that I'm at least a foodie who can actually cook. I can safely look down on the "foodies" who never touch a pan and fall down into puddles of glee at some mediocre "resto" because they don't have the tastebuds to know any better.

Good work Tim.

Edited July 21, 2006 by Shalmanese (log)

[Bond Girl]

Guilty as charged. Although I don't have aspirations of molecular gastronomy or ever want to own sou vide machines, I do look down my nose at people who use regular table salt and have lightly salted butter in their fridge. Don't even get me started on those who use ready made supermarket pasta sauce. When I'm on vacation. I get more excited about the local farm markets than the Manolo Blahnik shop. On that point, I waste more money on kitchen gadgets and food than I do on designer clothes.

Some people probably think I need help, but I just think they have bad taste in food.

[jesteinf]

I think the only thing that stops me from crying myself to sleep every night is that I'm at least a foodie who can actually cook. I can safely look down on the "foodies" who never touch a pan and fall down into puddles of glee at some mediocre "resto" because they don't have the tastebuds to know any better.

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I know that this has been discussed before (and it's probably a bit off topic here), but I firmly believe that you can appreciate great restaurants (and sniff out the bad ones) without having the ability to cook. I can't cook anything beyond scrambled eggs or hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill, but I'm pretty sure that my tastebuds work just fine.

[Daniel]

Dining off the menu. I have never heard of that.. I have heard of people making substitutions, but there are people who will at a top restaurant make changes? Why go to a particular chef, if dont want his food..

I am not a gourmet snob, I am a food fan.. Snob seems negative. I think my appreciation is a positive thing, keeping me from building bombs in my basement..

Edited July 21, 2006 by Daniel (log)

[pigeonpie]

Some people probably think I need help, but I just think they have bad taste in food.

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Now there's a great tag line if ever I saw one ...

[Shalmanese]

I know that this has been discussed before (and it's probably a bit off topic here), but I firmly believe that you can appreciate great restaurants (and sniff out the bad ones) without having the ability to cook.  I can't cook anything beyond scrambled eggs or hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill, but I'm pretty sure that my tastebuds work just fine.

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It's perfectly possible to be a foodie without knowing how to cook but I've been out with "foodie" friends who can't detect improper seasoning, off balances in flavour or just plain wierd combinations and they all seem to be universally of the type who cannot cook.

[FabulousFoodBabe]

Guilty as charged. Although I don't have aspirations of molecular gastronomy or ever want to own sou vide machines, I do look down my nose at people who use regular table salt and have lightly salted butter in their fridge. Don't even get me started on those who use ready made supermarket pasta sauce.  When I'm on vacation. I get more excited about the local farm markets than the Manolo Blahnik shop.  On that point, I waste more money on kitchen gadgets and food  than I do on designer clothes. 

Some people probably think I need help, but I just think they have bad taste in food.

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I love this!

And yes, I do get more excited about farmers' markets than the local Manolo shop. You can get Manolo anywhere and it's just as glorious (and painful), but nothing is quite as good as a peach straight from a tree in South Carolina, or Maine Blueberries in Maine. So I guess I'm guilty of the travel thing.

I don't think I'm guilty of general food snobbery, though. It's more a snobbery toward unenlightened people who buy non-fat sour cream and low-fat cheese, bags of "baby carrots," ICan'tBelieveIt'sNotButter, factory-farmed chickens, etc. It's a snobbery, I guess, toward people who consume without thinking.

As for me, I have all that oil and rendered fat, all those vinegars, salts, peppers, etc., because one size does NOT fit all.

Yep, Mr. Hayward nailed it on the term "resto," which causes me to retcho. I thought of about ten people immediately who this piece describes.

[Daniel Rogov]

Great piece!

As to whether I'm a food snob.....absolutely but not necessarily according to Tim's standards.

I chuckle at sous vide cooking, find molecular gastronomy nothing more than a joke in bad taste, and would no sooner think of asking Monsieurs Ducasse or Savoy to cook a special dish for me than I would of asking them to jump into the Seine.

On the other hand, I scorn most mass-produced foods and the vast majority of offerings at supermarkets as inferior, suffer physically and emotionally when I am served (or prepare) a sauce that has curdled; find that the true plague of the 20th and 21st centuries is junk food; would never dream of buying a bottle of Two Buck Chuck or Yellowtail for my personal pleasure; and think that McDonald's, Starbucks and Taco Bell have something distinctly akin to the Bubonic Plague.

I do not scorn the people who eat or even thrive on such foods. After all, I believe in freedom - even the freedom to be foolish. In fact, I'm such a snob that I will go as far as to say the best meal or the best wine is the one someone likes the best. That I happen not to agree with many of those people is simply part of my own freedom.

I cannot help but call to mind William Makepeace Thackery who wrote "It is impossible, in the condition of society, for the intelligent person to be sometimes a Snob"

Here, for those who may not have found it is a link to Tim's piece in the Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/food/story/0,,1804095,00.html

Edited July 21, 2006 by Daniel Rogov (log)

[Andrew Fenton]

Shouldn't the term be "food snob", not "gourmet snob"? "Snob" is usually combined with a noun modifier: so a music snob is snobbish about music, a wine snob is snobbish about wine, and so on. A gourmet snob, therefore, would be snobbish about gourmets, something quite different than what the author is describing.

-Andrew, minor-league grammar snob

[srhcb]

From Meriam-Webster OnLine:

"One who blatantly imitates, fawningly admires, or vulgarly seeks association with those regarded as social superiors"

Not Guilty.

"One who tends to rebuff, avoid, or ignore those regarded as inferior"

On the contrary. (In fact, I can even be somewhat of a "reverse snob")

"One who has an offensive air of superiority in matters of knowledge or taste"

Moi?

[jsmeeker]

I don't think I'm guilty of general food snobbery, though.  It's more a snobbery toward unenlightened people who buy non-fat sour cream and low-fat cheese, bags of "baby carrots,"  ICan'tBelieveIt'sNotButter, factory-farmed chickens, etc.  It's a snobbery, I guess, toward people who consume without thinking.

What's wrong with the bags of cut, baby carrots? I like 'em. Open bag, dump into roating pan, sprinkle with some olive oil, salt (kosher, of cousre), and pepper. Toss it all together, then roast in a hot oven. It's simple and pretty tasty.

Factory farm chickens? Yeah. yeah, I know. But it's tough for me to spend the much, much higher costs for a fancy free range organic bird.

[nakji]

I'm compiling a list of Frog restos as we speak. Please PM me if you need a copy.

[Jason Perlow]

Guilty. On all counts.

[Daniel]

Shouldn't the term be "food snob", not "gourmet snob"?  "Snob" is usually combined with a noun modifier: so a music snob is snobbish about music, a wine snob is snobbish about wine, and so on.  A gourmet snob, therefore, would be snobbish about gourmets, something quite different than what the author is describing.

-Andrew, minor-league grammar snob

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I was thinking you were snobbish about grammar..

[maggiethecat]

[the term "resto," which causes me to retcho. 

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Another great sig line!

Another great piece by Tim! And I am as innocent as the newborn babe.

(Watch for more from Tim in upcoming editions of The Daily Gullet.)

[FabulousFoodBabe]

Factory farm chickens? Yeah. yeah, I know.  But it's tough for me to spend the much, much higher costs for a fancy free range organic bird.

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If you buy whole carrots and turn them yourself, you'll save enough to buy a free range bird.

[jsmeeker]

Factory farm chickens? Yeah. yeah, I know.   But it's tough for me to spend the much, much higher costs for a fancy free range organic bird.

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If you buy whole carrots and turn them yourself, you'll save enough to buy a free range bird.

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Heh.... But I don't have time to do that on a Wednesday night when I get home from work at 7:00 PM. My time is worth something! I'll have to check prices on those cut baby carrots. I don't think a pound of them costs a whole lot more than a pound of normal carrots.

[mizducky]

I may qualify as a semi-reverse food snob (for lack of a better term). It's not as if I don't appreciate the artistry of a high-end restaurant ... but the tight-wad in me just can't help thinking "But for the money I could have at least four or five fabulous meals at some of my favorite little ethnic hole-in-the-wall restaurants." This is probably why most (though not all) of my high-end dining experiences have also involved somebody else picking up the tab.

Yet I totally cop to a certain snobbery with regard to my reverse-snobbery. Those little ethnic joints, for example. When I suggest eating Asian food to one of my non-foodie friends, for instance, and I'm thinking of my favorite unglamorous-but-noble little Szechuan joint, and they reject it in favor of P.F. Chang's, I maintain a calm exterior, but inside I'm cringing as violently as any high-end food snob. Oh! the horror! The inauthenticity! The cutesy factor! Bleargh!!!

[MarketStEl]

Great piece! 

As to whether I'm a food snob.....absolutely but not necessarily according to Tim's standards.

I chuckle at sous vide cooking, find molecular gastronomy nothing more than a joke in bad taste, and would no sooner think of asking Monsieurs Ducasse or Savoy to cook a special dish for me than I would of asking them to jump into the Seine.

On the other hand, I scorn most mass-produced foods and the vast majority of offerings at supermarkets as inferior, suffer physically and emotionally when I am served (or prepare) a sauce that has curdled; find that the true plague of the 20th and 21st centuries is junk food; would never dream of buying a bottle of Two Buck Chuck or Yellowtail for my personal pleasure; and think that McDonald's, Starbucks and Taco Bell have something distinctly akin to the Bubonic Plague.

Which leads me to wonder what you thought of "Spengler's" Asia Times essay on "American character" that I posted to this board a few days back.

I do not scorn the people who eat or even thrive on such foods.  After all, I believe in freedom - even the freedom to be foolish.  In fact, I'm such a snob that I will go as far as to say the best meal or the best wine is the one someone likes the best.  That I happen not to agree with many of those people is simply part of my own freedom.

Democratic snobbery is at once the most exalted variety of snobbery and the hardest to pull off convincingly.

Should it ever happen that we meet in a charming little BYOB for food, though, I promise not to bring Yellow Tail. Besides, when there's this astounding little white that's on sale for an equally astounding little price thanks to it being a Chairman's Selection, why should I?

I cannot help but call to mind William Makepeace Thackery who wrote "It is impossible, in the condition of society, for the intelligent person to be sometimes a Snob"

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Mr. Fenton isn't the only language snob hereabouts. Then again, I get paid to exercise my snobbery in this regard, although I have found myself humbled in the presence of the serial comma and chastened for following Associated Press rather than Chicago style regarding this errant punctuation mark.

Isn't there a "not" missing from the above quote?

[srhcb]

I'll have to check prices on those cut baby carrots.  I don't think a pound of them costs a whole lot more than a pound of normal carrots.

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I hardly ever pay attention to prices when I shop, but I did once happen to notice that "baby" carrots cost over twice as much as "normal" carrots. Although both were fairly cheap, I had a hard time buying the cut, peeled ones.

Then I figured the guy who's job it is to whittle out the little carrots all day probably has a family to feed, so what the heck?

SB (helper of the exploited)

[barritz]

Factory farm chickens? Yeah. yeah, I know.   But it's tough for me to spend the much, much higher costs for a fancy free range organic bird.

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If you buy whole carrots and turn them yourself, you'll save enough to buy a free range bird.

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Heh.... But I don't have time to do that on a Wednesday night when I get home from work at 7:00 PM. My time is worth something! I'll have to check prices on those cut baby carrots. I don't think a pound of them costs a whole lot more than a pound of normal carrots.

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You could confine yourself to buying free range when you can afford it, and the rest of the time get your protein through sources such as beans. This would entail giving up some chicken eating, but would make you a more ethical shopper, which seems like a reasonable trade off, doesn't it?

[maggiethecat]

I loved this bit:

Outrageous equipment

Now that merely "professional" equipment is available to any oaf with a credit card, "specialist" or "bespoke" kit is a foodie essential. Take knives as an example. Somewhere in a back street in Tokyo there's a brilliant, wizened sashimi chef who was first allowed to slice fish after 20 years of washing dishes for one of the great masters. This sensei has been cutting sashimi for longer than you've been alive. He doesn't need a £900 hand-forged sashimi knife, individually weighted to fit his hand - though, apparently, a foodie who throws the occasional dinner party for friends in Muswell Hill does.

I love Tim's long-standing hatred of fancy equipment. As I remember, he hates woks in Western kitchens as much as I do.

[barritz]

maggiethecat, you hate woks in Western kitchens? Why?

[maggiethecat]

maggiethecat, you hate woks in Western kitchens?  Why?

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Because a cast iron frying pan on a conventional gas stovetop works better. Woks need btus unknown to home kitchens.

[Miami Danny]

I'm not really sure who he's laughing at, or maybe it's just that dry British humor; but it seems as though he's saying we're (foodies, Americans) all pretentious a-holes. Almost everything in this article is hyper-inflated for comedic purposes, which I don't have a problem with, except it's all been said before and it's not really funny anymore. He's set up a straw man and knocked it down. And we poor colonists must accept his better judgement.