Food!

I am a foodie. It often gets misinterpreted as a gourmet. Which I am definitely not. I am qualified to make that statement because I do know a number of gourmets. “Elite” is a four letter word in my vocab.

Why a foodie?

I’ve always loved food. A few years back I took a class on the anthropology of food and a class on osteology. Combining two things I absolutely love, anthropology and food, was magical. It set in motion a whole whirl of purpose. My blog’s mostly about these two topics. But here’s what happened to make a believer out of me:

Food rules the world. There aren’t many things bigger than food in the world. Most people don’t think about it. From an anthropological stand point, this is, well you can’t get much bigger of a topic to study.  Food customs, food beliefs, access to food, food in pop culture, food and ritual (myth, magic, and religion) - it is in everything. And it just keeps getting more popular by the day thanks to the media. Which, as all media does, exploits and promotes in one fell swoop.  

I know a lot about food and it surprises some people that I haven’t joined the vegan bandwagon or shop exclusively at upscale markets. Like I said, I’m a foodie. I’ve been to the slaughterhouse, seen the propaganda movies, visited dairies, food production warehouses, been to open markets, bartered for food from the supplier, seen an airport hanger full of produce and witnessed how its distribution is decided and had my moments where I vowed never to eat food I didn’t grow myself again. I do believe in slow food and I do have my milk delivered. Beyond that, I join the ranks of the informed consumer.  I’m addicted to food. In a strange twist of fate vegans and the like are non-existent in the ranks of gourmets and rare among foodies.

Outside of my food hobby, it is my profession. Originally, I thought the two might come into conflict with each other but they never have. I keep the two separate. I run a seven-figure revenue generating restaurant. It is humble and off the map and you wouldn’t think it’s so successful. It is wildly successful, more than a lot of popular restaurants locals are familiar with. It has gotten me and my chef on T.V. more than a few times.  My wait staff pulls in incomes only fine dining can compete with. Outside of this I run a few more successful ventures: a pizza shop, a coffee shop, a grill, and Utah’s largest outdoor festival, along with a smattering of other special events. So, I know a lot about the industry in these areas. Because of this position I hold, I have a lot of buying power. Through me, insane dollars in product and supplies are purchased. It gets me to a lot of places. What this has effectively done is to build my foodie hobby. Not many foodies have access to those resources.  Only people who revolve in my world know who I am and I like to keep it that way.

I’m not a great cook, but I try. It helps that I have plenty in the profession to mentor me. As a teetotaler in charge of the biggest drinking festival in Utah, I spend a fair amount of time learning about spirits, wines, and beer. This has made me a number of “friends” who want the freebies I get. A lot of people think it’s amusing, I think it’s just the fun part of my job.

So all this exposure has made a foodie out of me but once the stars aligned and anthropology came into the mix- it gave me purpose. I’ve discovered not many view food as a very interesting topic. I understand this is my world and also my bias so I try to keep it real and discuss other things. Next time I am dining with directors and head chefs, I’ll invite you and we’ll see how you feel then. It is a HUGE industry. I am a plebian on this ladder and one seriously lucky gal to have landed in the industry with no background. I still know relatively little and am fairly green.

Food runs as a theme through essentially every aspect of our lives, it’s a fundamental so a lot of the time it isn’t thought about by the average joe. Our food habits are very telling, telling about us, telling about our society, and telling about the world we live in. There are so many food phenomenons now that globalization has taken root for better and for worse.

 I love food dialects; that food “you can only get here.” Food is exactly like language in that way. You have different languages and dialects within it.  It is as broad as the world and as localized as your town. (There’s a great “only get here” taco stand downtown at the Sears on State.) The food on the east coast is different than the west and the food on the west side is different than the east side. I am multilingual in the language of food.

 Even more interestingly, not only does food have dialect, is has gender as well. I wrote an interesting article about men, meat and marriage and in the very next week an article about the cupcake bakery fad sweeping the nation. Very gendered. Food also has social status associated with it and heritage. Food is incredibly telling.

The next time you sit down to eat, consider what you are eating and why. You might just find out a little something about yourself and the world in which you live. And if ever you find food is becoming a hobby, join me, we’ll find a little café somewhere and chat. I’m always excited to meet people who I can discuss passions with. Food and people is the best entertainment, and the oldest, there is.

 "Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter faction, the vegans....are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit."
--Anthony Bourdain, Kitchen Confidental