I’m told I’m a foodie. But what does it mean? That I like food? Well who doesn’t?

I don’t live to eat nor do I eat to live. I just like tasty food. I enjoy cooking when I have time but I often have a dozen other things to do. I won’t eat chicken that feels like I am eating a sponge because I’m lucky enough never to be that hungry. I like dark chocolate because it tastes of cacao rather than fat, milk and sugar. Can’t bear sweets that have a chemical taste. Does that make me a foodie?

It may be my being French that makes this new word puzzling. Does it mean I am a gourmet (lover of fine food) or gourmand (greedy – not as in ‘greedy bankers’ but as in ‘I’m so greedy when it comes to pudding’). Neither really. Gourmets know their wines and their cuts of meat. I still struggle with my grapes let alone your ales. Gourmands have a sweet tooth and I’d rather eat cheese than a dessert. Gourmands get fat which of course French women don’t.

So foodie is a word that does not translate literally in French. Just like gourmet and gourmand. A ‘good grub lover’ would be as good a translation as any. So I get back to my point. Who does not like good grub? Are we saying that we know better than the poor non-foodies who like bad grub? I thought the word gourmet had a certain “I know better than thou” connotation but how is foodie any different?

That’s stuff of revolutions that is. Would it not be if we were in France? But don’t take my word for it, after all it is an English word, I’d love to hear your take on it.