Anonymous wrote:Ah, like the people on the travel forum who turn their nose up at Disney, cruises, and (gasp) touristy places like Iceland and Portugal. It’s snobbery. That’s it.

And exactly one week after I wrote the above, the Portugal snob is back at it on the Travel forum. Perfect timing!

Anonymous wrote:As an avid Food, Cooking and Restaurants forum reader and contributor, I love food! I love cooking, dining out at restaurants, trying new things, trying new recipes, and sampling cuisine from all over the world.

That being said…I know nothing about golf, cars, tennis, the intricacies of finance, football, knitting, ballet, and a host of other hobbies and interests that other people appreciate and know tons about.

My question: why is liking “good food” seen as such a morally superior virtue, and, say, appreciating and being very knowledgeable about fine art or figure skating not so much?

So many people on this forum and others (ahem, Family Relationships) seem to use food as a litmus test or a measuring stick to either like and accept and connect with other people, or have cause to look down on them and see them as “other.”

And in the immortal words of Diondre Cole, I gots to say…”What’s up with that?”

As a person who loves figure skating, I think being very knowledgeable about it is definitely a virtue!

Anonymous wrote:As an avid Food, Cooking and Restaurants forum reader and contributor, I love food! I love cooking, dining out at restaurants, trying new things, trying new recipes, and sampling cuisine from all over the world.

That being said…I know nothing about golf, cars, tennis, the intricacies of finance, football, knitting, ballet, and a host of other hobbies and interests that other people appreciate and know tons about.

[b]My question: why is liking “good food” seen as such a morally superior virtue, and, say, appreciating and being very knowledgeable about fine art or figure skating not so much? [i]

So many people on this forum and others (ahem, Family Relationships) seem to use food as a litmus test or a measuring stick to either like and accept and connect with other people, or have cause to look down on them and see them as “other.”

And in the immortal words of Diondre Cole, I gots to say…”What’s up with that?”

Please explain.

Anything will taste good when it’s loaded with butter, cream, fat, salt, and/or sugar.

You are talking about two different things.

I know lots of people who are into food as a hobby. My DH is one. He likes cooking and eating out, likes trying new things, and views food as an essential part of travel. But he isn’t a food snob. He would make fun if someone for liking blander food. He’s from the Midwest and a lot of his family has more simple interest in food than he does, and he’s respectful of that. He doesn’t consider his interest in food a status symbol.

But we do know food snobs who do consider eating “good food” to be a status symbol, who do look firm on people who haven’t been to as many restaurants or who don’t eat food that is as exotic or expensive as they do. I think they are like this because it’s an easy way to convey status while masking it as “being a foodie.” It’s really about using their money to eat at expensive places with hard-to-get reservations, and then posting about it on social media to communicate to people that they have access to exclusive, luxury things, but under the guise of “we just really love food.”

We used to hang out with people in the second group thinking they were like us, but then quickly discovered the food wasn’t really the point. There will always be people who just want to convey status through a hobby. The photography enthusiast who rarely takes photos snd has no interest in seeing that new photography exhibit, but brags about his new and ver expensive camera. The neighbor who “loves design!” but the hires a designer to do 99% of it and passes the choices off as her own while name dropping as many high end stores as she can.

Charlatans!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ah, like the people on the travel forum who turn their nose up at Disney, cruises, and (gasp) touristy places like Iceland and Portugal. It’s snobbery. That’s it.

+1

It is not a food thing it specific to (some) people who like “good food” as you suggest OP. It is just snobbery plain and simple. Snobbery comes in all flavors, not just food-related kinds. You could definitely even go to the Beauty and Fashion forum and find the handbag variety, for example.

You call it snobbery, I call it having standards.

NP. So people who don’t have unlimited disposable income and choose to spend their money on their home, food, their kids, medical needs, and other necessities and do not buy handbags that cost thousands of dollars don’t have “high standards”? I think they have the very best standards. A mom who saves for the futures and keeps her decade-old Kate Spade or Target bag in good condition has higher standards than a woman in debt who buys a Fendi bag to “keep up with the Joneses.”

OP, watch the new Cooked Netflix series with Michael Pollan. It talks about this issue.

Anonymous wrote:I feel like this is a weird straw man argument you've set up here, OP. Yes, some people have bizarre snobbery around what they consider to be "good food." But I don't think it necessarily follows that even those people consider it to be a 'morally superior virtue' to appreciation of knowledge of other sorts, whether that be sports or art or music or what have you. Are you really seeing people in your circle scorn others who are expert in non-food areas specifically vis-a-vis that expertise and liking certain kinds of food?

NP
Trump is made fun of because he likes well done steak.

It's because food is so visceral, such a central part of cultures, that to turn up one's nose to other cuisines is like turning up your nose to that entire culture. I think that people who are food snobs get this, even if they don't articulate it as such, and people who weren't raised to appreciate other types of food--and who think it's acceptable to criticize foreign foods--don't realize how crude their comments and attitude are. DH grew up on meat and potatoes in the midwest, and it wasn't until he ended up at YLS did he realize that his attitudes were just not acceptable to a certain well-traveled, highly educated, multi-cultural set.

It’s not seen as a universally superior virtue. Some people very much use this as a class and /or economic marker.

Some might use it for more culturally laden connections.

My response is very general because you haven’t been specific about what you mean by “good”. Some of us mean the deliciousness that we grew up with. Some mean expensive. Others mean what they’ve been told to regard as “good” by whoever they deem to be “experts”.

Personally, I don’t know many people that have only one interest. Most of the people I know who view food as an interest also like cooking and travel, to their interests complement each other nicely.

Everyone has preferences. The reason why you see it more with is because literally everyone eats and therefore can relate to it and have preferences. This is not the case for other activities such as knitting, playing the cello, or sailing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ah, like the people on the travel forum who turn their nose up at Disney, cruises, and (gasp) touristy places like Iceland and Portugal. It’s snobbery. That’s it.

+1

It is not a food thing it specific to (some) people who like “good food” as you suggest OP. It is just snobbery plain and simple. Snobbery comes in all flavors, not just food-related kinds. You could definitely even go to the Beauty and Fashion forum and find the handbag variety, for example.

You call it snobbery, I call it having standards.

Anonymous wrote:Ah, like the people on the travel forum who turn their nose up at Disney, cruises, and (gasp) touristy places like Iceland and Portugal. It’s snobbery. That’s it.

+1

It is not a food thing it specific to (some) people who like “good food” as you suggest OP. It is just snobbery plain and simple. Snobbery comes in all flavors, not just food-related kinds. You could definitely even go to the Beauty and Fashion forum and find the handbag variety, for example.

I don't present it as a moral virtue until people who have no idea what good cuisine, food, service, experience, etc. is, start spouting off like they are better than everyone because they tried someplace that was mentioned on, featured in, or talked about amongst, that is a known S- hole with a really good PR machine.

In my experience people who are very into food tend to have additional interests. They may also be into fly fishing, or finance, or art, or whatever. Unless you are a food industry professional, being only into food seems rather one dimensional.