Sheryl Kirby of Save Your Fork and Taste TO has caused a little Twitter Flutter by airing her dislike of the term "foodie". At 10:10, as @TasteTO, she tweeted: "Never found a proper word to replace 'foodie' but I think it shall go the way of 'boite' and 'resto' and will become verboten on our site". Then at 10:12, as @saveyourfork, she posted "Have banned the term 'foodie' from TasteTO - need better alternatives that are not lame or pretentious." A flurry of responses arrived, many from people who not only use the term, but use it in their Twitter monikers and site names.Now I've never liked "resto" or "boite" much, but I find "foodie" inoffensive enough, and at least clear. I would myself use it disparagingly, to describe someone who was tiresome or pedantic about their food enthusiasm (like those people who in the '80s simply wouldn't shut up about pine nuts and pesto). I'd also use it humorously and self-deprecatingly to refer to myself, for instance, as in "I'm afraid I'm a total foodie".
We already have a few perfectly good words that convey similar meaning, like "gastronomer", "gastronome", "epicure", "gourmet" and "gourmande" – although that last carries the connotation of "glutton" – as well as phrases like "food connoisseur", "food aficionado", "food buff" or "food enthusiast". I suppose the first five have become slightly outmoded, or tarnished with a mildly derogatory flavour, as specialized words are wont to do. The others are a bit unwieldy.
If I were forced to choose (which, thank heaven, I'm not), I might go for "epicure" or "food buff", depending on the context. If we're thinking of making up an entirely new word, I humbly submit "Brillat" (to be pronounced "bree-yat"), in honour of the excellent Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, and kind of on the analogy of "Baldwin".
If you've ever read the part in his 1825 book Physiologie du goût about how he was given a giant fish to cook, and how he went all over the house trying to find something big enough to cook it in (pronouncing at intervals "This fish will not be cut!"), you know how quirky and curious and funny and passionate he was about cooking and eating... that he was, in short, a true foodie – in the best sense of the word.
Photo: Engraving of Brillat-Savarin, from title page of an 1848 edition of Physiologie du goût, Wikimedia Commons.
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Augh! I've provoked a whole post. :)
ReplyDeleteHow about if I agree to keep the word in use, but only disparagingly? As in Michael Ruhlman's analogy of "foodies being people who watch the Food Network with their pants around their ankles"?
That means we still need a plausible word for the rest of us who enjoy eating and cooking but are not... you know... douchbags about the whole thing. I like Brillat but it would take too much explaining, although one could counter that if you don't know who Brillat was, you can't be in the club.
I've been using "food lover" but it doesn't sit quite right, either. Shades of bad SNL sketches or something.
I love the post Sarah, and I too use it in a somewhat self-deprecating way. I love your writing style, you have a new follower! I am glad we met.
ReplyDeleteAlso there is "Bon Vivant" which I do enjoy to use with regards to a select few of my friends deserving of this high praise.
To Sheryl, your quote "foodies being people who watch the Food Network with their pants around their ankles"? really made me laugh out loud almost spitting water on my computer. Nice. Thanks for the giggle.
The term has grown to a point where it feels almost trite to use, but we as humans do like to categorize ourselves and seeing as I have built an online presence using the monicker "foodie411" there is no going back now.
You know what else, I like the term and people get it.
Ooh yes, I do love bon vivant. I would count it as a praise term.
ReplyDeleteWhen deciding whether or not to use the word "foodie" as part of my online identity I looked at Wikipedia's definition and found that I really liked it. Particularly (and this is taken from my blog's "about" page):
ReplyDelete"…foodies are amateurs who simply love food for consumption, study, preparation, and news. Gourmets simply want to eat the best food, whereas foodies want to learn everything about food, both the best and the ordinary, and about the science, industry, and personalities surrounding food. For this reason, foodies are sometimes viewed as obsessively interested in all things culinary."
Maybe it's overused, maybe it just sounds strange to people, but Wikipedia's definition resonates with me. I didn't even want to use "canadianfoodiegirl" as a domain name but my other choices were taken and it's the name I'd been using in my Serious Eats profile. I chose it for the obvious reasons: While keeping me anonymous it related my nationality, my gender and my interest.
I kind of like "food buff".
Soooo. What'd he end up using to cook the giant fish? Or did he cave and cut it into pieces?
ReplyDeleteA giant metal washbasin.
ReplyDelete