Foodies
The term “foodie” first appeared in 1980 in a New York Magazine article by restaurant critic Gael Greene. According to Ann Barr and Paul Levy, in their Official Foodie Handbook (1984), a foodie is “a person who is very, very, very interested in food. Foodies are the ones talking about food in any gathering -- salivating over restaurants, recipes, and radicchio. They don’t think they are being trivial –foodies consider food to be an art, on level with painting or drama… the purpose of life is eating well.”
Dave DeWitt, author of The Founding Foodies: How Washington, Jefferson and Franklin Revolutionized American Cuisine, defines foodies, for the most part, as amateur gourmets: “In the popular culture of the United States, foodies differ from gourmets, although the two terms are often used interchangeably. Gourmets are epicures of refined taste that are often food professionals—chefs, restaurant and winery owners and gourmet food manufacturers. Gourmets simply desire to eat the finest food, but foodies, who are mostly amateurs, want to learn everything there is to know about their favorite subject—the history, the science, the industry and the personalities surrounding food. They love to create with their own hands in the kitchen and then consume their passion or to experiment with a new exotic flavor or ingredient when they dine out.”
The Oxford English Dictionary’s definition is a shorter version of DeWitt’s; “a person with a particular interest in food; a gourmet. Sometimes distinguished from ‘gourmet’ as implying a broad interest in all aspects of food procurement and preparation.”
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines it as “a person having an avid interest in the latest food fads,” and in the Online Slang Dictionary it denotes “a food enthusiast.”
Over the past three decades, foodie has been used with increasing frequency to the point that its ubiquity has stripped the word of any semblance of meaning, according to an article by Roberto Ferdman in The Independent. Natalie C. Padilla “In Defense of Foodies” argues that today “foodie” describes a way of thinking rather than a way of acting, in short, a philosophy. Foodies are those committed to increasing their knowledge about food, its sources, ingredients and means of production. “For foodies, challenging traditional ideas and fostering individual creativity are at the forefront of their movement…food can be art; it can be creativity; it can be inspiring; and it can be inspired…At its best, food can become the platform for rejecting the marketed messages of mass consumption produced by large corporations. Rather than just allowing you to taste in new ways, it can allow you to think in new ways.”
In his 2014 interview with the late Anthony Bourdain, “Anthony Bourdain’s Theory of the Foodie Revolution,” Ron Rosenbaum writes that Bourdain changed the perception as well as status of chefs from “behind-the-scenes pot-stirrer to culinary rock star” with his best seller, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly. The book’s success led to Bourdain’s hosting a food and travel series - Chef’s Tour on Food Network - where he visited places unfamiliar to most Americans and ate the local foods which frequently were strange, even bizarre - and/or unappetizing to American and Western tastes. The same format was used on his next series, No Reservations which aired on the Travel Channel, followed by Parts Unknown on CNN.
In the interview, Bourdain discusses the massive American audience for food programming on television such as “Top Chef,” “Iron Chef,” “Cake Boss,” “Barefoot Contessa” and “Chopped,” to name only a few. The Foodie Revolution is part of a “seismic food culture shift,” a phenomenon that Bourdain views as a result of Americans catching on to what Europeans and Asians have known for centuries. “We are changing societally, and our values are changing, so that we are becoming more like Italians and Chinese and Thais and Spaniards, where we actually think about what we’re eating, what we ate last night, and what we are considering eating tomorrow.” Additionally, Bourdain points out that American palates have been changing over the past thirty or forty years. “The moment when Americans decided that raw fish was desirable. Huge! Nothing could be more repulsive to the traditional American table…One of the most serious things happening is people like Korean food now. Clearly that funk zone, the rot zone, the kimchi zone people have learned in their lifetimes to like.”
In March 2016 the magazine Bon Appetit launched its first Culture Issue: (How Did We All Get So Food Obsessed?) featuring the themes of food as a “thing,” and millennial foodie culture. Since a common trait of millennials is their penchant for instagramming their food, all original photography in the issue was shot with iPhone 6s. Included in the issue was a very amusing infographic of the millennial foodie entitled “Anatomy of a [Food-Obsessed] Millennial.”
Here is a small sampling of some good “foodie” books:
Eating Across America: A Foodie’s Guide to Food Trucks, Street Food and the Best Dish in Each State by Daymon “Daym Drops” Patterson
Patterson trained as a plumber, but quickly discovered that his 6 feet 4 inch, 180 pound frame wasn’t meant for working in crawl spaces and other tight spots that his job could require. Instead he spent the next ten years in the plumbing departments at Home Depot and Lowes as an assistant manager. One day in 2012, he posted an online review of the double bacon cheeseburger at Five Guys. One thing led to another and it wasn’t long before Patterson found his niche as an online fast food reviewer, and ultimately the “YouTube Food Titan.” These days, Patterson travels the country searching out local spots, be it “hole-in-the-wall restaurants” or food trucks and food carts that offer delicious food with quality ingredients. He particularly loves coming across “hidden gems” with specialty items he would not otherwise expect to find. He “wraps up” the book by offering his choice of the “Best Daymn Dish” in each of the 50 states, with a tantalizing photograph of each. My father was from Oklahoma (as am I) and I know he would definitely agree with Patterson’s Oklahoma choice; deep fried cornmeal crusted okra, a dish he loved.
Truffle Boy: My Unexpected Journey Through the Exotic Food Underground by Purkayastha Purkayastha
Ian Purkayastha is an entrepreneurial boy wonder. Purkayastha was born in Houston, Texas in 1992 to an immigrant father from Tamil Nadu, India and a mother from Huntsville, Texas. Wanting to start their own company, his parents went into partnership with his father’s brother in Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, to manufacture and import leather goods from India. Their business grew and made a lot of money producing upscale leather products for American companies. His parents did quite well until the September 11th attacks caused a slowdown in the global economy, and these companies turned to cheaper manufacturers in China. Around this time, Purkayastha’s father invented a device to stabilize ladders and invested heavily in manufacturing the product. Despite some initial success, he lost most of his investment to escalating manufacturing costs. Forced to downsize, the family moved to Fayetteville, Arkansas, where they could live more cheaply and be closer to Purkayastha’s uncle and grandfather. From his uncle, Purkayastha learned how to forage for wild mushrooms, quickly becoming “hooked on mushrooms.” At the age of ten, while still living in Houston, Purkayastha started collecting rocks which led to a fascination with gemstones. He joined the Houston Gem and Mineral Society, despite being several decades younger than most of the other members, and learned how to cut gems. His first experience as an entrepreneur was in the 5th grade when he brought some gems to school and sold them to eager classmates for considerably more than their actual worth. Within two weeks he made $300. His mother found out and told him that if he wanted to succeed in business and in life, he had to protect his good name and reputation by dealing fairly and honorably with his customers and others. It was a lesson he would remember.
Purkayastha was fourteen when he ordered a dish of black truffle ravioli with foie gras sauce at an upscale Italian restaurant. It was the single best thing he had ever eaten, and he became obsessed with truffles. Hoping to replicate the truffle ravioli at home (having learned a lot about food preparation from his family) he asked his parents for truffles, but was told they were too expensive. The following year he ordered a kilo of truffles from Provence on eBay which he then sold to a local chef for a nice profit. Encouraged, he continued to buy truffles online, then sell them to the best restaurants in Fayetteville and Tulsa, Oklahoma by going door to door lugging a cooler.
After finishing high school he persuaded his parents to let him move to Weehawken, New Jersey, where he found a run-down but affordable apartment and started selling truffles to Manhattan restaurants. Gaining access to New York’s chefs was very difficult at first. Most of them didn’t take an eighteen-year-old truffle dealer seriously and, more often than not, ordered him out of their kitchens. Purkayastha persisted and gradually more and more chefs started buying from him, impressed by his reliability, honesty and the quality of his product.
His first business partner, who he calls Ubaldo, was an Italian truffle wholesaler and his supplier for two years. Their partnership ended when Ubaldo proved to be deceptive and unscrupulous. After that, Purkayastha began obtaining his truffles directly from producers in France, Italy, Serbia, Spain and Oregon. In addition to truffles, he was able to supply his customers with hard to find items such as foraged edibles, fresh Italian buffalo milk, and Japanese Waygu beef. By the age of twenty three, he was the founder and owner of Regalis, a successful specialty foods company.
Purkayastha is highly knowledgeable about truffles and his book is full of interesting facts. For example, many truffles that buyers are led to believe are French and Italian, actually originate in Serbia and Spain. There several different varieties of truffles, each with their own aroma and taste, among them highly aromatic black and white truffles from Oregon. He warns the reader about so-called truffle oils which are produced from a synthetic flavor compound, and have never been in contact with an actual truffle. Those famous truffle pigs in France have long been replaced by dogs (the pigs were known to sometimes bite a truffle hunter’s fingers off). Last but not least is the gloomy fact that truffle production has been adversely affected by climate change, and truffles may disappear entirely by the end of this century, if not sooner.
Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley
Relish is an entertaining graphic novel about Knisley’s childhood and adolescence and her relationship with food. Born in New York City, she was “a child raised by foodies. My parents probably don’t recall how old I was at my baptism, but they remember what I ate that day [Poached salmon in cream]. After all, my family worships nothing so much as we do food, and the trinity of cooking, dining out, and eating.” When she was seven, her parents split up, her father staying in Manhattan where he enjoyed eating at good restaurants, while she and her mother moved to upstate New York. Her mother grew vegetables, raised chickens, and cooked wonderful meals for the many friends she made, and started her own business as a caterer. Knisley spent school vacations with her father during which they would fight, both of them being too finicky, stubborn, and sensitive to get along all the time. But when eating a good meal together, there was a “momentary truce.”
One of my favorite parts is when Knisley’s dad takes her to Rome, wanting to introduce her to the art, the culture, and most of all, the wonderful food there. Not far from their hotel is a McDonald’s which her father notes with disgust. One evening, they have an argument and Lucy refuses to join her father for a night out. Annoyed, he leaves her at the hotel. She spends the evening sulking in their room, only leaving for an admittedly delicious hot chocolate at a nearby café. Several hours later, her father still hasn’t returned and she is afraid that he will “leave her there forever.” Early the next morning she leaves the hotel, goes straight to the McDonald’s and buys a burger and fries. Bringing them back to the room, she sits on the floor “eating her breakfast.” When her father wakes up, he immediately notices what she’s eating. “Horrified, he berated [her] for eating junk in one the finest culinary cities in the world” and then shouted, “How can you DO that?!” To which she replied, “With relish.” Knisley’s colorful drawings are delightful and her characters’ facial expressions are very effective in conveying their thoughts and emotions. Her attractively illustrated recipes provide easy to follow instructions for such dishes as her grandfather’s marinated lamb, her mother’s pesto, and a recipe for the “the best chocolate chip cookies.”
Dave DeWitt, author of The Founding Foodies: How Washington, Jefferson and Franklin Revolutionized American Cuisine, defines foodies, for the most part, as amateur gourmets: “In the popular culture of the United States, foodies differ from gourmets, although the two terms are often used interchangeably. Gourmets are epicures of refined taste that are often food professionals—chefs, restaurant and winery owners and gourmet food manufacturers. Gourmets simply desire to eat the finest food, but foodies, who are mostly amateurs, want to learn everything there is to know about their favorite subject—the history, the science, the industry and the personalities surrounding food. They love to create with their own hands in the kitchen and then consume their passion or to experiment with a new exotic flavor or ingredient when they dine out.”The Oxford English Dictionary’s definition is a shorter version of DeWitt’s; “a person with a particular interest in food; a gourmet. Sometimes distinguished from ‘gourmet’ as implying a broad interest in all aspects of food procurement and preparation.”
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines it as “a person having an avid interest in the latest food fads,” and in the Online Slang Dictionary it denotes “a food enthusiast.”
Over the past three decades, foodie has been used with increasing frequency to the point that its ubiquity has stripped the word of any semblance of meaning, according to an article by Roberto Ferdman in The Independent. Natalie C. Padilla “In Defense of Foodies” argues that today “foodie” describes a way of thinking rather than a way of acting, in short, a philosophy. Foodies are those committed to increasing their knowledge about food, its sources, ingredients and means of production. “For foodies, challenging traditional ideas and fostering individual creativity are at the forefront of their movement…food can be art; it can be creativity; it can be inspiring; and it can be inspired…At its best, food can become the platform for rejecting the marketed messages of mass consumption produced by large corporations. Rather than just allowing you to taste in new ways, it can allow you to think in new ways.”
In his 2014 interview with the late Anthony Bourdain, “Anthony Bourdain’s Theory of the Foodie Revolution,” Ron Rosenbaum writes that Bourdain changed the perception as well as status of chefs from “behind-the-scenes pot-stirrer to culinary rock star” with his best seller, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly. The book’s success led to Bourdain’s hosting a food and travel series - Chef’s Tour on Food Network - where he visited places unfamiliar to most Americans and ate the local foods which frequently were strange, even bizarre - and/or unappetizing to American and Western tastes. The same format was used on his next series, No Reservations which aired on the Travel Channel, followed by Parts Unknown on CNN.In the interview, Bourdain discusses the massive American audience for food programming on television such as “Top Chef,” “Iron Chef,” “Cake Boss,” “Barefoot Contessa” and “Chopped,” to name only a few. The Foodie Revolution is part of a “seismic food culture shift,” a phenomenon that Bourdain views as a result of Americans catching on to what Europeans and Asians have known for centuries. “We are changing societally, and our values are changing, so that we are becoming more like Italians and Chinese and Thais and Spaniards, where we actually think about what we’re eating, what we ate last night, and what we are considering eating tomorrow.” Additionally, Bourdain points out that American palates have been changing over the past thirty or forty years. “The moment when Americans decided that raw fish was desirable. Huge! Nothing could be more repulsive to the traditional American table…One of the most serious things happening is people like Korean food now. Clearly that funk zone, the rot zone, the kimchi zone people have learned in their lifetimes to like.”
In March 2016 the magazine Bon Appetit launched its first Culture Issue: (How Did We All Get So Food Obsessed?) featuring the themes of food as a “thing,” and millennial foodie culture. Since a common trait of millennials is their penchant for instagramming their food, all original photography in the issue was shot with iPhone 6s. Included in the issue was a very amusing infographic of the millennial foodie entitled “Anatomy of a [Food-Obsessed] Millennial.”
Here is a small sampling of some good “foodie” books:
Eating Across America: A Foodie’s Guide to Food Trucks, Street Food and the Best Dish in Each State by Daymon “Daym Drops” Patterson Patterson trained as a plumber, but quickly discovered that his 6 feet 4 inch, 180 pound frame wasn’t meant for working in crawl spaces and other tight spots that his job could require. Instead he spent the next ten years in the plumbing departments at Home Depot and Lowes as an assistant manager. One day in 2012, he posted an online review of the double bacon cheeseburger at Five Guys. One thing led to another and it wasn’t long before Patterson found his niche as an online fast food reviewer, and ultimately the “YouTube Food Titan.” These days, Patterson travels the country searching out local spots, be it “hole-in-the-wall restaurants” or food trucks and food carts that offer delicious food with quality ingredients. He particularly loves coming across “hidden gems” with specialty items he would not otherwise expect to find. He “wraps up” the book by offering his choice of the “Best Daymn Dish” in each of the 50 states, with a tantalizing photograph of each. My father was from Oklahoma (as am I) and I know he would definitely agree with Patterson’s Oklahoma choice; deep fried cornmeal crusted okra, a dish he loved.
Truffle Boy: My Unexpected Journey Through the Exotic Food Underground by Purkayastha PurkayasthaIan Purkayastha is an entrepreneurial boy wonder. Purkayastha was born in Houston, Texas in 1992 to an immigrant father from Tamil Nadu, India and a mother from Huntsville, Texas. Wanting to start their own company, his parents went into partnership with his father’s brother in Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, to manufacture and import leather goods from India. Their business grew and made a lot of money producing upscale leather products for American companies. His parents did quite well until the September 11th attacks caused a slowdown in the global economy, and these companies turned to cheaper manufacturers in China. Around this time, Purkayastha’s father invented a device to stabilize ladders and invested heavily in manufacturing the product. Despite some initial success, he lost most of his investment to escalating manufacturing costs. Forced to downsize, the family moved to Fayetteville, Arkansas, where they could live more cheaply and be closer to Purkayastha’s uncle and grandfather. From his uncle, Purkayastha learned how to forage for wild mushrooms, quickly becoming “hooked on mushrooms.” At the age of ten, while still living in Houston, Purkayastha started collecting rocks which led to a fascination with gemstones. He joined the Houston Gem and Mineral Society, despite being several decades younger than most of the other members, and learned how to cut gems. His first experience as an entrepreneur was in the 5th grade when he brought some gems to school and sold them to eager classmates for considerably more than their actual worth. Within two weeks he made $300. His mother found out and told him that if he wanted to succeed in business and in life, he had to protect his good name and reputation by dealing fairly and honorably with his customers and others. It was a lesson he would remember.
Purkayastha was fourteen when he ordered a dish of black truffle ravioli with foie gras sauce at an upscale Italian restaurant. It was the single best thing he had ever eaten, and he became obsessed with truffles. Hoping to replicate the truffle ravioli at home (having learned a lot about food preparation from his family) he asked his parents for truffles, but was told they were too expensive. The following year he ordered a kilo of truffles from Provence on eBay which he then sold to a local chef for a nice profit. Encouraged, he continued to buy truffles online, then sell them to the best restaurants in Fayetteville and Tulsa, Oklahoma by going door to door lugging a cooler.
After finishing high school he persuaded his parents to let him move to Weehawken, New Jersey, where he found a run-down but affordable apartment and started selling truffles to Manhattan restaurants. Gaining access to New York’s chefs was very difficult at first. Most of them didn’t take an eighteen-year-old truffle dealer seriously and, more often than not, ordered him out of their kitchens. Purkayastha persisted and gradually more and more chefs started buying from him, impressed by his reliability, honesty and the quality of his product.
His first business partner, who he calls Ubaldo, was an Italian truffle wholesaler and his supplier for two years. Their partnership ended when Ubaldo proved to be deceptive and unscrupulous. After that, Purkayastha began obtaining his truffles directly from producers in France, Italy, Serbia, Spain and Oregon. In addition to truffles, he was able to supply his customers with hard to find items such as foraged edibles, fresh Italian buffalo milk, and Japanese Waygu beef. By the age of twenty three, he was the founder and owner of Regalis, a successful specialty foods company.
Purkayastha is highly knowledgeable about truffles and his book is full of interesting facts. For example, many truffles that buyers are led to believe are French and Italian, actually originate in Serbia and Spain. There several different varieties of truffles, each with their own aroma and taste, among them highly aromatic black and white truffles from Oregon. He warns the reader about so-called truffle oils which are produced from a synthetic flavor compound, and have never been in contact with an actual truffle. Those famous truffle pigs in France have long been replaced by dogs (the pigs were known to sometimes bite a truffle hunter’s fingers off). Last but not least is the gloomy fact that truffle production has been adversely affected by climate change, and truffles may disappear entirely by the end of this century, if not sooner.
Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy KnisleyRelish is an entertaining graphic novel about Knisley’s childhood and adolescence and her relationship with food. Born in New York City, she was “a child raised by foodies. My parents probably don’t recall how old I was at my baptism, but they remember what I ate that day [Poached salmon in cream]. After all, my family worships nothing so much as we do food, and the trinity of cooking, dining out, and eating.” When she was seven, her parents split up, her father staying in Manhattan where he enjoyed eating at good restaurants, while she and her mother moved to upstate New York. Her mother grew vegetables, raised chickens, and cooked wonderful meals for the many friends she made, and started her own business as a caterer. Knisley spent school vacations with her father during which they would fight, both of them being too finicky, stubborn, and sensitive to get along all the time. But when eating a good meal together, there was a “momentary truce.”
One of my favorite parts is when Knisley’s dad takes her to Rome, wanting to introduce her to the art, the culture, and most of all, the wonderful food there. Not far from their hotel is a McDonald’s which her father notes with disgust. One evening, they have an argument and Lucy refuses to join her father for a night out. Annoyed, he leaves her at the hotel. She spends the evening sulking in their room, only leaving for an admittedly delicious hot chocolate at a nearby café. Several hours later, her father still hasn’t returned and she is afraid that he will “leave her there forever.” Early the next morning she leaves the hotel, goes straight to the McDonald’s and buys a burger and fries. Bringing them back to the room, she sits on the floor “eating her breakfast.” When her father wakes up, he immediately notices what she’s eating. “Horrified, he berated [her] for eating junk in one the finest culinary cities in the world” and then shouted, “How can you DO that?!” To which she replied, “With relish.” Knisley’s colorful drawings are delightful and her characters’ facial expressions are very effective in conveying their thoughts and emotions. Her attractively illustrated recipes provide easy to follow instructions for such dishes as her grandfather’s marinated lamb, her mother’s pesto, and a recipe for the “the best chocolate chip cookies.”
- Elka Frankel, West Windsor Branch
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