From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A gourmet is a person with a discriminating palate and who is knowledgeable in fine food and drink. The word is a corruption of the French word gourmet, a valet in charge of the wines. It is often used as an adjective for meals of especially high quality, whose makers or preparers have used especial effort or art in presentation or cooking the meal, or for facilities equipped for preparing such meals, such as a restaurant.

Gourmet is often used to modify another noun: gourmet cooking; gourmet restaurants. [French, from Old French, alteration (influenced by gourmand, glutton; see GOURMAND) of groumet, servant, valet in charge of wines, from Middle English grom, boy, valet.] USAGE NOTE: A gourmet is a person with discriminating taste in food and wine, as is a gourmand. Gourmand can also mean one who enjoys food in great quantities. An epicure is much the same as a gourmet, but the word may sometimes carry overtones of excessive refinement.

Foodie is often used by the media as a conversational synonym for gourmet. The word was coined synchronously by Gael Greene and by Paul Levy and Ann Barr, co-authors of The Official Foodie Handbook (1984). But there are important distinctions to be made between the two terms. Some gourmets would not consider themselves foodies and many foodies would not consider themselves gourmets. A foodie might easily get caught up in a taco hunt—a search for the best taco stands and trucks in an area. But this would not be an adventure for a gourmet, strictly speaking. Generally speaking, a foodie is a person who has a special interest in food, even foods that a self-identified gourmet would turn his or her nose up at.

Certain events cater to people who consider themselves gourmets or foodies, such as wine tastings and Gourmet magazine. Publications often serve gourmets with food columns and features.

• Culinary art
• Aristology, the science of dining
• The Frugal Gourmet, a cooking show
• The Surreal Gourmet, a cooking show
• Food column
• Good Eats, a cooking show which in some ways can be considered a "foodie manifesto," in host Alton Brown's deep interest in all aspects of food, from science and history to the plated dish.
• Easier Gourmet, a website whose focus blurs the distinction between "foodie" and "gourmet".

• William Safire's distinction between gourmets and gourmands