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I could not possibly disagree more. I will quote the FAQ from one of my favorite sites : Ottawa Foodies

http://ottawafoodies.com/about#snobs

I heard foodies are snobs. Why should I be one?

No, no, no... you're thinking of gourmets. They are cold and miserable people who don't actually enjoy eating most of the time. They also fall asleep during sex. Foodies are happy fun-loving people who savour every meal and spread joy wherever they go. :) As usual, Wikipedia says it best:
"A foodie might easily get caught up in a taco hunt--a search for the best taco stands and trucks in an area. But this would not be an adventure for a gourmet..."

That said, we're all a bit snobby about something, even if it's Burger King vs. McDonald's.

I hate the term "foodie." I'm a COOK. I learned from my mom, my grandmas, cookbooks and skills developed over time. Foodies, or people who call themselves that in my experience, are people who either 1) on vacations or at home go to the "coolest" new restaurants and order weird things that cost too much because they're foodies and they just "love trying the cool new things" or people who 2) buy into every celebrity chef endorsement, has sets of Emeril pans, Rachael Ray knives, gadgets they have no idea how to use and host parties full of chocolate covered bacon cause some blog said it was the new "it food."

There's nothing wrong really with foodies in my opinion, but I think its making good cooking and the cooks who genuinely love to do it, feel cheap and tacky.

Definitely a cook. I don't go around looking for the prime ingredients and most exotic aromas to induce any kind of reaction. I love to make people smile when they sit down to eat at my table. Whether it's a new recipe from a friend out East or a tried and true flavor from back home.

I'm definitely a "home cook." As much as I've enjoyed gourmet fare and "foodie" enthusiasms, I realize that my favorite meals are comprised of simple foods, lovingly prepared (with high though not obsessive nutrient-dense content), with plenty of water and whatever wine or beer has captured my attention. The best instruments for me remain knives, the best secrets are foods as fresh and local as possible, and the finest element of every meal is sharing it with family, friends, or sometimes myself on those rare times when I'm eating alone. I enjoyed what I'm presuming or hoping to be a typo in the post above: "Those of us who call ourselves foodies and cooks have a roll in this debate."

Haha. How did I know I would find you in this discussion, Bushidoka?

I agree with Bushidoka. But I also think that there are degree of foodie-ness and gourmet-ness that can often cross over. Perhaps like a Venn diagram?

There are lots of individuals who are far more concerned with have their KitchnAid appliances match than they are with the outcome of a good meal, and plenty of people who would rather eat Artisan red peppers than those from the garden.

Ruhlman's point about food as fetish is very interesting. From a historical perspective, it's something that has always existed amongst the upper classes. However, as the first world has become more industrialized and as we have more moeny to spend on food, so are more people inclined to become interested in it as a hobby. Food, as an aspect of culture, will be stretched and challenged in the way that other parts of culture have been in history, and what begins today as fetishism (something like this comes to mind: http://www.atelierrestaurant.ca/) will no doubt be part of popular culture in the not so distance future.

Heirloom, local, organic, nitrate-free have all replaced the buzzwords of low-fat, sugar-free and calcium-enriched that plagued the 80s and 90s. Perhaps, though, this isn't a bad thing. It's a trend, but a healthy one. And as with most trends, there are those who will follow it because they outright believe in it. That your heart is in it, that is a sign of a cook, as Pollan would call it, to me.

Last night, my husband was talking about the differences between his sister & i in our cooking styles. Joanna cannot leave a recipe for more than a second, she chops everything finely and delicately, and is very, very obsessive about her cooking practices. On the other hand, I hardly rely on recipes. I do, as Cat Cora has called it, cook from the hip. I think this is somewhat similar to the foodie/gourmet/cook debate in that our differences don't make us any better or worse, but merely different.

Hm. I feel a doctoral thesis in the history of food coming on. Better stop ;)

I agree with Bushidoka. Foodies are people who track down the best of something - regardless of where it comes from - a fancy restaurant, a truck, someone's kitchen. Foodies love good food and will try anything. I'm not sure when/why Cooks decided to start lambasting Foodies.

I am a home cook. Always have been, always will be. That said I did learn about food and cooking from years in the restaurant business in both California and Washington D.C., so my exposure to food was wide open and eye opening. I agree that there is a difference betwen a foodie and a cook. While it's true that lots of foodies are also cooks, it's not always the case. Some simply appreciate and have a passion for food but don't cook at all. I'd say that many restaurant/food critics fall into this category. There is room for everyone at the table.

I'd just like to point out that it's a bit ironic that the ad directly below this discussion mentioning Pollan's views on the end of home cooking due to the prevelance of ready made foods was for Pillsbury Toaster Strudel. I'm just sayin'.

Those posts touched a nerve; I wrote my own post (ok, rant) on the same topic:
Julia, Ruhlman and Pollan. Or, why I'm a cook.

I'm a Cook. I love cooking for myself and my family. It's my hobby, my obsession, and one of the things that brings me joy.

I don't understand most of the foodie side; I don't watch any of the "Foodie" shows mentioned in the articles.

But...I do have some foodie in me. Whenever I travel, I plan my trip around the restaurants I can visit.

MikeV

I just love food. Learning about it, gathering it, cooking it, eating it. I dunno what that makes me...a foodthusiast?

I think I'm with splatgirl. I don't really want a label to define what I do. I do what I love - trying new ingredients and recipes, falling back on well-loved favorites, having long conversations with my mom about the way she made a particular dish when I was growing up, inviting friends over to try out a new recipe. Why do we have to slap a label on what I, or any one else, does? Why do we feel the need to categorize it?

I think that per most usual definitions, I am both a foodie and a cook (although I stay away from endorsed products and don't buy anything just because it's expensive). I think that my interest in food just manifests itself in different ways. During the week, I like to make simple foods using good, fresh ingredients. But on the weekend, I might take on a more complex cooking project and also like to check out new restaurants. I find inspiration for my own cooking on menus too.

I'm a little from column A and a little from column B. Splatgirl's term "foodthusiast" seems appropriate.

I love to cook and do so virtually every day, I love my (few) fancy cooking tools, I love to go out for a fancy meal (when the budget allows it), I love to read about old and new techniques, I love talking about food and I've even got a bit of an Anthony Bourdain fixation (with no FoodTV, No Reservations is one of few food shows I get to watch).

I define foodie in the same way as Bushidoka and others. I call myself a foodie because I love food, learning about it, eating it, and cooking it. And I love cooking and learning about the technique, history, and chemistry of cooking. I do not separate being a cook and being a foodie. To me, a foodie who doesn't cook is a poser.

I don't really concern myself with this argument, but to me, a foodie is the person taking strange angled photos of themselves in the Kogi line, or wearing Wayferer-esque glasses at night waiting in line at Pinks. They got their cars towed at the heigh of Pinkberry frenzy because "they just HAD to have it".

I love eating, love trying new things, love cooking but wouldn't consider myself either label. what happened to just liking to eat?

I'm a cook. I love using fresh ingredients, and I love making the same pasta sauce recipe my mom has made for as long as I can remember (her's still always tastes better, though). I love picking up a new-to-me ingredient, because, what *does* eggplant taste like, anyway? Do I like it? I cook every day, for lunch and dinner. I cook when I don't feel like it, because I'd much rather cook and stay in the budget than go out somewhere cheap and icky and stay in the budget. When I go out to restaurants, I pay attention to what I'm eating, because "I bet I can make something like this..."

I am also a foodie. I love food. I love buying it, cooking it, and mostly *eating* it! My friends and I save up and go out to fabulous restaurants, not "because they're expensive", but because they're supposed to be the best. Sometimes, they're weird little hole in the wall joints that we discovered on accident, and they turn out to have the best handmade noodles in the Eat Bay, and you can still get dinner for two for $15. Sometimes it's a place like Ad Hoc (which was AMAZING, and completely worth it) that has it's own garden and serves seasonal food in all it's glory. That said, I have no idea who the latest celebrity chef is, because I don't have TV. I watch Alton Brown because he's funny and appeals to my inner science nerd, but I cook from Emeril's recipes because they're yummy. I don't own any chef-brand anything.

I believe that foodies are the people cooks like to feed. As a cook, I love feeding people, even if it's just me, and I love doing it *well*. As a foodie, I love being fed. I love the experience of food, and I love sharing it with people who enjoy it as much as I do. Food is *never* just fuel, to either a cook or a foodie, and I think that attitude will save home cooking, regardless of what terms we use to describe ourselves.

Cooking is likely to become more and more polarized in younger generations. I'm in my early 20's and cook daily, I enjoy reading cookbooks and learning how to make things from scratch. Several of my friends are the same way. However, there were kids I went to college with who couldn't even cook pasta, and who lived solely off going out to eat, and packaged foods. The people who read this blog and ones like it are probably all going to be okay as far as cooking is concerned, but I wonder about the kids who aren't growing up learning how to cook.

Ruhlman's wrong. He has the wrong categorizations because he is not comparing apples to apples -- say, a Granny Smith to... and Esopus Spitzenberg -- but rather, apples to potatoes-

Like so many here have pointed out, foodies love food. They are people who search it out, and eat it appreciatively. If the *don't* cook, they are, as someone already posted, poseurs. Cooks can be foodies and foodies *should* be cooks.

But those people who buy the trendy equipment and eat at the hottest restaurants are just "wannabees" -- they wannabe trendsetters, but are followers. They wannabe elitists, but don't really understand or appreciate food, and aren't able to form their own judgements -- they are status seekers, and not really foodies.

I don't really see a difference. I consider myself a foodie because I love food. I love eating it, preparing it, finding new and delicious places to get it, and talking about it. I don't see a difference between a foodie and a cook.

Like Emily G. said, a foodie who doesn't cook is just a poser. I don't see how you can claim to love food without knowing how to cook. That's like saying you love cars without knowing how to change the oil and filter.

I am a cook, not a foodie. But I do NOT think foodies are snobs, they just have a different form of interest. I have friends who are foodies, they read all the restaurant reviews, go when they can, are up to date on new techniques, will try almost any food, travel in order to eat. Some of them are also cooks, but not all of them.

I love to eat out, but almost never do and when I do tend to return over & over to favorites where the food is very appealing to me. Or I eat Asian food which I love but do not cook (because I don't have an interest in tracking down the ingredients). When I travel I tend to go where friends recommend, rather than seeking out the new & different. On the other hand I have a vast cookbook collection which I read and re-read, and I pride myself on being able to take an assemblage of ingredients and make a delicious & sustaining meal. I know a lot about traditional technique and food combinations in a number of traditional Western cuisines.

I don't think a distinction is necessarily a bad thing, and as I already said, I do NOT think "foodies" are snobs at all!

Granted, I have loathed the term for a long, long time, but I feel like any adult that embraces that label “foodie” or perpetuates the usage seems to be trying just a little too hard to self-identify as … something. And isn’t that what the marketing and ad people want?

I eat and love, therefore I cook. Eat. Love. Cook. (though not always in that order) Shouldn’t it be as simple as that? Why label anything or anyone?

I am a cook, with foodie tendencies. Sure I was in love with my stand mixer when I first bought it but I love it more when I make dough and batter. I'm not a foodie in the sense that I don't really go to restaurants and the ones I wish I could go to, I simply can't justify the cost. So I'm definitely more of a cook. But no semi-home made or boring food, thank you very much.

But I think Pollan's article was talking about real cooking. "Real" is a tricky word but it's the mostly from scratch variety. Sure, people will continue to "cook" as they boil their pasta and heat up a jar of sauce but that is not cooking. That's a quick meal, and we all fall on these quick meals once in a while. But a cook will reserve those meals as a last resort. I surely do. We're also in the minority. Just look around a supermarket, look at what your coworkers bring for lunch, look at people's fridges. These quick meals are rapidly replacing real cooking and real food. I don't expect the future adults of this country to fare any better than their semi-home made, fast food eating parents. People would rather devout 3-4 hours a night to TV than 1 to cooking.

Personally, I'm not a label person. But, if I had to choose, I'd say I'm a cook. I only recently learned how to cook well and "from the hip" as kaitlin mentioned. I've learned as much from my Filipino and Mexican family, and my Sicilian husband, as I have from cookbooks and online recipes.

While I've always loved going out, reading cookbooks and watching cooking programs (my grandfather was always a fan of "Yan Can Cook" and "The Frugal Gourmet"), I much more enjoy the challenge of cooking at home and the pleasure it brings to others. Of course, there's also the sense of accomplishment, too, in bringing disparate parts into a delicious whole.

Maybe it's my Latin heritage, but for me, food is love and I like sharing that love—I loathe to treat it as a fetish or to put food up on a pedestal.

I think I'm both. I love good food, and I love preparing good food. But someone who goes out and buys the latest kitchen appliances? That's not me. I still beat my eggs whites by hand. I don't have a stand mixer. I can still make a killer souffle. I hardly ever follow recipes. When I want to try a new dish, I consult lots of recipes, and pull out parts that I like from all of them, and cook the rest according to what I think would be best.

The most expensive equipment in the kitchen I own are my four Shun knives. I do everything I can by hand, and from scratch, including saving all of the bacon fat, and chicken grease and reusing them. I use everything including the tops of carrots and the outer skins of an onion for stock.

I think I'm a foodie, too. I love both high and low end. I loved eating at the French Laundry. I also love eating at In N' Out. A hole in the wall that makes great Indian food excites me just as much as the French bistro down the street.

The separation between foodie and cook, according to Ruhlman's article, makes it seem so stuck up. Food can be a luxury, but it's also essential. I hate thinking about food in a snobby way.

I love hearing about and using new ingredients and cooking techniques, but do not consider myself a "foodie". To me the term almost has negative connotations of someone who is more interested in the novelty than the taste. It is ultimately about producing something tasty that will bring happiness to everyone eating it. In addition, no matter how exotic the ingredient, if it doesn't taste good, people won't want to eat it beyond the novelty of having tasted it once. I guess I'd have to consider myself an adventurous cook!
In some sense, I think that food and cooking equipment has become the new "status symbol" -- people can indulge and show off, without feeling too guilty (it is, afterall, just food!)

"Those of us who call ourselves foodies and cooks have a roll in this debate."

Either you're a lover of puns, or you meant "role" and goofed. Either way, it made me crack a smile. :)

Overhead when out for dinner at a high-end restaurant (and a good one) the other night:

She: I'm way more of a foodie than you, so I'll pick the appetizers.
He: Duh, okay.

Seriously?

Call me whatever you want. I cook, and I cook a lot. And yes, I sometimes make pasta with jarred sauce on the days that I can't even fathom a scrambled egg. I drive across town for some strange ingredient and my vacations are often planned around food. I'm raising my kids to know food, know where it comes from, and have them both in the kitchen with me already, at 1 and 3 (backseatgourmet.blogspot.com). And my Hubby just loves to eat. Is he any less of a foodie than me? No, but sure ain't no cook. And he can always order for himself, thank-you very much.

I'm a foodie and a cook. I love to cook, I love experimenting with my cooking. I also like trying lots of different things just for the experience and to see if I'll like it. So I love getting heirloom vegetable, I've eaten crickets, I'll try just about anything once, etc. I just got some capers for the first time, had them at restaurants before but never cooked with them and looking forward to it.

Foodie, cook, to-may-to, to-mah-to.

I always thought a "cook" was someone who cooks. Nothing more, nothing less. Full stop.

I always thought a "foodie" was someone mildly obsessed with things food-related. The end.

Foodies can be cooks, and cooks can be foodies, and they can exist independantly of each other. Gourmets with their discerning palates, and gourmands with their cavernous maws, exist somewhere in the same arena. Neither is a synonym for the other, none are mutually exclusive.

Can we get a Venn Diagram in here already?

But just for the record, it drives me a bit crazy when people refer to home cooks as "chefs". Not that formal education has a thing to do with it, but it's like calling someone a Doctor when they have no such degree. "Chef" is a specific term in the classical kitchen hierarchy for the head of the kitchen, and in my opinion should only be applied to professional heads of kitchen. I've even sharply reprimanded my own boyfriend for referring to me as "a chef". :)

http://www.abreadaday.com

PS - My mother always insisted there was a difference between "cooking dinner" and "fixing dinner". Heating up frozen chicken and vegetables was "fixing", anything from a recipe was "cooking". The distinction remains for me, and I usually try to "cook" as often as possible.

I dunno, it seems to fit the discussion somehow.

http://www.abreadaday.com

eprewitt=word on the chef vs. cook thing. that drives me nuts.
also love the cooking/fixing distinction. i'm going to have to adopt that.

For some reason, when I was reading this post, I remembered a scene from one of my favourite episodes of Northern Exposure, when Adam cooks a lavish feast at Maurice's party celebrating the golden anniversary of Minnifield Communications:

Adam [verbally abusing a row of sous-chefs]: And why do I cook?
Terrified sous-chef: Because... because you're hungry?
Adam: Exactly! Because I, Adam, am hungry. And what do I want to eat? Something that you made? No. I want to eat something that I made!

And that's basically why I cook. :)

I'm with splatgirl and eprewitt.

That said, my coworkers think I'm a foodie just because my lunches aren't bologna sandwiches and granola bars. Reality is that I'm a home cook on a strict budget, who indulges occasionally on new ingredients. My lunches are leftovers from last night's dinner - very economical.

The term foodie has always annoyed me. I'm a cook. I've been a cook since I was a small child, and I'll always be a cook.

TammyE: Thanks for quoting Adam from Northern Exposure!

I cook. I eat. I am. No labels.

I am a cook, through and through, I enjoy the process of cooking, and feeding large amounts of people. This probably stems from the need to cook at an early age – I learnt to cook in self defense both my parents were lousy cooks, they still are. I lost count of the times I got food poisoning from my dad, and my mother subscribed to the mythos – its not cooked properly unless it’s a) black and chared, or b) in vegetables case very very soft.

The first major appliance I bought when I bought my own apartment was an 8 burner twin oven range, over the next year I put a full stainless professional grade kitchen in by hand.

I am neither cook nor foodie. I bake. Baker baker caramel zucchini bread maker..

he kitchen is traditionally the heart and soul of a home! We’re delighted to see the enthusiastic response from our community children, who are taking the age-old art of cooking to new heights – with youth-run greenmarkets and catering ventures.

Heather for Children’s Aid NYC

Well, a foodie and a cook are not the same. But it's a little like apples and oranges.

To me, a foodie (at the most basic level) is someone with an interest in food. They don't need to cook.

As of recent, foodie has seemed to take on a sort of snobby connotation. I often worry that I'm coming off as snobby to my friends related to food.