Guest blog: Is there a better word for "foodie"?
You can鈥檛 judge a book by its cover, but a group of friends was talking the other day about how judgmental they felt about an even smaller part of a book, the title: It was 鈥淭he Foodie Handbook鈥�, by Pim Techamuanvivit, author of the well-loved food blog 鈥淐hez Pim鈥�. The word 鈥渇oodie鈥� was enough for some of the group to avoid the book entirely.
The resistance felt a little odd for a few reasons. One is that everyone gathered around the table either was an existing or a potential Chez Pim fan. We love food, we love cooking, we love travel. The party we were at, even, was a book party for a food book 鈥� forager Langdon Cook鈥檚 鈥淔at Of The Land,鈥� an account of the ingredients Cook had learned to gather and prepare, from the mountains to the sea. The chef hosting the party, Becky Selengut, cooked a feast for us using ingredients foraged earlier that day by the author. If there was a litmus test of what constituted a foodie, wouldn鈥檛 we decisively qualify?
The tension took me back to my geek-day debates about Star Trek fans, who resented the title 鈥淭rekkies鈥� as juvenile and condescending, in the same way that 鈥渇oodie鈥� feels precious and twee. Somehow, for those fans, it felt more acceptable to be referred to as 鈥淭rekkers.鈥� How about, I suggested, we try replacing the 鈥渇oodie鈥� title with 鈥渇ooder鈥�?
Needless to say, 鈥淭he Fooder Handbook鈥� didn鈥檛 go over well. But I have to believe the right word is waiting somewhere, as elusive as a wild morel, as fresh as a just-shucked oyster, as sweetly, jammily perfect as the preserves Pim chronicles making for herself and for people 鈥� no matter what you call us 鈥� just like me.
Rebekah Denn writes at .
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