Foodie

"Foodies" redirects here. For the web series, see Foodies (web series).
Food truck rally

A foodie is a gourmet, or a person who has an ardent or refined interest in food and alcoholic beverages.[1] A foodie seeks new food experiences as a hobby rather than simply eating out of convenience or hunger.

Pursuits

Foodies are a distinct hobbyist group. Typical foodie interests and activities include the food industry, wineries and wine tasting, breweries and beer sampling, food science, following restaurant openings and closings and occasionally reopenings, food distribution, food fads, health and nutrition, cooking classes, culinary tourism, and restaurant management. A foodie might develop a particular interest in a specific item, such as the best egg cream or burrito. Many publications have food columns that cater to foodies and many of the websites carrying the name foodie have become popular amongst the foodies.[2] Interest by foodies in the 1980s and 1990s gave rise to the Food Network and other specialized food programming, popular films and television shows about food such as Top Chef and Iron Chef, a renaissance in specialized cookbooks, specialized periodicals such as Gourmet Magazine and Cook's Illustrated, growing popularity of farmers' markets,[3] food-oriented websites like Zagat's and Yelp, publishing and reading food blogs like Foodbeast and foodieworld, specialized kitchenware stores like Williams-Sonoma and Sur La Table, and the institution of the celebrity chef.

Criticism of the word

Chris Onstad, author of the webcomic Achewood and the author of the The Achewood Cookbook, stated a dislike for the term. Onstad said "There are so many words that already describe the concept of people who like food, or enjoy cooking, or enjoy knowing about cooking. "Foodie": It's like the infantile diminutive—you put a "y" on the end of everything to make it childlike. We don't need it. It's embarrassing. 'I'm a foodie.' Oh my God."[4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ The American heritage dictionary of the English language. (4th ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 1992. ISBN 978-0-395-82517-4.
  2. ↑ "The Foodie Stores". Jayanth Dev India's Best Online Review Site.
  3. ↑ The Healthy Foodie (July 31, 2008). "Canadian Farmers Markets: Where to Find Them". AOL Life & Style.
  4. ↑ Norton, James. Chow down, dude. Salon. Tuesday April 10, 2007. Retrieved on July 23, 2011.

External links

Look up foodie in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.