i am a foodie...

my heroes are people like MFK Fisher, James Beard, Ina Garten, Nigella Lawson, Anthony Bourdain, Giada De Laurentiis. chefs and cooks, authors and entertainers, very different personalities with one thing in common – a deep love of food and its creation… aside from romance novels, one thing that i will always be excited to read is food writing, be it memoir, cookbook or restaurant review… a recent article linked off of Brendon’s blog made mention of a few things that made me wonder about the term foodie (this is a tangent, not a statement about whether wine or beer is better – i say, if they are good, give me both)… it spoke of “the rise of pastoral chic” – as though a return to local, sustainable food sources and a lack of chemicals in our food was, at best, a marketing ploy, if not a figment of the collective imagination. i have to say that i disagree with that thought… while it may not be a mainstream truth in America, it is a growing desire to have good, natural food – if this were not true, the marketing wouldn’t work… the rise in this trend was not brought about by hippies, but by foodies (though a lot of foodies are hippies at heart, just as many are irresponsible over-consumers, as well). and while the health benefits were considered, the main goal behind the call for fresh and chemical-free was, and is, taste – fresh food tastes better and a reliance on local availability calls for a greater creativity, because you have to work with what is there. i do think that this rise in popularity of fresh, organic food has brought about a support of farmers who may have otherwise not been able to maintain business, but i don’t think that the majority of the consumers with a desire for these products went out and bought a farm… they did not even follow the example of the early 19th century poets speaking out against the industrial world in which they lived, and extol the virtues of a pastoral life… they mostly just want their food... like me - mostly, i just want my food... but after watching the way in which food affected my mother’s cancer fight, am also way more concerned about things like antioxidants and vitamin content… lucky for me the taste goes well with the health benefits =) yay for food!