"Although the two terms are sometimes used interchangeably, foodies differ from gourmets in that gourmets are epicures of refined taste who may or may not be professionals in the food industry, whereas foodies are amateurs who simply love food for consumption, study, preparation, and news.[1] Gourmets simply want to eat the best food, whereas foodies want to learn everything about food, both the best and the ordinary, and about the science, industry, and personalities surrounding food."
Maybe I am a "foodie," but I don't like the word. I don't often eat at restaurants. I don't prepare fancy dishes. The majority of what I eat is what anyone in the history of humanity would eat. Some of my cooking varies, because I can get certain prepared products, but I rarely use them. (Nutella is my latest exception.) I cook almost everything from whole foods. And all I normally use is salt and some vinegar. I did vary from this recently - making a ratatouille with some cumin and nutmeg. But really, what does it say about how far we've come if someone who eats extremely conservatively (by historical standards) needs a label? Most of the time "foodie" gets associated with someone who is checking out all the new trends in restaurants, etc. Though this used to be me, I am very far from that now. I cook for health, hunger, and particular cravings.
I will maintain from direct experience that concern about what you eat is the first step towards health. That means to "love food for consumption, study, preparation, and news." So really, what is a foodie? The word in and of itself implies agreement with Michael Pollan's definition of "food," as that which your great-grandmother would recognize as food. That is to say, anything that remains unprocessed. Maybe a "foodie" is just someone who understands that the craft of cooking infuses food with something greater than itself, and when we relegate that task to the unsupervised work of machines, we are left with less than we started with. (Not to mention that we're all getting heart disease and cancer.)
I am healthier than I've ever been, and I'm getting healthier. It makes me realize that learning HOW to eat has been the first great test on my path. It's rather humbling to think that my path will necessarily contain many more unforeseen stages. This process of learning to dance seems long.
Oh, and I'm making pumpkin pie from scratch.
