Look at that f*cking gourmand. Or: knowledge isn't what it used to be.

Via SE, Eatocracy asks chefs how they feel about "foodies." The Cod is been on the record as anti-foodie, but anti- the term, rather than anti-enthusiasm about food. Many of the chefs surveyed seem to be in the latter camp -- reactions are predictable in their range from "foodie = necessary evil" to "foodie = H8Rs Gonna H8" -- in the latter case, it seems like "Sit down, shut up and don't ask questions" is a tough angle to take in the, you know, hospitality industry. However the Cod toils in an industry largely free of observers who are interested in him and what he does, and as such has never walked a mile in the clogs of a chef being hassled about cardoons. 

What's more interesting, in the Cod's opinion, is the evolution of the term "foodie," which might suggest something about how language and information ecologies evolve together.  (Stay with me.) Once upon a time, "foodie" was a positive term of self description. It meant, something like "I care about what I eat," at a time when most folks didn't. It was not that long ago when a pantry staple like extra virgin olive oil was hard to find outside of big cities. Having it, cooking with it, etc, involved some combination of knowing about and knowing how. Over time, "foodie" has evolved into a term of disapprobation, per the chefs in the CNN piece, into something like "people who watch the Food Network and come to my restaurant and ask questions." I've heard Amtrak employees call people like this except for trains gapers. "Fanboy" would seem to fit the bill pretty well too. 

The trajectory of the term seems to be like an accelerated form what happened to "hipster" long ago, "hipster" had a positive connotation -- hipsters knew about Dave Brubeck, and where to buy bennies, and underground cafes where you could read free verse and play the bongos. Nowadays, "hipster" = intense scorn on the Internet. 

Some of the explanation of these words becoming terms of rebuke may lie in the changing social value of information. In the olden days, a hipster was hipper than you b/c she knew more cool things. Understood the words to Pavement songs and the like. Now so much information is available so quickly and to so many that knowing  stuff is not as important as it used to be. If you know what are the best vintages for Screaming Eagle, you know exactly as much as does the tool with the smartphone sitting next to you. Like Bam says, knowledge isn't what it used to be. 

Comments

[Marco]

Strange, I was just @latfh.com via http://tinyurl.com/64qtntj. Last night we had a Moroccan-ish Cod (no kidding) dish with charmoula, onion confit with preserved lemons (homemade for those foodies reading) and Provencal olives. I didn't have any fresh lemons, but luckily had some Sicilian lemon juice in a plastic squeeze bottle in the frige. Not that long ago, Sicilian lemon and lime juice was not a Hannaford staple. My Sicilian born father, were he alive today, would have been impressed by that simple little miracle.

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