Foodies: Democracy and Distinction in the Gourmet Foodscape (review)

The snobs of yesterday are the omnivores of today.

I wonder why.

I mean, why were elites formerly snobs, and why are some now more "democratic" in their cultural tastes? What are the social conditions behind these two different strategies of elite constitution? And what can these different conditions and different strategies tell us about the character of inequality?

Much of the omnivore thesis was developed around music taste: elites today don't just like classical music. They also like Jazz, Country, Hip Hop and other genres. We see evidence of this in our college students, and most likely, in our own music collections. For us academics, we can proudly call ourselves "cultured," or "cosmopolitan." We can transcend class and race; we know some rural white country tunes; we dabble in a bit of hip hop; we know a nearby place to hear some jazz; and we might write while listening to some classical music. But in our more reflexive moments we might realize that we are not making class or race disappear with these "democratic" tastes, but instead we make them appear differently in our omnivorousness. The result of our cultured cosmopolitanism is often inequality.

The idea of omnivorousness is seductive and powerful. It helps us make sense of a new world that is both more democratic, but curiously, persistently, unequal. It was only a matter of time before someone applied the concept to food. We are lucky that Josee Johnston and Shyon Baumann have undertaken this task, using interviews and content analysis to provide a portrait of the discourse of a group they call, "Foodies." Johnston and Baumann's work has a strong scholarly backbone, firmly embedded within the omnivore literature. At times their text is almost article-like in its citations and literature discussions, but it somehow (almost magically) manages to be immensely readable.

A foodie is, "somebody with a strong interest in learning about and eating good food who is not employed in the food industry."(61) This is a curious definition, as some might find chicken feet "good" food, and others might think it more appropriate for cats than people. This glib criticism gets to the heart of what Johnston and Baumann think being a foodie (and thereby, an omnivore) embodies: the tension between democracy and distinction.

Whereas Pierre Bourdieu's distinction was an exclusionary one, wherein different classes had distinct tastes, today's distinction is more democratic, wherein different groups have overlapping tastes, yet wherein the particular conglomeration and articulation of tastes can reveal distinctions nonetheless. These overlaps can create the appearance of democracy while the particular conglomeration of the elite omnivore helps maintain a reality of inequality.

Foodies' discourse analysis provides a keen portrait of the framing of the foodie lifestyle. The evidence here is exhaustive. From food magazines to The New York Times, to blogs and online communities to in-depth conversations with self-proclaimed "Foodies" we get a sense of the collective representations that foodies draw upon to make sense of their food-centered lives. But what we don't get is a sense of who these people are, how and why food makes them tick rather than something else, what these people do on a day-to-day basis, and how or why particular trends emerge over others.

Foodies are educated. They are wealthier than your average American. They enjoy privileges that few do. But not all wealthy people are foodies. Not all foodies are wealthy. Omnivorousness does not mark all elites. Some rich people are omnivores, others are still snobs. Don't believe me? Spend some time at elite New York restaurants, museums, concert halls or on the Upper East Side. Some cultural elites' music collections look just like the ones I describe above (mine does). Other readers (equally culturally elite) might chuckle at this almost caricature of a well-rounded academic, or even shake their head in disgust at the pretension of it all.

The same is true of food. Some of...