Foodie vs. Gourmet

Just what the heck is a foodie, anyway? In order to answer that, I really need to talk about what a gourmet is, first.

Gourmet is actually a corruption of the title of a French wine valet. Under current usage a gourmet is someone who is knowledgeable about fine food and drink. It's also used to describe foods and beverages that are particularly high in quality. Unfortunately, it also gets used in advertising to market foods that are of a particularly low quality.

I'm not kidding. Next time to you go to the grocery store, hit the hot dog section and count how many different brands you can find that claim to be "gourmet hot dogs." How in God's green earth can you have a "gourmet hot dog?" Gourmet bratwurst maybe, but a gourmet hot dog? Please!

The word "gourmet" can also modify words like "restaurant" and "cooking." Again, this is all about finding high quality food, talented chefs, strict dress codes, and expensive tabs at the end of the meal. It also includes foods that have an acquired taste. Saying that it has an "acquired taste" means that it tastes so bad you have to get used to it.

Sometimes, "gourmand" gets used in place of the word "gourmet" when referring to people who know and love food. Not as many people like the term gourmand, though. It can have the same connotation that "glutton" does. "Epicure" gets thrown around in some circles as well, but it seems to imply excessive refinement. In other words, epicures are arrogant and self-important gourmets.

Foodies are on the other end of the "gourmet spectrum." Like gourmets, foodies like good food and drink. Unlike epicures, they don't get all self-righteous about it. For a foodie, a good burger (or hot dog) is just as worthy of attention as foie gras. In fact, finding the best hot dog stand in the city might be considered a great adventure for a foodie. Gourmets, on the other hand, wouldn't find that so keen. In other words, a foodie has knowledge and interest in not only gourmet foods, but in foods that a gourmet might (and epicurean would) find distasteful.

Hmmm. Maybe foodies do have more in common with gourmands than gourmets.