Foodie Culture in most of the United States has become a function of economic standing.
“Get me a Reuben with a single piece of lettuce, a little spicy mustard on the side. Don’t put the dressing inside; I want it separately with a thinly sliced onion. And make it thin; the onion was a little too thick last time.” This is an order made in a street corner deli in New York City. New Yorkers are a very demanding group when it comes to food. New Yorkers are foodies; they take a particular interest in their food. Surely not every, or even most New Yorkers are rich as many assume foodies to be. Why is this so?
In 2006 alone, there were 222 new restaurants opened that were in the Zagaat survey. There is simply huge variety of food available in New York City. This variety gives New Yorkers the ability to be what we have termed “foodies”. Variety enables foodie culture more than socioeconomic status. Socioeconomic status only determines one’s ability to be a foodie when there is not much variety.
In exploring the relation between foodie culture and socioeconomic standing, we will first look at the origin of the word “foodie”. Foodie was a term coined by a journalist for the Wall Street Journal in the 1980’s. During this time, there was a gourmet movement by the elite of the United States during boom times to use food as status symbols. This is he origination of the association between gourmet food and elite. In reality, consumption of gourmet food has to do with economic status only under a few limited conditions.
In recent times, fast food chains that rely on low quality, low price to sell their food have dominated western food culture. The mass production of food started by Californian chains has greatly decreased the variety available to most people living in the suburbs. In addition to low cost, there is also relatively small amount of competition between restaurants since every chain only competes with up to fifteen to eighteen chains in its price bracket. The limited options makes dining in the United States relatively homogenous, somewhat boring and makes finding well prepared food very difficult.
Not too long ago, almost every meal could have fit the definition of gourmet, as every meal would have been meticulously prepared using fresh ingredients. In order to make a simple dish such as baked beans, the beans must be soaked overnight, boiled for one and a half hours. After they have been boiled one must add diced bacon, diced onions, molasses, syrup, salt, pepper, mustard, and brown sugar and must be cooked in a crock-pot for another one and a half hours. In all, the process takes about four hours. Almost all dishes took large amounts of time to make and what took four hours can now be made in a matter of seconds because of processed beans packed in cans.
Since cheap, processed and easily prepared food is very prevalent and inexpensive, most of the public elects to buy it. The convenience and economic advantages afforded by such food make the opportunity cost of lower quality food small for most people. Foodies are people that believe the opportunity cost would be higher. In most cases, this implies that a foodie has higher disposable income relative to others to be able to spend resources eating gourmet.
Where fast-food culture exists, chain restaurants dominate the culinary landscape, and convenience food is a major source of food, prevalence of foodie culture can be determined by socioeconomic standing. This situation exists in most suburbs of the United States, while cities may have the variety necessary variety to cultivate a large food culture among its residents.
The Food Culture equates to the foodie culture in the rest of the world.
Most people around the world do not rely on convenience or microwave dinners. This is the reason why foodie culture for most areas is not different from food culture of those areas. The most ordinary of people have discerning tastes like in New York. The rich and middle class have roughly the same dining experiences. There are some superficial differences as the rich man may eat more fish than the middle class man, but they have the same appreciation for good food. They are both foodies.
To illustrate, I will use an example very near and dear to me, the Thaali.
At the entrance to the venue, there is an elaborately dressed waiter in a white suit who directs guests to their table. He comes will come to the table a few moments later to ask if the guest wants anything to drink. He offers a selection of drinks that consists of a wide variety of tropical fruit juices and sodas. After receiving the drinks, many people come in succession carrying a different dish to offer. Each of them offers the dish very politely and sincerely asks if the guest would like to have the dish offered. After the meal is over you go to pay the bill, it is four hundred rupees, or the equivalent of eight dollars.
The meal mentioned above is called a Thaali. It is served on street corners and the price varies from about eighty rupees (one and a half dollars) to about a thousand rupees (twenty dollars). A gourmet meal by American standards is very average food for the Indian. Gourmet is relating to or preparing high quality food that is sophisticated, expensive, rare, or meticulously prepared. All Indian food is prepared with organic ingredients, fresh fruits and vegetables, no preservatives, and requires meticulous preparation. The meat would be prepared in the Islamic tradition and therefore would abide by strict standards for quality. There are at least 50-60 different cuisines available in an Indian city. Service also would be of the highest quality. The philosophy of a restaurant in India is that the patron is not just a customer, a patron is a guest and the waiters treat them as such. Prices would be very low relative to American standards. Since food is cheap and there is a large variety of food, most people develop discerning tastes. They are all foodies. Thus pervasiveness of foodie culture is not a function of socioeconomic status in India.
Even though food culture in India is only one example, the disconnect between pervasiveness of foodie culture and socioeconomic status exists almost everywhere around the globe. No matter what geographical area is observed; Ethiopia, Greece, France, Japan, China, Malaysia, or Germany, food is still prepared in a time-consuming and meticulous manner. Eating venues in everywhere else in the world also have a larger variety of food available relative to American eateries.
Foodie Culture is simply the effort of some to eat like other cultures.
Foodie culture arose to serve as another status symbol for young urban working Americans. It distinguished the rich from the masses who ate processed convenience food. Foodie culture was their attempt at sophistication by incorporating more international cuisine. Foodie culture by its very roots was made for those in high tax brackets in America. It originated during a time of economic boom and people had unprecedented disposable incomes. This elitist character of foodie culture has permeated until today. The only difference is that today, even a select few in the middle class have the disposable income to become a foodie.
Before the dawn of convenience food, everyone was a modern day foodie. People took time and energy preparing food. Food was not uninteresting as every meal would be different. People knew exactly where their food came from and had choices when it came to ingredients. Since people were felt and saw the food they were eating through every stage, they saw the details in the food and learned to appreciate them. In times before, when fresh ingredients were used, individuals developed a feel for the type of food that was best. They came to know the types and variety of fruit that tasted best in a particular season. Experimentation was an unavoidable part of food since on two meals can be cooked exactly the same by human hands. We all didn’t just used to be foodies; we were all discerning gourmets.
This is the culture that still exists outside the United States. Most places do not have a reliance on convenience foods and use only fresh ingredients. This results in a large amount of experimentation and discerning tastes among people. They still know when is the best season to get particular fruits. This taste exists not just in the elite, but also across the middle class. Common people know the nuances of cooking because the cook from scratch. Households have a deep understanding of food science and culinary arts since cooking from scratch requires such knowledge.
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