In the words of the famous French gastronomist Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, “tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are”. In other words, you are what you eat. But to truly search for and appreciate good food, one has to have a certain amount of time and money, which is something that the average working class person may not have. This leads to an interesting argument; what role does socioeconomic status play in foodie culture? Or more specifically, how does one’s socioeconomic status allow or restrict them to appreciate good food? According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a foodie is “a person with a particular interest in food; a gourmet”. Having a “particular interest in food” seemed vague to me so I looked up “gourmet” and found a much clearer definition for a foodie, “a connoisseur of good food; a person with a discerning palate”. But in order to be such a connoisseur of food or the informally coined term “foodie”, one must have the time and money that comes with a high socioeconomic status.
So what does it take to be a connoisseur of good food? How do you become a person with a discerning palate? Though there is a widespread availability of various cookbooks, restaurant reviews, and cooking shows to the general public today, being a foodie requires time, money, and taste buds that have been treated to a variety of foods that require more effort and time than many of the middle class have to devote. Much like a scientific experiment to be performed in a laboratory, being a true foodie requires careful planning and possibly even documentation of your visits to really be a connoisseur. The average working class person is just too preoccupied with their daily tasks. From household tasks to running errands to holding an occupation, who has time to really pursue the most exquisite of foods? For example, take wine. There exists innumerable kinds of wine, and one can devote their entire life studying the various types. Sure, the average middle class person will undoubtedly enjoy the occasional glass of fine wine, but they will most likely neither have the time nor money to really become a gourmet in the field or a true “foodie” on the matter.
Many have argued that with the advent of cookbooks and cooking shows that many of the middle class can now partake in the search and creation of good food. But like one who joins a fitness club only to find that their visits to the gym decrease with each passing week, many of the middle class might find themselves in comparable situations with the cookbooks and cooking shows they were so originally enthusiastic about. For many of the working class, after a long day of hard work and possibly fighting traffic, spending the time to prepare dinner just doesn’t compare to the ease of stopping by their favorite take out restaurant before returning home. And then there are the cooking shows like Hell’s Kitchen featuring the ever-furious head chef Gordon Ramsey or the highly competitive Iron Chef America that appear to be more for entertainment than anything else and contain dishes far more pricey than most of the middle class would probably be willing to pay for. With an injected element of drama, cooking shows like Hell’s Kitchen do capture and maintain their audience, but for a different reason other than for the appreciation of good food. The food merely becomes a medium for competition to take place. Shows like Rachael Ray’s 30-minute meals do present meals that are seemingly easy to prepare, though the show doesn’t include the preparation time which includes searching for and buying the ingredients that the regular working class person most likely will have to account for in attempting to reproduce the meals. The reality is that making meals from cooking shows are not as easy as they appear to be. Especially with lifestyle we live today, we prefer things to be instantaneous and done for us. Thus, the attitude for many today would be to spend money to appreciate good food rather than to take the time to cook it ourselves. Unfortunately, much of the middle class just doesn’t have the money to spend on appreciating good, high quality food often.
Despite being one of the most technologically advanced and wealthiest countries in the world, America is also home to the most obese people on earth. This is evidence that the nation as a whole lacks the knowledge to eat good nutritional food. Coupled with the general lack of exercise and we have one big disaster waiting to happen. Fast food restaurants have become a major part of the American diet and consequently the practice of cooking meals in one’s own kitchen has diminished. In Michael Pollan’s article “Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch”, he describes the transition for the general public on the whole from being the ones who prepared food to merely “spectators” in the “sport” of cooking. Previous cooking shows such as The French Chef starring Julia Child were very successful in the amount of viewers that were able to replicate Julia Child’s dishes. This was in part due to the slower paced lifestyle of the past. But as the American lifestyle began to change, the cooking shows began to evolve and many shows became more entertainment oriented and good food was portrayed as only appreciable by those that had lots of time and money to expend. As the pace of life quickened, people turned to fast food restaurants that were cheap and as the name suggests, fast, to match their lifestyles. In terms of socioeconomic status in relation to foodie culture, those that have the time and money continue to be able to appreciate good food, while those that don’t have such luxuries simply can’t afford to as often or as extensively.
Food memoirs such as Ruth Reichl’s Garlic and Sapphires also attempt to involve the middle class into the foodie culture, but evident by the high priced meals that Ruth Reichl critiques, only a small certain group of people were really meant to indulge in and become gourmets of the food the former New York Times chief food critic writes about. The reality is that the average working person just cannot afford to expend the vast amounts of money and time that Ruth Reichl and the higher classes do. Unfair as this seems, good food unfortunately comes with a high price. This is evident in the experience that Ruth Reichl had at the Box Tree. The young couple that dined alongside the food critic and her friend had received poor service all night and Ruth Reichl remarked herself that the couple most likely didn’t get the chance to dine like they did very often. The couple is representative of the large working middle class that rarely gets the chance, except on special occasions, to consume and appreciate truly high quality food.
Taking it to the extreme and looking at the opposite end of the socioeconomic status spectrum, proves the point that those less fortunate “eat to live” and those that are wealthier have the luxury of appreciating good food or are “living to eat”. For example, in “A Miracle for Breakfast”, Elizabeth Bishop paints a picture of welfare during the Depression with her poem that exemplifies the effect that the socioeconomic status has on one’s ability to appreciate food. The main character in the poem dreams about the “miracle” of having a bountiful amount of coffee and a mansion from the mere crumb they receive. Meanwhile, the wealthy man up on the balcony is much better off than the poorer majority. Unfortunately even today, we have those who make decisions on the food they consume based on the price of the food. These people of lower socioeconomic status have no choice but to do so and therefore fall under the category of those who “eat to live”. They appreciate food as a means of sustenance, while those of higher class have the luxury to appreciate food based on taste.
One may argue that to enjoy good food, a large amount of expendable money is not necessary as there are a variety of excellent lower scale restaurants that the average middle class aspiring foodie can build their palate upon. But the reality is that many of these restaurants provide food that are very similar to each other or may serve food that compromises nutritional value for taste. Cooking meals at home is the alternative to spending vast amounts of money on higher end restaurants, though this would obviously require time. Time that many of the working middle class just don’t have or would rather spend pursuing another hobby. So this leaves the true connoisseurs of good food and excellent taste to be those of the wealthier classes with the time and money to frequently expend on high-class restaurants. Sadly, in today’s world socioeconomic status is a big indicator of the quality of food one is able to enjoy on a regular basis. In other words, you either “eat to live or live to eat”.
References:
New York Times article: "Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch" by Michael Pollan
TV Shows: Hell's Kitchen, Iron Chef America, 30-minute meals with Rachael Ray, The French Chef starring Julia Child
Books: Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl
Literary Work (poem): "A Miracle for Breakfast" by Elizabeth Bishop
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