I think the lines are often blurred. And many who would characterize themselves as "just a cook" might be considered foodies by friends and family who don't take as much time and interest in food.

I had a mother who had a gift for creating delicious from-scratch meals and baked goods from simple ingredients. She never would have called herself a foodie. But she took pains to choose good fresh ingredients, prepare them with care, add her own special touches and serve them in a way that, while not at all pretentious, made you feel special. Not a foodie, but more than just a cook.

That's the bar I strive to reach ;)

I think maybe I'm both! :) I cook mostly from scratch but live in an urban (for the West) area and don't grow my food, can, or otherwise preserve beyond freezing (stock, "spaghetti sauce", lemon juice, soup, lasagna, some cooked meats, etc.). Most of my cooking/baking is from scratch but I don't disdain boughten foods of good quality. I do research and experiment and plan, but I also, for regular meals, just cook. Like most people who are the main cooks in their homes, I have a few quick and easy go-tos, that are often the Plan B for whatever needs cooking up. I will also put just about anything into a lasagna or bread pudding, to mostly favorable results.

I also enjoy fine dining restaurants and am very critical. I have high expectations of a fine meal and expect it to be better prepared than what I can make myself. If I try a new flavor combination that I don't like, that's an adventure I chose, but the quality and preparation better be good. OTOH, I also like good ol' American greasy hamburgers, so long as I don't have to make them. :) I can make them, but I don't enjoy it and am usually bored before I get a taste. The quality of short order cooking has gone down greatly since the heyday of the greasy spoon, however. The chain restaurants (which some friends favor) are pretty much just reheating frozen factory prepared splodge, which ends up mushy, bland and sad. You'd think the hamburgers would be safer, but they're not. I had one last week which had a bunch of toppings that should have been very flavorful, but the whole was meh.

OTOH, if I weren't adhering to your definitions, I wouldn't call myself a "foodie". Where I live, that means someone who is into eating for entertainment and new experiences. While I might do that now and then, it's not a big deal to me.

I'm surprised you can't get reasonably priced walnuts, as they're grown not so far from you. Are you in a city or a small town? That's often the kicker. Have you looked online for ingredients that are hard to find at your stores? Perhaps that doesn't work in Italy, but in the U.S. we can often get foods online for the same price as they'd be in the stores if we could get them in the stores. :)

I am a somewhat reluctant cook. Definitely not a foodie. I don't enjoy cooking all that much but I enjoy good food. I can't afford financially or nutritionally to eat out all the time so I cook. Cooking allows me to limit the processed and salty food we ingest. I like trying new recipes which is the main reason I visit this forum.

Menus really interest me too. Knowing how to cook a chicken is one thing. Putting together a meal that is balanced nutritionally, visually, texturally is something I think about a lot.

Cook! A cook who loves to cook but seems to be better at planning meals than ever getting around to actually making them.

And many who would characterize themselves as "just a cook" might be
considered foodies by friends and family who don't take as much time and
interest in food.

Me. Although I'm fluent in foodie and occasionally use it among others.

I think I'm a combination of a lot of things; foodie, cook, locavore(ish).

My "thing" is seasonal cooking and farmers market.

I love going out to eat, but do it infrequently. I also have high expectations when I go out to eat and am disappointed when the food doesn't meet expectations.

I really enjoy getting new inspiration from restaurant dishes.

I get a bit stale and in a rut.

Animals eat because they are hungry. They eat because they will die if they don't.

If the reasons why you eat are more than that, then you are a foodie.

dcarch

By dcarch's standards I'd be a foodie. By Lars' I would not.

I do not enjoy eating out and seldom do it, because I find it expensive and seldom better than I can cook at home. However, I live in a rural area and good restaurants are not easily located, so I don't have the choices that others do and that may have some impact on the quality.

I'm very picky about my ingredients, and go so far as to raise my own garden, my own grass fed beef and pastured chickens, grind my own corn and wheat, and preserve much of that which I grow. I am very much a locavore, mostly because I think quality suffers when products are shipped vast distances.

I don't speak any languages other than English, but I'm very fluent in food, from shakshuka to injera, LOL. So, am I a foodie or a cook? I think I'm a cook and my kids think I'm a foodie (and a spice snob). So which is it?

Annie

I'm a cook-- hopefully a decent one-- I could care less about "eating out" tho there are good restaurants within driving distance ( 15 or so miles)-- as a child my Dad was a butcher by trade-- always had a big garden-- Mom was always careful about balanced meals and taught me preserving-- & that's the way I've always been-- then when I was left to raise 4 kids by myself well "eating out " was nowhere in daily living but my "cooking" skills actually improved . I now enjoy trying different ingredients and things I've mastered in the past fixed in new ways but I think I enjoy preparing good food more then being fixated on just an ingredient or the food itself.

Annie, if you know and make injera, you've crossed into foodie territory.

I'm a moderate cook (my definition -- I cook and bake mostly from scratch but don't grind my own wheat. I have no problem buying bread from a good bakery, but will make my own soup and stock when I have the bones). I will fess up to being a foodie --- we eat out a lot but in a moderate priced sense. I especially appreciate having ethnic foods or labor/equipment intensive foods when dining out.

@Lars -- the head bartender at a restaurant we like has made his own Nocino, a walnut-based Italian liquor.

@Melissa -- seek out the Asian stores in the larger cities -- they usually have better pricing. If you are passing through Switzerland (e.g., Geneva), you will finder a larger variety due to the large expat (40%) community. In general, the Swiss supermarkets also had more "ethnic" foods than the Italian supermarkets, as I recall, as the local tastes are more adventurous.

Not sure where I fall between these catagories... I love to cook and experiment with new recipes, and cook two to three meals a day short order style, but I also I enjoy a dish that takes all afternoon or more to prepare. I do no canning, and only occasional baking.

When we do go out to eat, which is only every few months, it's usually to our local Mom and Pop Mexican joint :)

Well, well, an interesting bunch of replies. "Foodie" may not be the right word. I was thinking about those cooks (and eaters out) who have fairly advanced skills, demanding tastes, and who like researching and making new recipes and are willing to put in a good deal of time into cooking. I make good food, I think, but prefer simple and forgiving recipes. I only now and then try something new. I don't keep a garden or preserve, though the quantity of persimmons we get each year make me thing I ought to start canning them, at least. You can go a long way with food if you have good ingredients and honor seasonal change, have a handle on some simple techniques, and know how to assemble a meal.

I do wonder what kinds of good food may be out there that I don't know about. My budget doesn't extend to dining out, beyond an occasional festive meal at our local pizzeria. (When I first moved to Italy it did, and I had some wonderful meals, some in very plain places. Home cooking skills in restaurants seem to be dying everywhere. Already back in the eighties little restaurants in the U.S. where the food was good were a vanishing breed. Possibly they're now substituted, at least in the cities, by ethnic restaurants. All the chain restaurant food I've ever eaten has been mediocre at best. And Italians no longer cook like they used to.)

I live in a small town and don't get into the city that often. I do make a point of buying my spices in one of the foreign food stores, Indian or African, when I go. Mail-ordering ingredients I can't find in the stores is too much trouble by my standards, though I do haul back vanilla and almond extract from my visits to the U.S. It suits me better to cook for the most part from what's available. Produce and seasonal variety here are good to excellent, and the cheese is great. I miss some foods, sure--it was a great day when we first roasted winter squash and used the pulp to make the pumpkin pie my husband was longing for--but as I said, we eat pretty well.

rosesstink, I was wondering whether you've had traumatic experiences with roses? My Gardenweb "home" is the antique rose forum: they definitely don't stink for me.

I like experimenting and learning new dishes and techniques. I enjoy a day when I can spend several hours cooking. We give dinner parties fairly often. I also churn out quick meals, because that's usually what is needed.

In addition to cooking, I enjoy reading about and talking about cooking (hence I'm here). I even read Chowhound and Serious Eats sometimes. When we had cable, I used to spend many hours watching cooking shows. We have a large and growing cookbook collection.

On the other hand, I very seldom go to restaurants. A few local street food places, burger/taco joints, and Asian places, now and then. A fine restaurant, barely once or twice a year. Last month, we happened to, twice in a week, eat at highly regarded and expensive local restaurants. Each night, there was one superlative dish (inspiring, something I'll try making myself) and the rest was either good (but not better than I can make at home) or disappointing (usually due to over cooking). That's not really worth the $$$ to me.

Oddly, I'm not very interested in eating. I taste what I cook, and sometimes I go on comfort food mini-binges, but if I'm alone, I hardly ever cook anything beyond instant ramen or heating up leftovers.

Thus I think I am more of a cook than a foodie.

Using the above characterization:

I can be a "foodie" when I have a completely commitment-free day, a glass of great wine perhaps, purchased fresh ingredients to work with, music, a clean kitchen, empty dishwasher, etc. That may happen .... maybe ... oh ... once in a blue moon.

We go out to eat maybe four times a year.

I don't eat a lot -- not that passionate about taste actually. I do like to feed others.

While I enjoy reading cookbooks particularly while eating my mundane fare, I rarely venture into new arenas.

I guess I'm a cook.

Cathy in SWPA

Interesting question and discussion. I always thought that "Foodie" meant someone that loved learning about, cooking and eating food, beyond just for survival, but more as a hobby. It never occurred to me that it would mean someone that loves to eat out, but that's not something I do very often. I can't afford to eat at fine restaurants, and I disdain most fast food chain "restaurants." If I could afford to eat out at a fine restaurant I'd probably want to put the money towards something else. Even for celebratory occasions such as birthdays, Jerry and I make a big dinner instead of going out to eat. I can see where one would learn some new ideas by eating out if it's in the budget. I also sometimes wonder if we're not spending just as much on ingredients when we make a fancy meal at home, or even a simple one. But no, I don't think so.

There's a local chain grocery store here called Central Market that refers to it's floor walkers (? - people that are available in the aisles to help "guests" find what they're looking for) as foodies. They have signs on their carts that have a slogan about being a foodie, but I don't remember what that slogan is. Their whole approach, apparently, is that a foodie is someone that likes to cook with fine ingredients that they are more than willing to provide.

I don't remember which poster said it, but I agree that maybe the word "foodie" has replaced the word "gourmet." For some reason, I think "foodie" is more approachable, less hoity-toity than "gourmet."

I don't know which category I fit into. I enjoy cooking, cookbooks and cooking shows, both on the radio and tv. I don't do it as often as I used to because the audience I have to cook for doesn't appreciate it much. And that brings up a whole 'nother aspect. Where does loving to provide good food for your loved ones because you love them fit in with the definition?

Sally

I don't remember which poster said it, but I agree that maybe the word "foodie" has replaced the word "gourmet." For some reason, I think "foodie" is more approachable, less hoity-toity than "gourmet."

*******

People can really get their dander up over being called a foodie, or using the word foodie.

I've read passionate, if not rather snobby, debates over the term on Chowhound.

I've always been comfortable with the moniker, maybe because my approach is more laid back and while I'm passionate about cooking, I don't take myself too seriously.

Not a foodie. Much more interested in baked goods than in "meal" food. I'm very particular about ingredients. A little bit of the good stuff is better than a lot of the low quality. Within reason, that is; I don't spend a fortune for the very, very best. I would much rather eat a bowl of cereal than a frozen pre-made dinner from the grocery store. I can't say I'm a foodie, though. My interest in food comes in fits and starts. Occasionally I may spend hours looking up and comparing recipes for something I want to make. But most of the time, food is not one of the things I'm really interested in.

Johnliu, I've seen enough photos of your creations to say that you're at least a foodie-cook! You do some mighty fancy stuff!

I think that if you look at the Urban Dictionary descriptions of foodie, you will get an idea of the negative connotations that the term has acquired. I'm not saying that I agree with these definitions, but they do describe how others interpret that it. Personally, I like to avoid labeling people, and that is probably the main reason I am averse to the term. My mother used to call me a gourmet, and I did not like that term either. I cook not because I like cooking but because I am particular about what I will eat. I will also say that I have gotten good tips about which restaurants to go to from Chowhound, even if a certain percentage of posters there can be pretentious. Most of them have good information, but since I do not eat out that often, I do not visit that site very often. I used to post on eGullet, but that was decades ago, I think. I currently get most of my restaurant information from Yelp, which seems more down-to-earth. I've also made my own Injera bread, but it was not as good as what I can get at local Ethiopian restaurants. I'm not that good at making lavash either, and so I usually buy that. I also buy stuffed grape leaves even though I used to have a grapevine and can still get free grape leaves seasonally.

I've been to Central Market in Austin and loved it, but I did not notice floor walkers - perhaps I was too absorbed in shopping. It is very close to my sister's house, but she will never shop there unless I drag her with me on what are now rare visits to Texas.

Melissa - lol No traumatic, or even dramatic, rose stories. I just don't like the smell. And, yes, I've smelled a whole lot of them at the insistence of friends who adore roses and can't accept that I don't like them. I have been dragged around many a public and private rose garden by these well meaning folks. This does not traumatize me but does drive me crazy.

I didn't really think of the going out to eat part of being a foodie when I posted before. We don't go out a lot. Maybe once every couple of months. Except when on vacation - supper out is a must on vacation. We like mid-scale local eateries. A "gourmet" burger is fine since we don't cook burgers at home. Something we don't cook at home is usually what I order at restaurants. Or something that is a "well, huh, I wouldn't have thought to cook it that way".

I'm both a foodie and a cook...also am old enough to prefer the term 'gourmet' although it has indeed fallen out of use, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area. The OP makes an interesting distinction between the two.

I interact with a lot of Millennials, both Gen X and Y (not many Zs, tho). I find they are not as knowledgeable about cooking as they are about restaurants and trends thereof. Much of it seems just due to exposure; their working Boomer mothers didn't have much time to cook, they don't have a lot of time to cook either (long work hours and arduous commute times).

Also, many restaurants here tend to make very similar dishes, so outside of ethnic foods there's a lot of what my DH and I call "lost foods" - those dishes that take inordinate amounts of time and skill even for a great restaurant.

When I was working, we spent a lot of time and $$$ dining out. It wasn't unusual for us to eat out 5x a week, living in a great SF neighborhood where the question was simply, "So what nationality do you feel like eating tonight?" because everything was within a 20-min. walk, from Greek to Indian to Moroccan to Japanese to Italian to Chinese (nothing quite like walking into a Chinese greasy spoon for an amazing Yunnan fried fish and hearing 'Oh Susanna' sung in Spanish on the sound system!).

Now that I'm retired, I can cook those time-consuming dishes we love. OTOH, I've been cooking since I was 11 yrs old and frankly, cooking every day is a pain in the you-know-what. Fortunately, the restaurant scene has exploded even further, and we have both the time and money to travel a regular circuit around Northern CA and eat wherever we want.

So I'm fortunate to have the best of both worlds. I cook when I want, whatever I want, and have numerous great markets to shop from (or deliver to my doorstep). About every 5-7 weeks, we take a road trip to Napa, Sonoma/Mendocino, or Monterey/Central Coast, and indulge in trying the best restaurants we can find for 3-5 days. We just came back from Napa, and had a great time trying a mix of new and old restaurants. One of the new ones we tried made our "destination" list, where we always try to include that restaurant for a meal when we visit the area again.

It's fun to enjoy that serendipity of a new good find, as well as enjoying food I wouldn't bother cooking at home.

Jakkom, from everything you've said over the years, I'd call you a "gourmet", as well.

Your post made me think about what the difference is between a foodie (general term as heard in California, not the definition in the OP) and a gourmet. "Foodies" always reminds me of "Trekkies", that is, food fans. Similar also in the fall from an unloaded, affectionate word for fans, to a pejorative for obsessed fans, to a word those whom it describes argue about.

My new thought is that the difference is that a gourmet knows what to eat and what he's eating, whereas a foodie knows where to eat and what to order (so you'd be both!). One is knowledgeable about food, and the other is knowledgeable about eating. Slight distinction, but I think it's meaningful.

So it sounds like neither a "gourmet" nor a "foodie" is necessarily required to be able to "cook"? Not being disputatious, that makes sense to me.

I'm not a "foodie", because I am unfamiliar with the better restaurants in Portland. I think I could name just five, of which I've eaten at only one. I could maybe meet the definition of "gourmet", since I usually know what I'm eating, how it was prepared, and if it is good. But even that seems a stretch, because I'm not all that interested in eating food, good or otherwise. I merely like to make food, for other people, hence feel I am mostly just a "cook".

Oh, I'm also rather cheap. Spending $150 on food for a dinner party of ten makes sense to me, spending $150 on a restaurant meal for two does not.

I don't think the "foodie" designation is restricted to higher end restaurants. "Foodies" in the Bay Area delight in finding the best hole-in-the-wall xiao long bao, or debate passionately the best bakery kouign amann.

I'm like lars or jakkom in the sense I either respect the skill, creativity and/or the effort required to make certain things. In essence, in some cases, I'm simply lazy. I'd rather hit a good rijstaffel dutch-indonesian restaurant than take the time and expense to make 20+ dishes for a single weekday meal. At the same time, I enjoy making food for others and trying new dishes.

@jakkom -- mind sharing the new Napa restaurant?

John, you're welcome to be disputatious with me. :) But I agree with you. You can be all three things, but cook is distinct from both foodie and gourmet. A cook is someone who prepares food. Generally, when we call a non-pro a cook, we imply that that person is a good cook, whether it be simple or fancy. I think it's also implied that there's a knowledge of cookery. Following a recipe is a talent in itself sometimes, but a cook knows how to look at a bunch of food and select things that go together and prepare them correctly, producing a good meal. That doesn't exclude recipes, of course, but it also means a mastery of basic techniques and knowledge of enough recipes/preparations to be able to wing it.

Another word that's made a big comeback from the pile of anachronisms recently is "gourmand". It's usually used correctly, but not always understood. A gourmand is someone who takes pleasure in eating. Anything. Different from Foodie, which implies a certain amount of being in the know. A gourmand isn't picky. A foodie might rave about the hot dogs at Pinks, in Los Angeles, because it's the place, but probably wouldn't enthuse about the hot dogs at Costco, which gourmands do rave about.

I think of a 'foodie' as being someone who enjoys good food and seeks out new and different foods as a hobby but one who isn't necessarily involved in actually preparing/ cooking food. IOW's, you can be a 'foodie' without ever stepping foot into a kitchen.

"---you can be a 'foodie' without ever stepping foot into a kitchen."

The opposite is also true. A very good cook in the kitchen may have no interest in food.

dcarch

I think of myself as a locavore cook but my friends think I am a foodie. Bottom line:

I love to cook.

I love to eat what I cook.

I am very picky about ingredients. I raise most of our veggies and fruits then can, freeze, dehydrate and preserve.

I prefer to create from scratch including making my own bacon.

I love to experiment with my cooking and can usually pull it off though I have had some epic failures!

I love new dining experiences. They don't have to be high end just amazing. LOL DD & I try to have at least 3-4 amazing meals out each year. DH likes home cooked comfort food.

We dine out once a week at a local pub with our company's managers to re-cap the week and evaluate short term and long term goals. Pub grub, comfort food and team building works for me.

So am I a cook, foodie, gourmet or gourmand? It doesn't matter, I love good food!

Looks like none of us really know what a "foodie" really is (and I don't really want to be called one). I just like to eat, cook, and look up new recipes, watch cooking shows, and even try to invent my own recipes. I also don't consider myself a "gourmet" cook. And if a foodie is someone who goes out to a lot of restaurants to sample many different cuisines, then I'm definitely not that, we seldom go out and there aren't many exciting places in our area to sample, anyway.

>>mind sharing the new Napa restaurant?>>

Not at all! It's been around for almost a decade but we had just never caught up with it; we're seldom at the northern end of the Napa Valley. It's JoLē Bistro @Hotel Mount View Hotel & Spa/Calistoga. We are lovers of French cuisine, both casual and classique.

We were wowed by the sweetbreads, one of our fav offal. It was the first time in quite a while we have been served ris de veau that were properly pressed in a mold overnite. The accompaniments were outstanding: mustard spaetzle (mustard was listed but couldn't taste any) pan-fried with orange cauliflower florets, and a smear of an unusual, slightly sweet roasted chestnut puree in lieu of a sauce.

It was such a relief not to receive sweetbreads battered and deep-fried, which is the worst thing in the world to do to them. Nor smeared with goopy oversweetened fruit sauces or overwhelmed by too-sour pickles, bleh.

We actually ranked it higher than the super-expensive tasting menu dinner we had with our friends at Auberge du Soleil/Rutherford, the evening previous to JoLē. Auberge's sweetbreads were beautifully handled. But the concept of the dish was generic in comparison; dozens of other restaurants have given us similar pairings.

I love to cook and I am a pretty good cook, but not a fancy cook. I am picky about how food is prepared. I am not a "foodie". My daughter is....she will eat anything and loves to try new things. Not me. I stick to the old tried and true.

Definitions are according to the person defining them. There's a few people here who are FAR more than just "cooks". Call them gourmets or whatever, they're far more into it than am I and I learn from them.

I guess I'm more of a pragmatic gourmandic cook. (My term so it's my definition.) I like to cook. I specialize more in simple but tasty. I don't get hung up on plating. Unlike others, I eat with my mouth and taste with my tastebuds, and my eyes do neither. My eyes get me in trouble at times with the cliché "eyes bigger than stomach". I'd have probably been a good chuckwagon cook or farm cook. I like good quality ingredients. I like to eat out. When I eat out I like to get something I either can't do as well at home or don't have time to do it at home or something like that. While I do enjoy good food, I'm more in the camp of "eat to live" rather than "live to eat". With age and health issues I can't spend the time in the kitchen I used to. I miss it but don't get too worked up over it. I adapt. Enjoy simpler things made tastier.

I'm pragmatic and I don't get hung up on foo-foo fads or following the outrage du jour. I avoid certain things but when they're not proven to be harmful I don't get paranoid if they're in my ingredients. I like to utilize good butcher shops and places with good produce but am aware that those options aren't always available.

Justin Wilson said of himself something to the effect that he's not a chef, he's a d@mn good cook. He defined a gourmet as someone who likes all kinds of good foods while a gourmand was "a P-I-G HOWG!"