A person’s socioeconomic status is based upon income, wealth, occupation, and education. The socioeconomic status of a person is a way of quantifying the availability of resources at that person’s disposal. A person of high socioeconomic status has access to more assets of society than someone of low socioeconomic status. This can include anything from more expensive restaurants to private tutors. Are certain people restricted from becoming foodies because of socioeconomic status? Well, in order to find out, first the term foodie must be defined. The word “foodie” was first used in 1984 by Paul Levy and Ann Barr in their book titled The Official Foodie Handbook. This satirical exploration of the 1980s food culture in America found that a foodie is disguisable from gourmet because being a foodie is exclusively an amateur and hobbyist activity while being a gourmet implies some professional connotations. Generally, being a foodie can be defined as being someone who loves food and is in the pursuit of knowledge of everything about food. In order to find a relation between being a foodie and one’s socioeconomic status, we have to deconstruct the term foodie to its core. The relationship between socioeconomic status and foodie culture can be boiled down into one question. Can economically lower class people have hobbies? The answer is a definitive yes. To be a foodie, one only needs to be equipped with an army of taste buds and a mission to learn about food.
Becoming a foodie is nearly the same as mastering any other hobby. Most hobbies take time and effort to become rewarding. Learning about food and learning to cooking are no different. However, in this day and age, the availability of food related media can somewhat speed up the process. Shows like The Frugal Gourmet helped audiences cook cheaply while shows like The Rachel Ray Show can show you how to cook quickly with its array of meals prepared in thirty minutes are less. There are also many blogs like frugalcooking.com and frugalfoodie.com that will most likely help people of lower socioeconomic status afford being able to become foodies. There is media out there for other audiences as well. Feasting on Asphalt is a show catering directly to those who travel a lot. Hell’s Kitchen and Iron Chef are shows for foodies looking for drama and tension, respectively. The internet is completely filled with free content about food preparation, food storage, and general eating. The standard cookbook is still thriving as well, with new types of culinary books on the store shelves and at the local library weekly.
A foodie does not need to have reservations at five star restaurants in the heart of New York in order to be called a foodie. A foodie just needs to have an active interest in food. A foodie also simply needs to just love food. Socioeconomic class is almost irrelevant when it comes to interests. It doesn’t take a millionaire to write down a recipe one sees on television or to host a neighborhood culinary club. It doesn’t take an inordinate amount of time to flip through a cooking magazine during the day or read various food blogs. These things are easily done with little money or time and they send you on the road to becoming a foodie. According to a paper published in the Journal of Nutrition titled Food and Families’ Socioeconomic Status, it is very difficult to try and distinguish what one individual socioeconomic group eats. This essentially means that each socioeconomic group eats a large diversity of foods. The paper mentions that because of this fact, everyone across all socioeconomic groups eats roughly the same type of foods. The only minor exception is that people of high class tend to eat more exotic foods only if there are readily available. If everyone is eating the same thing, then certainly everyone could become a foodie if they wanted to. If exotic food isn’t available in your area or current financial situation then you could just become a food expert on local produce or regional cuisines.
Take the time to imagine a family living in the city. This family consists of a father, mother, and two children. The father, walking back in the apartment at 5:30 am, is finished with work. The livery-cab driver’s ten-and-a-half-hour shift has earned him $145. Not too bad. Last week, business was slow, and he had netted less than $100 on two consecutive nights. As he starts to fall asleep, his wife wakes up to begin her day by taking care of the kids. After sends the kids off to learn, she catches the subway to a nearby day care, where she is an assistant there. Together, the family pulls in a total of about $20,000 a year. After the kids come and the wife’s shift ends, everyone comes together for dinner. Tonight’s meal is honey roasted acorn squash and chicken. Yesterday was a shrimp kabob coupled with a creamy Dijon dill sauce. During dinner, the mother tells her family of the different ways to prepare a squash and the flavors that a good chicken would bring out. Each dinner there is a new recipe. Although the family doesn’t make enough money to travel, they have tasted cuisine from around the world. Through sites like thriftymom.com and 5dollardinners.com, the family is able to find recipes worthy of a foodie and in their price range. The mother, throughout her years of frugally cooking for the family, knows all the best stores in the area. She knows when everything is on sale. She knows what fruits and vegetables are in season this time of year and what dishes to prepare for each. She knows enough to be classified as a foodie. She uses food to as an escape for herself and her family because she enjoys it. This is the same reason why anyone becomes a foodie, regardless of their socioeconomic status. The potential joy of food can be found anywhere, not just in some high class restaurant.
Now imagine a second family. This family is of a higher socioeconomic class. Essentially, this means that this family has much more leisure time than the other poorer family. Not only does the family consist of foodies, but they also have time for other hobbies. This family would also most likely tend to eat out at restaurants more often, according to Food and Families’ Socioeconomic Status. The paper found that as you move up the socioeconomic ladder, more money is spent on food preparations away from the home (meaning high class people often visit restaurants). Perhaps this higher class family knows more about the different types of winery regions or the about the head chefs at all the famous restaurants but that doesn’t make them any more of foodies than the mother of a hardworking family who chooses to learn about food in her little spare time.
However, living on what is essentially poverty level income is more an art than a hobby. Not everyone is skilled enough or willing to make the sacrifices it takes to become a foodie at that level of income. For example, not everyone could try what Ms. Kimberly Alexandra tries in her blog Poor Girl Eats Well. This blog shows how basically to cook foodie-type meals for the cheapest possible price. The availability and number of these types of economical cooking blogs reinforces that fact that anyone of any social and economic class can become a foodie.
If socioeconomic status was the only indicator of whether someone was qualified to become a foodie, then that would mean only people in well-off countries could become foodies. But, if one were to look at all the people around the world and the different cuisines in other countries, one would probably find a myriad of foodies in much poorer nations than the United States. Take, for example, the countries of Vietnam and the Nepal. The Vietnamese and Nepalese cuisines are enjoyed by international foodies around the world yet they originated in countries with some of the lowest nominal GDP per capita. According to the CIA World Factbook, Nepal is in the 12th percentile of GDP per capita and Vietnam is 33rd percentile. The residents of these countries would be considered poor by our standards, yet their food is recognizable around the world. Many citizens of each country probably have special knowledge of their own cuisine. They probably know secrets of various dishes and care deeply about the history and methodology of each dish. The caring and loving of their own cuisine makes them a foodie. One does not have to have an international palate to be considered a foodie.
The term foodie was coined in the 1980s and since then many people have strived to attain such a title. A foodie needs to love food. Not just for its sustenance but for its taste and preparation. A foodie does not need to cook, but the journey of cooking would most likely give someone a better appreciation of the power of food. The enjoyment of food is not related to socioeconomic status at all. As long as someone is willing to devote time and effort to learning about food, then that is all that is needed. Some rich people might not be willing to put in the effort to become foodies and some poorer people might not have the time, but that doesn’t mean that the whole class of people is excluded from trying. If the cooking and food media has taught us anything, it’s that anyone can learn to cook as long as they want to. Becoming a foodie is a hobby. No class of people is barred from taking up a hobby.
Citations
Alexandra, Kimberly. Poor Girl Eats Well. 11 21 2009. Blogger, Web. 25 Oct 2009.
"GDP (Offical Exchange Rate)." The World Factbook. 2009. CIA, Web. 25 Oct 2009.
Kinsey, Jean. "Food and Families' Socioeconomic Status." Journal of Nutrition (1994): 1-8. Web. 20 Oct 2009.
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