“Foodie” is a word that is thrown around a lot … in this industry we hear it constantly however notice that it seems to cover a very broad range of person. We identify foodies as being exceptional home cooks, people who love to dine out, people who love to eat and live for their next meal or people who work in the food industry.

 We looked into the formal meaning; Wiki says “A foodie is a gourmet or a person who has an ardent or refined interest in food and alcoholic beverages. A foodie seeks new food experiences as a hobby rather than simply eating out of convenience or hunger.” The less formal Urban Dictionary thinks it’s a more derogatory term and says “A dumbed-down term used by corporate marketing forces to infantilize and increase consumerism in an increasingly simple-minded magazine reading audience.”

 In our bid to find our own definition of what a Foodie is we opened it up to you, our customers to write in and tell us what you thought.  Monica said: "FOODIE; to enjoy the combination of flavours, textures and aroma of good food. Not to be inhaled, but enjoyed with every sniff, bite, crunch and delight. Along with matching wines during degustation is the ultimate foodie in me!". George thinks “A foodie is someone who has a great knowledge of food, how to cook and likes to experiment with ingredients.” Finally Aimee wrote in that foodies irritated her as she felt “they are over opinionated and difficult to enjoy dining with as they are always the expert and always criticising other’s hard work”.  All interesting insights and probably all true.

Probably the most important trait of a foodie is a love of food – to eat, experience, cook and learn as much as they can about it. It’s like any hobby – it is thought about, social events are planned around it and it’s the topic of many discussions. There’s an eternal yearn to seek out the best produce, find the ultimate dining experience or cook a challenging meal.

 Here in our own office we have self-proclaimed foodies of all descriptions – one who dreams of her next meal but doesn’t necessarily like to cook, one who has a list on her phone of the latest and greatest dining experiences in Sydney that she regularly works through and one who is always planning an entertaining extravaganza with multiple people and the ultimate food spread. After our internal discussions we have all decided that we are happy to be given the “Foodie” label – we might just discuss it further over lunch …