Blog Post #3-Is Food Culture Restricted to the Wealthy?

Food, we need it. This fact is inescapable, but some seek to take this necessity a step further and not only obtain their necessary amount of food, but to also get the maximum amount of enjoyment out of the food possible. These people, foodies, can be of any socioeconomic position and, if they are willing to spend enough, can get the amount of enjoyment out of food they truly want. Now, by definition, this means it will be easier for those with deeper wallets to be foodies, but this does not cut off access to those without a large amount of excess money. Those without a high socioeconomic status can still delve into and enjoy food culture, and they can do so through ways commonly associated with those of higher status, like dining out, and through ways of their own, that, although they do not result in the consumption of food, still immerses the foodie-to-be in some food culture.

What is viewed by some as one of the biggest aspects of being a foodie, eating out, is not a wallet breaker, if properly done for you own budget, and, in fact, does not need to be engaged in as frequently as one might think to fully enjoy the experience or to be what one would call a foodie. One does not need to eat out at restaurants every week to enjoy food, in fact, eating out is not really necessary at all to truly enjoy eating food. The most a foodie "needs" to eat out is once a month, any more is not really necessary to satiate one's foodie-dom (I use "need" in this way because, as I have said, one does not have to eat out to enjoy food, but it sure does help with personal time constraints and the like). Also, one to does need to eat out at some high class fancy chain restaurant to enjoy the experience of dining out, and, really, the fanciest one "needs" to go to is a upper-middle class chain restaurant or a personal favorite independently owned restaurant in one's neighborhood. So, just schedule every month or so a visit to Olive Garden or a similar restaurant with your friends or family and you should be fine, and without busting your wallet.

Now while eating out is a great way to easily get good tasting food, it simply does not beat, in this author's humble opinion, a home-cooked meal. This aspect, too, is viewed as a wallet buster, because "how am I supposed to afford all of these expensive ingredients for this new fancy dish I am trying to prepare?" One problem with this, though, is that to enjoy food, you only need to find foods that you enjoy to eat and/or prepare, and this does not require that you make some stereotypically fancy dish to be a true foodie. If one already is a fairly experienced cook, but does not have a very large budget, then just, as was said by Alton Brown in one episode of Good Eats, "Wonton Ways", (paraphrased)"while shopping, just stop, step away from the cart, look around for something new, something have not seen before, have not tasted before." Doing so will not only allow for new flavor avenues to be explored, but also allow for one to find new ingredients that help them maintain their budget. If, however, one is not that experienced of a cook and one does not know where to begin, then just look around, scour the Internet, the cheapest cookbook imaginable, for recipes that interest you, and you will find recipes that do not break your budget.

One of the most interesting phenomenons in the food world is the development of the cooking show, the show that visually attempts to show people how to prepare foods in delicious ways. While in the past, there were simple shows like the albeit unintentionally funny The French Chef with Julia Child, which took things at a slow pace and was built primarily around the purpose of showing people how to prepare certain dishes, now there are shows like the previously mentioned Good Eats, which blaze through their material in a short span, focusing more significantly on entertainment than provide a simple and easily understandable medium for the presentation of the knowledge of food preparation. Using Good Eats as an example, one typically will not watch the show to learn how to prepare the food in question for that episode, as it is a bit unreasonable to expect the viewer to gather all the information presented in one view, unless they are quick with a pen or have a fantastic memory. Instead, people watch the show to see Alton Brown be funny and entertaining, using food as a medium, and, in some episodes, like the episode covering the proper usage of knives and cutlery, will unexpectedly learn something that will follow them into all future endeavors in the kitchen. These shows provide a cheap and effective way to get enjoyment out of food, while still having the potential to further your expeditions into the culinary world.

Now, taking these food based shows a step further in the entertainment direction are the food competition shows like Iron Chef and Hell's Kitchen, which rarely provide any reason for existence other than to entertain the viewer, using food as their medium. In these shows, the viewers finds themselves focusing on the contestants more so than they do on the food, and by the end, the viewer tends to forget that the show's primary focus was supposed to be food. These shows, while similar to the previous types of food show in that they do still entertain the viewers through food, do not transmit anything that will pass over into their kitchen. In the end though, all of these shows further a foodies pleasures in the food world, and at the price of a television connection.

Lastly, and potentially one the most important points, is the change in effect that a food will have on a person as the socioeconomic status of that person changes. What I mean by this is, what one foodie of a quite high socioeconomic status would consider as a passable meal, a foodie that is of a significantly lower status would find that meal to exceed all expectations and desires. An example, Ruth Reichl, as she stated in her book "Garlic and Sapphires," when she gave her roasted duck leftovers from a restaurant she recently dined at for review to a beggar, they, instead of tearing through it the moment they saw it, slowly ate the meal, enjoying every bite, treating it as if it was the finest dining they ever would experience. For that moment, that humble beggar became a true foodie, appreciating and enjoying the food they had. This situation, albeit a little on the extreme side, shows just how disparate the wants, desires, and expectations change with the socioeconomic class of people, and just because one does not have the ability to afford the most expensive and fancy of meals does not mean that they cannot enjoy what they can get to the fullest.

So, in the end, not being wealthy does not mean you cannot be a foodie, much like being wealthy does not automatically make you a foodie. If you do not have a deep wallet, you can find different, just as effective means to delve into and enjoy food culture. Whether it be dining out, preparing simple home-cooked meals, or the simple, and not-so-simple, food-based show, even the shallowest of wallets can find their way to enjoy foodie culture and become a true foodie.

Resources

"Garlic and Sapphires" by Ruth Reichl
Various episodes from Good Eats by Alton Brown, most notably "Wonton Ways"
Various other food-based shows, most notably The French Chef, Hell's Kitchen, and Iron Chef America
Wikipedia